Friday, May 25, 2012

Entering into the great puzzlement

Yesterday I finished Callie's back story. That's the last of the three. For the past four months, I've known what to work on next in the novel I'm writing. First there was Lola's story to tell, then Frankie's, then Callie's. I had certain parameters and I knew how the stories ended (the characters coming together for the first time in decades) but I had free rein to develop these women as I felt best and to give them all sorts of adventures (or allow them to tell me what adventures they wanted to have).

Now I have to not only figure out where to take the main story next, but I also have to figure out where these back stories fit into the novel, if they even do. I had no idea when I started working on them, that they would become major sections of the novel, but 80,000 words later, I think they must. But how? An architectural challenge for sure.

Today was my first morning of insecurity. Off and on yesterday I wondered what I might do when I sat down but it wasn't until I turned on the computer at 6:45 that I realized I had to just start at the beginning, read and rewrite until I hit the current moment again. I wrote much of this first 20,000 words last fall so while I have some good memories of it, I don't remember the details. And even just the first three chapters, which I worked on this morning, were instructive.

I still have no clue as to the architecture, but I'm hoping that will reveal itself to me just as the story does.