I Blame Valerie Parv

Okay, as I've said many times, I write by the seat of my pants. Make an outline? Are you kidding? Why would I do that? White board jokes abound, my plotter friends (Sherry Jones) throw dry erase markers at me. These planner types are very fond of questions like "Why?" and "What about the plot?"

So, what about the plot?

Until yesterday, I was happily tooling along, writing on the WIP, overjoyed that that words were flowing. It's all awesome, getting the story down, in the first, very rough draft, and just having a heck of a good time getting to know my characters, playing with scenes - in short, having a blast playing in my own little world, ecstatic to be there.

Now then, I'd sent Valerie Parv an IM that said, "This is the Writing Police."

Her response? "You have no jurisdiction here."

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Apparently, she believes that we're on two different continents, in two different hemispheres means I have  no jurisdiction to hassle her a bit. I disagreed, and we wound up talking about my WIP. (Sometimes we talk about Valerie's WIP, but yesterday, it was mine in the hotseat.)

She liked the title, liked what I told her, then she dropped the W bomb.

"Why?"

Uhhhh....

Shrugging Emoticon

"What why?" (Me, disingenuously.)

Valerie: "You have to have a plot."

Head Scratching Emoticon

Valerie: "It drives the story forward."

Well, yeah, it does. I KNOW that, but Valerie, you're asking such HARD questions. I don't analyze, I don't ask questions (in the first draft round of writing)...I just take dictation from the Muse. Valerie made a fairly rude suggestion about what I should tell the Muse about the way she does things.

Shocked Emoticon


But, and I'm REALLY loathe to admit this (and many will snicker - Sherry Jones, Valerie Parv, possibly Angie and Grace...and likely an entire cave of bats, and they know who they are, just as well as I do)...The wheels started turning as I considered just what I could do with the elements I already had down, and it had it's own soundtrack by The Cars. *You Might Think* is a fun song to have playing on an endless soundloop in your noggin while you go through your morning ablutions. *Nodding. And rather appropriate that I have The Cars serenading me while contemplating Plot...because both cars and plot DRIVE something/someone somewhere. Yeah, I just made an analogy. I'm shocked and dismayed that I did, especially since it's so...PLOTTERISH.

And because I'm so busy answering questions, I"ll pose one and provide the answer..."What does this mean for the WIP?"

Why, I'm glad you asked! This means that I will go back to the beginning (I'm almost through chapter 6, but it's in a good spot to just abandon it and pick up later), and start layering in all these crazy, plotterish notions that have been occurring since OMG, The Sun's Not Even Up Yet O'Clock this morning. Let the fun begin! It's all creative, it's all writing...Creatively writing = Happy Laura.

And it's all Valerie Parv's fault.


@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@


When we read, we stat at the beginning and continue until we reach the end. When we write, we start in the middle and fight our way out.

Vickie Karp