Monday, April 27th 2020

Day Forty-Two:

Good morning, I got up at 4:30, filtered Peets, listened to the Ham Radio Net, and skimmed the news. They are talking about a food chain breakdown and are saying it could get bad in the next two weeks. We shall see what we shall see…

I am going to take my walk, I think 6:30 will become my new norm.

I did my 2 1/2 miles, got home and took a shower.

I started to cut out a round tabletop for use on the fire-pit to make it into a table when we aren’t making fire. About two seconds into the cut the battery went dead. Oh well, I have to wait an hour to get juice into the battery.

I did a marathon on my book yesterday, it felt good to be back in the chair letting my novel write itself. In a lot of ways it does develop on it’s own. I am not a Plotter, I’m a Panser. A plotter meticulously works out every detail of their writing and follows it in detail. A panser writes by the seat of his pants, or hers. Stephen King is a panser. He and I, get a basic story idea and start writing.

There is one exception to being a panser, in a story like “A New Frontier” which is a work of historical fiction, the research can’t develop itself. I think as much time was spent on research as was spent writing the first fifteen chapters. I had to research the year 1906, 1914, and very early Bay Area Electric Railroads. I was fortunate that I grew up in the county where the story takes place, only it was one-hundred years later.

I let character development happen as the story evolves. In the beginning I have a character or two in my head along with a basic premise, the story and characters develop as the story fleshes out. It is very exiting to write this way, because it’s just as much of a mystery to me as it is to the reader. I am a recovering Type-A personality, it seems odd that I would choose a style in which I don’t have total control. As the story unfolds, basic ideas come to me when I’m not actually writing. But once I’m in the chair, the order and details work their way in at their own pace. Sometimes the perfect kernel won’t make it’s way in for many chapters, and sometimes it never shows up at all. Sometimes it comes into play and then I remove it, or save it for latter. They say you should have an ending in mind the minute you start writing. Maybe some vague idea will come to me, but in the end, the end comes in the same way the story does—when it’s ready. Nuff said!

I think the saw battery is ready. Time to cut some wood!

The table top is done, and it did turn out round…

Erin made biscuits today, and we had egg, cheese, and bacon biscuits for dinner. I had a side of corned beef hash with another egg on top. Great dinner!

We watched “Swing Shift” with Kurt Russell, and Goldie Hawn. It was a fun movie. We did our own things and went to bed…