Sometimes I Wish I Had Staff

Sometimes I think - if only I had staff like the big guys – Grisham, Baldacci, Penny, King—you get the idea—I could put out books a lot faster. But that’s just not going to happen. So, I was pleased, a few weeks ago, when I was at my son’s house, someone showed interest in my work. We are still negotiating a contract, haggling over how many Greenies a day I need to provide. In the meantime, I continue chipping away on the fifth Caitlyn Jamison mystery, Uncharted Drift. Chapters five and six will be critiqued on Monday evening during our Fiction Critique meeting, which is through the CRRL in Fredericksburg. An earlier post showed how I used the erasable whiteboard to work out the plot and how the characters were connected. That graphic was transferred to paper so I can use the whiteboard to try out various plot scenarios. Ideas often come when I am not at my computer, so this way, I have the whiteboard on my lap and can brainstorm away. When chapters are polished and ready for critique, I fill out Post-it® notes, color-coded for each character. It’s a way to manage the plot lines and track when the characters appear. Before I can start Chapter 7, I need to spend time on the whiteboard, figuring out what’s next. And so goes the life of a writer.