Plot and Structure

Revisiting Plot & Structure

Six Months.

That's my deadline for completing Chantilly Lace, 

a novel I started writing over four years ago.
I'm so close!
And I want to be deep into the second storyline (aka Book 2)
by the time I travel to Scotland next year
so that I can maximize narrative benefits.

Things could change, but that's the plan.

Six Months.

Digging Up Character

One fun thing about writing a novel is the ability to explore all kinds of personalities, lifestyles, and occupations. I've mentioned before that my current fictional WIP has been morphing and expanding. With that evolution, I found myself diving further into the history of the protagonist's parents. I mean, maybe other writers do it differently (probably do), but I find it difficult to flesh out my lead character without knowing her past and the ghosts that may be haunting her.

In addition, since I'm envisioning this story as the first in a series, I want to start as I mean to continue, and that, for me, means understanding the forces that drive the characters.

This first book is seated in the "father story" of the protagonist. I didn't intend it to be this way, it just happened as I moved deeper into the storyline. With that in mind, I'm not only reading some psychology books on fathers and daughters--Daughters of Saturn, Leaving My Father's House, The Wounded Woman--I'm also reading some books that focus upon the career I gave the lead's father, including this one called Accidental Archeologist.

The previous two novels I've written were not as complex as this one, and I am enjoying the challenge--a challenge that would have sunk me earlier on.

This coming week, my second semester at UA starts, but for now … on with story-building!

Delighted

I am delighted to share that my current writing project - simply known for now as a Chantilly Lace story, its working title having fallen by the wayside - recently reached the status of Completed First Draft. The draft manuscript consists of about 47,000 words spread fairly evenly among the ten chapters. This accomplishment produced a wonderful feeling of gratitude, and need I say that a deep sigh of relief escaped me upon the realization the first phase was finished?

That said, the work has evolved considerably - or devolved, perhaps, in places - from its inception. What began as a light murder mystery has transformed into women’s fiction. This means that significant editing and rewriting will ensue, however, I am no less excited by this than I was with the story’s original creation. And this in itself is profound for me, and reveals, I hope, how much I have grown in my writing. I feel more confident in the process, and am eager to explore more of the left-brain crafting as well as the right-brain creativity!

Until now, I have avoided reading books or articles on plot, scene, structure, character development, etc. I only wanted to bring forth the story that was yearning to be born in its pure form. Now that it is here, I can begin to play dress-up!

Pollyanna and I look forward to much fun and hard work in the coming months, as we roll up our sleeves and plunge into the process of cutting and cleaning, and adding more meaning!

shooting star synchronicity

This synchronicity thing always amazes me. Let me share...

I was so drawn to a passage (quoted below) last week in Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes PhD that I had marked it clearly for future reference. Then, while writing on my new novel yesterday, I needed to depict an alpine flower so I googled and found one that was striking and I was immediately drawn to it. I checked to see if there was already an essence for it in one of the various flower essence lines - yes. And what does it address? Quite similar issues that were triggered for me in the passage I had marked only last week; specifically, I felt that the essence could address and support the sensation of unity we need in order to live in both worlds, not to feel alienated from the “topside life” but to find the balance within for living and loving in both. Love it. Needless to say, I ordered a bottle of the Shooting Star Flower Essence!

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CPE is talking about journey and transformation and initiation and says...

“A woman, at this time, is often torn in two directions, for there comes over her an urge to wade into the forest as though it is a river and to swim in the green, to climb to the top of a crag and sit face into the wind. It is a time when an inner clock strikes an hour that forces a woman to have sudden need of a sky to call her own, a tree to throw her arms about, a rock to press her cheek against. Yet she must live her topside life as well.

“It is to her extreme credit that even though she many times wishes to, she does not drive her car into the sunset. At least not permanently. For it is this outer life that exerts the right amount of pressure to take on the underworld tasking. It is better to stay in the world during this time rather than leave it, for the tension is better and tension makes a precious and deeply turned life* that can be made no other way.” (p. 453)

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photo copyright Richard Katz, FES

The Main Event: Adventures in Storytelling

Premiering October 31st and running at least through February 2nd, this event has been long anticipated by my Creative Self! Are you with me? Can you feel the fluttering in my womb and the pounding of my heart?!

An event in stasis for the past 18 months, only given the most teensy bits of attention here and there while I focused upon Ayurvedic studies, I am nearly ready to once more embrace my dear friends Imagination, Inspiration and Creation. They’ve been patiently waiting, glowing with their inner light, until they could come out to play full-time. The timing will be perfect, as it always is when remembering to flow with Mother Earth’s cycles and my own inner guide, as I prepare for this most precious event.

Preparations for “Adventures in Storytelling” include completion of my AIVS course and an Ayurvedic class I will be facilitating. Finishing these two projects will temporarily lower the priority of my health care studies in order to raise the priority of my creative writing. This ebb and flow is necessary because I have learned that, in my own life, I cannot ‘do it all’ and remain sane. Thus, when I’m ready to focus upon a particular aspect, I realize that it means releasing something else - perhaps not forever, just for now.

I am shifting and making space for a new or renewed energy to come in, flare up, and make its home in the hearth of my Great Room for a while. Other interests are gently and lovingly packed away and moved into the attic where they will come to rest, their former blaze settling into a lovely ember. Already the changes are beginning, attention shifting back and forth as I tend two fires, but providing fuel for both can be exhausting.

Yet this is a time of harvest when action culminates in all the many forms of Doing; we are focused outwardly, actively gathering up all the fruits of our labors. Soon enough will be the time of Being, going within, nurturing our souls, connecting with Self ... embracing quiet creativity, imagining how all the colors of the rainbow manifest, feeling as we inspire and are inspired from the depths.

For me, creative writing is the fullness of Puspavat...Flowering of Body Mind and Spirit.

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