Discovery!

I made an exciting discovery this week! I found that outlining a book is very much an act of story-telling. For a long time I have taken creative pride in my ability to write Ironic Dance as it unfolded like a movie in my head. I enjoyed not knowing what was going to happen unitil it spilled from my pen, or was tapped on the keyboard. There on my computer screen I watched as my story presented itself like magic to me, the first to get the inside scoop.

Then one day, the Muse in my head went on vacation. I realized that all along the story had been coming from a source. It "came" to me because I had the basic plot and action coursing through my neurons. Suddenly, in the middle, I faced the fact that my game plan had ran off the page. Without it, the movie could not be directed. Hmm. My baloon deflated, I took a few weeks (ok several) to sulk, then an entirely different kind of inspiration hit me.

Instead of smugly ignoring the likes of Sunny Frazier, I picked up my pen and began to plot. Nothing overly elaberate. I just wrote Chapter such and such and wrote down what I wanted to happen. And you know what-I told a story. I looked upon my work (yes, it IS part of the work of writing) and realized that I was building the skeleton of the rest of my story. It was exhilerating. It was fun! I kept coming up with deeper plot elements that I could connect to earlier parts of my story. I discovered that I knew my book, and my characters more intimately than ever before.

Now I can sit at my keyboard and form the flesh for the skeleton. This has given me a greater sense of power as a writer. Because I am acting as a deliberate planner of my story, I am not dependent on my subconsious to drop gifts to me. Of course it still does and that is pleasurable, but now Ironic Dance is MY story. I am the storyteller, not the story receiver. It means that I always have plenty to do. Even when I am not writing the story, I am engaged in forming it. Whether ploting, doing character analysis, or storyboarding. I am performing real work. The work of brining Ironic Dance to fruition. Thanks to EVERYONE who has helped me learn this lesson.