The Unlikely Dilemma

For Novel #1, I tried planning it. It didn't quite work, but that was alright in the circumstance. I wrote the novel, it was 300+ pages, 97,000+ words, and very gawky. Think leggy colt in place of grand stallion. The experience was remarkably satisfying anyway, but reading, much less editing, a manuscript as wandering as that one can be pretty tedious stuff.

So this time around, for Novel #2, I find myself fiercely adhering to the idea that says If I don't have a plan, writing is a sin.

Every writer has different modes of crafting. I think that mine would be in the middle of the spectrum: I want a plan, but I am currently incapable of conjuring one up.

Now, this may be a sign of a weak imagination--if it is, I'll cope with that. Or maybe it's a sign of hesitation. 'If it isn't going to work, don't build it.'

But aren't iffy experiments and risky ideas an integral part of writing fiction?

Could I really write a satisfying ending that is completely ambiguous?

If I could, I would. But can I? Not sure . . . yet.

As a novelist, I work best when I have a goal, an end my characters need to reach. Right now, at the edge of the trenches of outlining Novel #2, there isn't one. So my work is slow and hesitating.

Tonight, I am definitely eager to forge ahead with my novel. It's enticing and exciting, in all its unknowns. But this eagerness, if its gonna stay, will mean my planning without an end in mind. I'll need to embrace those unknowns.

This has major disaster potential.

You may watching the beginning of this novelist's demise as a sane person . . . or maybe this is the beginning of a delightful new freedom to work in.

Buckling her seat belt,
Margaret

PS--I just reread the post I wrote a few weeks ago when this novel idea was only a few days old and I was completely impassioned. I confess to being guilty of flippancy.