Again at the middle school, while subbing today, I had another "aha" moment. It gave me an idea for one more element that will tie in with Ben's conflict. I love how ideas for writing come from so many different places in my life. Part of being a writer is being observant--of human nature, of what's going on with a horse, of what detail my piano student might be missing, of interesting words or conversations, of just everything. Another aspect of writing is being able to see how  these pieces-parts might be related and could work together to create a story with various sub-plots and conflicts. Perhaps I developed this ability through my love of jigsaw puzzles. Or perhaps that is why I have always enjoyed puzzles--because my mind likes to find connections. So it's always fun to see how a seemingly unrelated piece of life, like a sixth grade reading assignment, can play into my book idea!

During the past three months, I have been brainstorming ideas for my book. It was coming together, but two missing pieces stood in the way of progress--a title, and a name for the new character. Both of those pieces fell into place last week, so now I feel I can move ahead. As soon as I had the title, I had a better focus: a better beginning, a better ending, and new details that would tie things together nicely. I know some people create a title last, and can even begin writing before they know what's going to happen, but that doesn't work for me.

When I wrote the first book, I started writing at the beginning and wrote it straight through, stopping every time I got stuck. On the second book, I was pleased to discover that if I got stuck, I could just jump ahead in my outline and continue expanding it until that part shaped up, and later I could back to where I got stuck. I liked that strategy so well that I'm thinking I may not even start at the beginning this time. I have sketched out the story and am adding details to my outline as I think them up, anywhere I please. I will continue doing this until it rounds itself into a complete book. This strategy feels kind of "freeing" and less intimidating. I'm kind of excited to see how that works out!

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.