Just Sit Back and Enjoy the Scenery

Laura: So, there I was, just minding my own business, writing along and my WIP took an unscheduled, unforeseen left turn. "Hmmm," sez my Panster Muse, "Surprise!" I sat back in my chair, staring at the screen at what I’d just typed. My first thought wasn’t "Gee, now what?" It was, "Jones is gonna laugh her Plotter butt right off at me."

I pinged her. No answer. I posted a note, "You’re gonna laugh at me." No answer. I pinged. She says, "What did you do this time?" I said, "You’ll be very surprised to know my WIP just turned left, without using the turn signal."

Sherry Jones is STILL laughing at me. Not with me, but AT me.

"So, what did you do?" she typed. (How she managed to reach the keyboard from the floor, where she was rolling with laughter, I don’t know. We’ve met at a writer’s retreat, so I know she doesn’t have gorilla-length arms.)

I c/p’d the entire chapter to her.

Her response?

That rolling on the floor, laughing his butt off smiley icon. Then the comment, "Color me surprised."

I held my breath, waiting for her to pull out a dry erase board. Flow charts. Diagrams. The dry erase markers. I figured she’d draw me a road map, to show me where the Muse turned left and kept going. Not because I couldn’t recognize the illegal turn myself, but because I clearly need a map if I’m ever going to finish this novel.

She says, "So, whatcha gonna do?"

I smiled my best innocent smile, put up the angel icon, and said, "Run with it, of course."

"Of course you are. Just another stunning example of you writing by the seat of your pants," she replies.

And then there was silence for a while. Nervous after ten minutes, I IM’d, "You already blogging about this?"

"Nope. Just killing time until I have to strap on my school bus and go get DD," she replies.

Yeah. Right. She’s already got her part of this entry jotted down on little sticky notes.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well. ~Don Marquis

Sherry: Hey! Is she talking ‘bout me?
*digs out from under a pile of sticky notes* My glance falls on a paraphrased quote:
‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.’ Yogi Berra

Exactly. Is that a bad thing? Nope. But it does have its hair-raising moments and some really funny ones, too.

See above for a perfect illustration. Heh. Laura is funny. She is also a very comical writer, which is why I love working with her. Simply, she makes me laugh.

My Muse recently took a wrong turn at Albuquerque (to quote that renown wit and raconteur, Bugs Bunny) and left me scratching my head.

Well. I didn’t expect THIS twist and where shall we go with it now? *searches frantically through stacks of notes, charts, diagrams and empty chocolate wrappers* Huh. Nothing. No writing map at all. I’m really going to have to wing this, pantster-style.

Then again, there is the tried-and-true-patent pending Pondering Nap route to carefully consider.

Hmmm…

Of course, this last method has to be used sparingly, or the family will begin to A) think I have fallen into a depression-induced coma. Or, B) a year from now, the plot twist will still be there and the Muse will have deserted me again for the Bahamas. The tart.

Decisions, decisions… there is also one more thing to take my mind off the unplotted plot twist, and that would be twitting Laura about her unexpected twist.

I’m liking that plan. Have chocolate and I’m not afraid to glut on it.

Oooooh… Laura…! Heh.