The way the mind works

One of the things I love about writing is the problem: how do you pry a story out of your subconscious? The whole endeavor is mysterious. Mysterious, but—as authors know after writing a few books— trustworthy.

I had a breakthrough today with my plot.

Let me back up. I wrote my way into TRICKSTER, and got to about 23,000 words. Then I wrote an outline, primarily because Penguin/New American Library wants outlines.

I see the outline as showbiz. It’s like you’re on the rubber chicken circuit, and a couple of people show up in a cafeteria in Idon’tcaretown, population 3. That’s the “venue”, and you want to shoot whoever booked you into this joint. But even if what you’re peddling is pure vaudeville crap, you get up there and dance your heart out.

I knew the outline wasn’t right a few days after I wrote it. The coincidences were too great. But at least I’d laid down a path.

I saw something in the paper the other day, something really neat. (No, I’m not telling you what it is.) And I thought: how can I use that in a book? I was thinking about a future book, not this one. But suddenly I saw a way to tell a much better story for TRICKSTER. A story with resonance, a story with the right kind of ending.

This is my third “breakthrough” for TRICKSTER. It’s getting as regular as a bus schedule.

The outline I wrote wasn’t wasted. It was the springboard for this magic—this alchemy—to happen. I had blazed a trail and it wasn’t a good one, but at least I was in the area.

Will I rework the outline now? Nope. As far as I’m concerned, the first outline is “close enough for book-writing work”. I plan to leave my shadow-plot alone to work itself out as I go along. A book in the first draft stage is kind of like a vampire—if you expose it to too much light, it can wither up and die.

But I did want to tell you about the magic that comes with writing a book. It comes at the oddest times, and you can only get it by being there; by just showing up. As far as I’m concerned, the best thing about writing is the journey.

The rest is just noise.