Writing Update

 

So this Friday is the official deadline for my newest project, tentatively titled Bees in the Butterfly Garden. I’m happy to report I’ll be turning in the “finished” product sometime this week, probably by Wednesday.

This book has been downright fun! It’s the first project I’ve done in a while that hasn’t revolved around a war or someone with a disability, so I can say with all sincerity that the tone is lighter. I must admit with the economy in its present state, worldwide concerns for the future, bloodshed and revolutions going on in so many places, I just needed an escape.

So I went back in time to 1882 New York and dreamed up a woman named Meg Davenport who discovers her father was a thief. Of course, she had no idea how he supported her expensive schooling all these years. After her mother died when Meg was very young, her father wanted her to be raised as a lady, and the exclusive school provided all the right rules.

But just when Meg is ready to graduate, all prim and proper since she’s learned to control her wayward nature, her father dies. It’s then she learns how he made his living, and decides to prove to herself and to those who knew him that she would have been a valuable asset to his work instead of being shuffled away.

Someone she’s eager to prove herself to is her father’s protégé, Ian Maguire. But Ian has loved Meg from afar ever since he first met her when they were children, and he knows the last thing her father wanted for her was to be involved in anything remotely illegal.

And so the two of them have opposing goals: hers to become a thief and his to prevent that very thing.

I think what I love most about writing are the discoveries along the way. Being a seat-of-the-pants writer, I begin with little more than a setting, a basic outline of the big goals, and what kind of character would best be challenged by those goals and obstacles in between.

I must admit there are times when my lack of more thorough planning can lead to some insecurities and frustration, and some wasted time as I explore possibilities. That did happen with this book, as it often has in the past. But perhaps it’s because of those frustrations along the way that I feel so happy when things start to mesh, when the plot comes together as if it was there all along, I just had to find it.

With my next project, which I’m already beginning to ponder, I’m going to experiment with a bit more upfront exploration. I’ll be consulting a book called The Moral Premise by Stanley D. Williams, who is expected to teach a workshop at the ACFW conference I’ll be attending in September. On one hand I’m excited to try something new, but on the other I’m just a little bit afraid to try fixing something that’s not broken. At this point I can’t really explain how the approach will be new to me, or differ from what I’ve done in the past. It’s too new to me to know just yet. But the idea of defining my character’s psychological predicament — not only the physical aspect of obstacles, but the psychological, spiritual and emotional angles — sounds fascinating to me.

I’ll keep you posted!