“Writing”, 22 November 2008 (Photo credit: dr_ed_needs_a_bicycle)

I actually have some energy today! I looked at the clock when I awoke earlier and thought I’d have to move to Sleepy Hollow. Couldn’t find the zip code, though, so I’d have wasted a change of address card. I think I’ll stay here for now. Besides, I have some writing to do!

Working with a Plot Outline

In a previous post, I believe I’d mentioned that I had one outline detail to rework before the free-writing more of the story. Well, I got that fixed fairly easily: I changed one character bio, and the story line fell right into place.

You see, the protagonist in this story is a female, and it’s a “softer” suspense story than, say, a Bradbury novel. While it has the same basic elements — hero, evil villain, support casts for either side and a series of escalating crises, few suspense stories that have a female protagonist are successful without at least a hint of “romantic interest.”

The character, Maggie, is exiting one marriage, so the book does not come to its end to the sound of wedding bells, but there’s at least that hint, that possibility that may or may not carry through in a potential sequel.

And oh, yeah. The possibility of a second in a series is there from the plot line. It’s right there in the outline, and continuing it in a follow-up plot would be relatively easy.

Prologue Teaser

As mentioned, I’m keeping the prologue — short at only two paragraphs, concise and teasing — from the original short story. You readers have been very gracious, so here’s my thanks for sticking with this — the prologue.

I’ve included the poem that started the whole shebang as well. I didn’t write the poem: A friend of mine did and is used in the story and the book by expressed permission. Honor copyright laws and do not steal the content, please — hers or mine. That does include “personal use,” by the way: You cannot copy/paste for your private reading.

The teaser:

Epilogue, Part 1

“In the morning.  That’s when it happened.  Just before dawn when the mists still hung low, shrouding the forest from underbrush to treetop, and blanketed the river with a nighttime bedspread of quilted moisture.

“I don’t clearly recollect the exact order of things.  My mind’s still as foggy as that morning was.  But I lived through it, and I suppose the reason for that’s that I’m to pass along what I learned.”

some things

occasionally
i phantom alongside
my memories
and imagine us
into a cobalt blue bottle
of oblivious

it’s sort of like
being unaware

but still, there’s a knowing –
a ghostly past
that haunts and questions
the art of forgetting things

and the art
of forgetting things
ever being painted
on a truthful canvas

so there are some things
i never want back,
and some things
i wish had never gone away.

(c)2006 All rights reserved. Poem used with expressed permission.

Darned good poem, don’t you think? Follow her on Twitter: @macele. She might need some prompting, though. She occasionally comments without pulling too many teeth, but keep the pliers handy, eh? Tell her what you think of her poem. After she blushes, she might respond!

(Hey, Mackie, told ya I would. )

Today’s Agenda

In chapter 1, we meet Maggie and Brad and get a brief look at their married life. In chapter 2, we have Maggie reaching the critical point in the relationship after finding out some of the crap Brad has pulled with the finances — mostly her family’s money — and taking steps to end the misery. Together, chapters 1 and 2 set the preliminary stage.

Today, I work on chapter 3, Maggie and her lawyer — and a little with Brad. Things at this point start to get a bit more complicated, and I’ll have to work on balancing giving enough with not giving too much away too soon.

I think chapter 3 fills the day.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk more tomorrow.

And don’t forget to give @macele a shout-out, y’hear?

Related articles

• To Prologue or Not to Prologue (limebirduk.wordpress.com)
• If You’re Going to Write… (martinanewberry.wordpress.com)
• Writing a New Book: Day 5: One Outline Item and More Free-Writing (wordsmithworks.org)
• I makes me remember… (Free Write Friday) (everygirlscorner.wordpress.com)