Writing a curriculum unit, like writing a book, is hard work, but fun work! Word games, like crosswords, always fascinated me, as well as reading about origins of interesting words, phrases and idioms. This background gives me ideas for the vocabulary section of each chapter. Exploring idioms and opening up the world of cowboy slang to non-ranching kids is a challenge I really enjoy.

Having learned about the Common Core Standards and DOK levels, I'm coming at the chapter questions from a different angle than when I started the CU for The Orange Slipknot (before I revised it for the Standards). Instead of majoring in recall/retelling questions, I have almost none of those; the questions tend more in the direction of what you would discuss with a writer's group--just on a fourth grade level! Teachers want their students to learn how to think about literature. I am trying to help them understand how an author crafts a book--to talk about theme, plot development, character development, foreshadowing, etc.

YEE-HAW!

Yep, I finished the sequel today! I've been so excited the last week or two, knowing how close I was, but I kept getting subbing jobs every day. I knew if I could just get a couple days to myself, I could do it. I couldn't write the last little bit in the evenings because I needed a quiet empty house to concentrate and "hear" what my characters were saying and thinking.

I've been thinking lately how funny it is that even though I know the plot and how my story will end, I don't know the details until I write them. And I don't write them until I put my characters in a situation, then watch them and listen to them--then I write it down. First you create believable characters, then you get to know them, then you put them in situations and see what happens. Sometimes they come up with the darned-est things. And sometimes I have to egg them on a little to get them going.

As I read my Bible, I see parallels to how God works. As a writer, I'm kind of playing "God." He's got a Big Plan (the plot) and various themes and sub-themes, which will work out the way He has planned, but within that plan, He gives us free will. And everything we choose ends up fitting into His Big Plan! (Unlike me, God doesn't have to wait to find out what His characters will choose to do--He already knows that, as well as the ending.)

Another thing I've been thinking about that relates to writing is working puzzles. I recently got some new bigger puzzles for my grandkids, and worked a few with them. I have always loved jigsaw puzzles, as well as crossword puzzles. I think perhaps working puzzles trains the brain to think in ways that help a writer: to look for and find seemingly unrelated things that might fit together, to foreshadow, to patiently work a little here and a little there on various themes and plot lines that will eventually converge.

So what do you think I'll do, now that I got to the end today? Do you think I'll kick back and take a break from writing? Give myself a party? Send it right off to a publisher? Start a new story? Guess again...every school kid should know the answer:

Rewrite! Edit! Polish! I'll go back to the beginning and read through (preferably out loud), looking for ways I can change passive voice to active voice. Looking for dull, overworked words that can be replaced with more interesting, active, descriptive words. Looking for awkward, wordy sentences that can be reworded or pared down. I do a little of this while writing, and while doing what rereading I've done. But if I see something I'm not satisfied with and can't think of a quick improvement, I don't let myself get bogged down there when I'd rather spend my limited time getting the whole story finished. I often just "bold" a word or sentence I want to rework so I can easily spot it later.

A writer needs to be able to separate her roles as creator and critic. Both roles are necessary, but should operate separately. First you create, then you critique your work. I do have a few people who are interested in reading and critiquing this story, providing some outside feedback. In the past I've been in critique groups, so I relied on others to point out what could be improved. I don't have one now, but hopefully I have learned enough from past groups, and from my experience working with the editor and publisher of The Orange Slipknot, that I can see my own work more objectively now and make improvements.

In getting back into the sequel which I started years ago, I have used several writing strategies. First I reread, edited, cut and changed much of what I had. I looked at the pacing and decided my chapters were too long. I hope to attract reluctant boy readers, and my school experience the last few years convinced me that shorter chapters would make the book easier to handle. I cut almost every chapter in the middle, which meant I had to rethink the beginnings and endings of each chapter. I also divided the rest of my synopsis up into chapters, now that I know about how much needs to happen in each chapter. A check of my word count and a comparison to TOS showed me that I may be close to 2/3 done. It's time to start picking up the pace of the story. I made a timeline of events and chapters so I know what day I want the story to end on and what will take place on each of the last few days.

Next, I realized that the plot needed a little more focus. I reread some plotting guidelines, which reminded me to ask myself: what does the main character need or want, and what is standing in the way? What complications arise, so that it appears he will not be able to get what he wants? Thinking in these terms helped me to focus on what exactly Ben's fears and desires are, and what specific developments I could create to frustrate his desires, which increases suspense. This type of planning helped me to come up with ideas. And once I knew where I needed the story to go, I was able to go back to what I had already written and throw in a little foreshadowing--hints or shadows of what is to come.

The third strategy I used was to go back through my writer's notebook, which I hadn't looked at since I was finishing TOS. My notebook is full of cowboy sayings, cowboy stories, and other sayings and stories that I have collected, mostly from my husband and two sons. When I saw something that "grabbed" me, I would spend some time trying to figure out how I could weave that into the story. This would even give me ideas for adding to the plot or adding to scenes I had already written. Adding elements from real incidents gives more depth, detail, believability, and humor--"true fiction." As I wrote in an earlier post, writing is often like working a giant puzzle. Sometimes it's frustrating when you get stuck; then you find one little piece you need, and suddenly other little pieces start to jump out at you and fit together.