I said 10 plots in the first ten days. The first ten days of January concluded yesterday and the plot book was serving up Underdog—a tweaked repeat of yesterday’s Rivalry if you ask me. Initially I’d planned to do all ten this month, but this morning I’m less inclined.
Plotting this past week came easier than I’d expected it would. Adhering to the Storyfix checklist and phases motivated me to stab at my characters with real threats where in the past I’d been content to feign confusion concerning what befall them next. Certainly I’d need to go back to any of those plots to rework it if I expect to write from one, but at least now I have a skeleton to rework and an idea of the key scenes. I also have a beginning, middle, and mostly some ends. I’ve not had those three things all at the same time and in the correct order for quite some time on 1000 Days—if ever. Realizing I can do all that within a single day and for a sustained-ish period of time encourages me to do more. And to do more better.
I’m sure you read quite a bit of disdain into my notations of what master plot I would employ each day. You weren’t wrong; I was disdainful. Now done, I am glad I used that tool. I wouldn’t have come up with as much variety during the period as I did, nor would I have completed each day’s writing as quickly as I did had I not used those master plots. I would have struggled more to get the first scene down. Even still, when I read this book years ago I didn’t connect with many of the plots. I saw them as different stories—mostly unique—sure . But I didn’t then and don’t now recognize them all as master plots. For that designation I’d think I would feel an immediate sense of rightness about each; I’d gasp and say out loud, “Yes. Yes, of course. So obvious.”
Next month should be fun. I’ll have this first month under my belt and I’ll maybe give better thought to the plots I choose, better than, “Next?” This month, I’ll reacquaint myself with the plot checklist and analyze some of these plots to see where I went astray or fell short. Maybe I’ll take one and fill in the gaps a bit. Who knows?
I’m approaching my sesquiseptcentennial (only a partially made up word) and feel like I should do something special that day. But maybe that’s too much enthusiasm for numerology?
439 words on day 647