A This n’ That Missive

Greetings from a basement out here in the middle of Minnesota. I hope this missive finds you and yours feeling hearty and hale, and as ever, full of huzzahs.

Lovely Saturday today. Pancakes for breakfast. For most of the batch, I added chocolate chips, pecans, and toasted coconut, which have been the family’s go-to mix-ins the past couple months. I abstained from these, and made a few plain cakes for myself topped with peach jam. I can’t say for certain, but I may have a developed a tree nut allergy in the last year. Every time I eat almonds or pecans or the like, I get itchy patches on my fingers and the back of my neck. This is a shame because mixed nuts are one of my favorite snacks, and Costco’s mix in particular is top notch (that’s an unpaid advertisement…I’m not getting a kickback from Costco, just feel the need to shout-out a tasty snack).

Buzzed my head down again this morning. I’ve been keeping it pretty short lately, opting for a no guard on the last couple buzzes. I realize it may sound strange to buzz one’s head in Minnesota during the winter months, but I’m saving money in not making the trip to Great Clips, and I can jam a hat down over my ears without fear of the near certain case of hat head at work.

We took a trip to the library this afternoon, and though I have more than enough books in my TBR pile at home, I grabbed a couple of graphic novels. After, we took the kids to a nearby playground. Erp sat and chatted with Audrey while Alp and Grp ran around on the equipment.

For the Lenten season this year, I’ve done my darnedest to stay away from mindless internet frittering and YouTube binging, resulting in getting a lot more reading done. I finally finished James A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes—the first in The Expanse series—after taking a lengthy break to make room for some holds that had come in through the library. I enjoyed the mishmash of space opera and noir in this novel and am looking forward to the next two in the series (Audrey’s gotten me a box set for Christmas this year). I also read Rebecca Ross’ Ruthless Vows, the finale to her Enchanted Letters duology, and while I liked how she expanded the world she created in the first book, it didn’t zip and zing for me as much as Divine Rivals. This sequel leaned heavier into the gods and their mythology as well as the romance between Iris and Roman. I missed the frontline war correspondents and journalism found in the first book. I’ve also been making more use of the Kindle app on my phone to squeeze some extra reading in after lights out, most recently two novellas by Brian McClellan: Mad Lancers and Montego; the former takes place in his powder mage universe and the latter in his Glass Immortals universe. I’ve read the first two books in his powder mage trilogy but haven’t quite made it over to the Glass Immortals books.

Regarding my own writing, I’ve been steadily developing/world building my next attempt at book. It’s a YA-ish, steam/culinary punk version of It’s a Wonderful Life set in a world where magic comes from different kinds of metabolized foods. Though I’m having fun creating the world, I fear I’m spending too much time world building (more than likely my inner procrastination hiding beneath the surface of my subconscious…if I make little bits of progress on the world and characters, it’s easy for my brain to justify I’m getting the work done). There’s always more development I can do, but I figure it’s best if I just go ahead and start the damn thing already. And I just learned about an outlining method that will help me get going.

I’ve listened to the Writing Excuses podcasts for years now, but had never heard of Dan Wells’ 7 Point Story Structure Outline. Just dove into older episodes where I heard him talk about it, then watched the video lecture from 14 years ago. Essentially, once you figure out your characters, setting, and main conflict, you focus on seven key moments from your story: The Hook, Plot Turn 1, Pinch Point 1, Midpoint, Plot Turn 2, Pinch Point 2, and Resolution. Begin with the Resolution, then create the opposite in the Hook; next, develop the Midpoint (in which the character becomes active versus reactive), and use the remaining beats to build to these moments. It’s not that there aren’t other important moments/sequences, but these create a path you can follow. Years ago I heard Benjamin Percy refer to this type of outline as the constellation method. I have the seven points for my protagonist, and now I need them for my other POV characters. The goal is to start drafting the first chapter this week.

Do you have any outline methods you prefer? Are you a discovery writer or a plotter?

I’ll close for now. I can hear the girls watching I Love Lucy downstairs, and I’d like to join them.

Take care of yourselves and each other. Thanks kindly for reading.

Huzzah,

Purdy