Evidence of Progress

On Friday, I printed out the latest set of scenes, chapters, and other fragments, and laid them all out -- sorted into groups based on which part of the plot they develop. They took up most of a queen-sized bed.

Then I did a little victory dance.
(It is important to celebrate along the way!)

Next, I attempted to put them in some sort of order that will make sense. That was a bit more of a challenge. It also got a little bit messier. (There are more pages on the floor on the far side of the bed.) Good thing we don't have guests coming this week...

Turns out I am not a linear writer, at least not for the purposes of this story. So when Stephen King likens writing a novel to an archaeological dig in his memoir On Writing, I totally get it. I feel like there are parts of a dinosaur skeleton scattered all over the guest bedroom, and like it is my task to reconstruct it as I uncover more and more bones of the story.

Wouldn't it be easier to just write the story in chronological order? (I ask myself that question all the time.) Perhaps. Perhaps not. Truth is, I don't always know what's coming. Sometimes, the characters surprise me when I let my imagination take the lead. So, at least for now, the outline (which I prefer to call the storyboard) is a work in progress too. A constantly shifting puzzle of colored sticky notes.

What next? Ask questions. Find gaps in the story. Draft more scenes to fill them. Rearrange the pieces again.

And so it goes...