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The Plot Thickens


I confess.  I’m a self-taught writer.  Actually, I’ve been taught by the hundreds of people whose books and stories I’ve read.  Technique, more properly speaking, is what I taught myself.

From my earliest days I wanted to be a writer, but didn’t say so for two reasons: 1) it sounded a little too arrogant, and 2) it sounded a little too much like John Boy Walton.  But write I did.

When it comes to laying out plots I often stumble.  The overall trajectory of a novel is clear in my mind from the beginning, but as I write things begin to morph: the character I thought I knew intimately turns out to be somewhat of a diffident stranger, I resolve crises too quickly, an event I never anticipated enters the story.

Am I writing or being written?

I’ve heard of writers who spend vast amounts of time sketching out their plots in meticulous detail.  These are the writers, I expect, who don’t have to work cruddy little jobs to keep their sorry-assed spirits hitched to their weary hides.  In my universe the plots are compelled to invent themselves.

It’s not that I can’t think up convoluted plots; I made up bed-time stories every night for my daughter for nearly a decade. But in this world of non-professional writers, who has that kind of time?  Besides, writing should be an adventure.  Tony ate pink.  Bet you didn’t see that one coming!


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