Time Warp Funeral

I’ve got almost 70k words written on the newest Garison Fitch book! No, I am not shooting for a particular total. I write until the story is told.

Unfortunately, the story took a twist I wasn’t expecting and I was having a hard time writing myself out of it. And then I went to the funeral. I don’t like funerals. I realize they are a necessary part of life, but I still don’t like them. So, as I sat there and listened to the speaker go on and on about the life of a person he never met, my mind started to wonder … or wander. Either word works.

When I am writing a story, the action of the story goes on in my mind in real time. If I break off writing to go to the store or work or whatever, in the back of my brain is the thought, “Garison’s still at the library, isn’t he? What is he learning there?” Or, “Bat’s on a stakeout. How does Jody feel about that?” So I sat there in the funeral asking myself, “Where is Marianne? Did she survive the attack?” (for those fans of hers, the answer is “probably”) “If she survived, where did she go? How did she get there? How can I get her back? What is Edward doing during all of this?”

I’m not going to tell you my solution here, but during the funeral I realized where Marianne was and what she was doing. (See, she’s still alive. Whew!) The problem is still getting her back to everyone else in the story. I think I found the beginnings of the path during the funeral. Now I just have to make sure that path meets up with the rest of the story somewhere.