Weekly observation: Don’t you hate it when someone answers their own questions? I do! Since I’m writing this from 35,900 feet as I fly over Dallas, I’ll keep it short this week. Gotta save up my oxygen, right? Barring any unseen turbulence (as opposed to what—the kind you can see?), I present the Story of the Week. A prompt donated by Rob Coelho inspired this week’s adventure. Thanks, Rob! Thanks also to Edward and Wes for their eyes on the early draft. Here’s the story.
Something’s Not Right at the MallRob and Debbie entered Leftovers, a store for left-handers. “Just left-handed stuff?” Rob asked the clerk. “We keep a few righty things.” Debbie spied the underwear bin. “Left-handed underwear?” “The big bin is lefty loosies, the rest are tighty righties.” “In college I experimented going ambidextrous,” Debbie confessed. The clerk smiled. “We encourage the ambi-curious.” Behind the counter, Mac, a retired Marine, sorted left from right socks. “Left. Left. Left right left.” Operating on autopilot from his military past, he accidentally marched out the door. “We love hiring vets,” the clerk sighed, “but he’s the third one we lost this week.” Prompt: Southpaw
Novel News & Notes: If I’ve addressed this before, I apologize in advance for the rerun. I’ll be brief. Writers often divide themselves into two big categories: “Plotters” and “Pantsers.” I’m in the plotter category. I outline everything before I write it. I gotta know how the story ends before I start writing. The other writing mammals are the pantsers, so named because of how they write from the seat of their pants. Let the story take them where it wants to go. The mere thought gives me sweaty palms. Sometimes the pantsers will tell me that outlines are too confining. They can’t imagine feeling controlled by a sterile outline, with no room to create along the way. My comeback is that I can’t imagine taking a road trip without knowing where I plan to go. How would I ever get there, and what about all the cool stuff I’d miss if I hadn’t taken the time to plot it out? One of the real pleasures I’m finding along my current journey as I write Questionable Characters is all the new ideas, characters and conversations I develop as I take my bullet points and finally get to see them come to life on the page. As I execute the story beats, I’m discovering obstacles my characters might encounter, as well as additional steps my detective hadn’t even thought about. This week I also decided to reveal a bit more about my protagonist, such as where he lives and why he chose to live there. You know—stuff that wasn’t on the detailed outline but is finding its way into the novel. Yes, I plot, but I also pants. OK, that just sounds wrong. Probably would have come out a lot better if I’d taken the time to plan out my thoughts instead of just typing them spontaneously. If only there were a name for people who write like that… Time to get back to it—whatever it is. Thanks for listening.
Scotty out |