Call it the lock-picking kit you keep in your left coat pocket.
Call it the spare handcuff key you tuck away in your shoe.
Whatever you choose to dub it, every outline a writer crafts should
have that emergency exit built into it.
As I’ve complained or touted a million times in this blog, my current
project, The Hushing Days, is being sculpted around an extremely detailed
scene-by-scene outline. This is new for me, an author who in the past had
preferred working with a quickly sketched skeleton over an embroidered
cadaver.
Determined to stick to this knew game-plan and not allow myself room to
weasel out of it, I tried to fine tune the outline down to its every corpuscle.
Silly, silly me.
Apparently my subconscious (often the villain in my life story) knew
this would be a mistake and stuck that aforementioned handcuff key into the
heel of my sandal.
Chapter 17, the only chapter not to include a scene-by-scene account of
every interaction, had been simply left vague. Basically it said, “The secret
is found out. Emotional mayhem ensues when the liar is confronted by all
parties.”
Voila! The handcuff key.
Yesterday, I grabbed that sucker and used it. I simply let my creative
juices run free, letting them take my characters wherever the imagination
flowed.
And it was good.
Heck, it was great.
Every writer needs a little room to run free from time to time. Every
author needs the wiggle room to spread his/her wings and create on the glorious
fly.
Bottom line: A handcuff key in the shoe is a very good thing.
Until tomorrow…
Chloe
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