Big Goal Check-in

Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

Last October I set a goal to finish a first draft of my middle grade mystery novel by the end of March. I’m very close to finishing—maybe three scenes to go.  

I took the weekend off to go play with a friend in Minneapolis. We visited a sculpture garden, an art museum, and two independent bookstores—Wild Rumpus and Birchbark Books. We also saw a play at the Guthrie about William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe and ate several delicious meals.

Before I left for the weekend, I’d been struggling to figure out some small but important details in my mystery plot.

I needed my kid detective to make the final connections about the crime at the zoo—who does what to whom. As the writer, I knew those details way early. They arose out of my character interviews.

What’s been challenging for me is figuring out how the kid detective makes the connections.

When I wrote my original, 3-page inside outline of the story last year, I had to be vague about this because I had no clue yet. I operated on faith that my characters would tell me what they needed.

I kept showing up and playing out different possibilities. Sometimes I used my morning page (a habit I picked up from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way) to hash out these possibilities. Sometimes I used the draft scene.

And then the pieces clicked into place.

One thing I’ve learned to do is trust my imagination. Ideas present themselves.

Mini distractions present themselves too. Instead of going down a research rabbit hole, I put a note in the draft. For example, [TK: details of squirrel obstacle course] where “TK” means “to come.”

So I leave myself a reminder of what I want to add later, when I go back to revise. That way I can maintain my forward momentum with the scene.

I think part of becoming a professional writer is recognizing and developing your own process. What works for me may not work for you.

Learn to trust your instincts, to show up and do the work. Your confidence will grow and so will your work.