11 Days in February

I discovered why I wrote 10 plots for 11 days. I started on plot ten in the book which means I had eleven to work with during February. Which means that either I duplicated the last plot I did in January—which I don’t recall—or I only gave you nine plots in January which is possible but seems rather obviously egregious. I usually avoid obvious egregiousness.

My work here in February does not impress me. It gave me a backbone to work from and for that I am happy, but I fought it or blew it off at most opportunities. I may have had two plots worth coming back to and a third worth coming back to with vengeance.

Most of the plots offered up felt limp. Tobias’ elucidation of all twenty never held scads of concrete details to work with when envisioning his master plots. The later ten fared worse than the former. Sure, that is an excuse. I could have cinched up the strap accepted the challenge with lighter heart.

All that said, I don’t think that these first ten (eleven) days of February were wasted. I did write every day for one. I did plot every day. I did ingrain Story Fixer’s structure every day. I do feel like I benefited each and every day even if those benefits are not evident to you. Even if I can’t effectively codify them here. Mainly I learned to push through a scene to get to a whole plot. To get to (no matter how flimsy) an ending through (no matter how sparse) conflict. Secondarily, I learned to increase the conflict. I didn’t excel at defining the stakes. And I suppose it was worth it for me to briefly explore plot archetypes I might not otherwise have been drawn to in the past. So not a waste.

I should revisit these plots in the future, and I should do it soon. I should put the main points on note cards, fill in the gaps, and arrange till I’m pleased. I should take those cards and those plots which please me, and I should fucking write a story.

356 words on day 679