Help! My plot bunnies are loose.
I picture a brilliant green swath of grass at dusk. The lawn is surrounded by wondrous landscaping. Trees, shrubs and hedges of every shape and size wait patiently, the perfect escape route for wary bunnies.
The cottontails meander to and fro, three, four, and now five! Nibbling delicately on the luscious feast before them.
The moment I step onto the grass, they dart out of my reach. A few more steps forward and poof! They disappear completely. Out of reach and into the waiting camouflage.
The reality is more like this. Usually I’m doing something I can’t stop at the moment, like driving. And into my head pops the best plot thread, either for my current work or lately it’s been some totally brand new ones. This is accompanied by a great deal of frustration later because try as I might, once I‘ve parked the car, I can’t seem to remember them as clearly as they came to me. Some even escape entirely. Drats.
I’m guessing this happens to other writers too. How do you handle it?
Oh, dang. Sometimes even when I'm brainstorming I get going on a plot thread and then when I've gone a ways with it, I'm like, "How did this start?"
ReplyDeleteI hate when that happens!