Most writers begin a story with page one, chapter one, and go from there. I'm not one of them.

I imagine the book in pieces, whether they belong at the beginning or not. I write whatever come to me first: a block of dialogue, a description of a setting, or maybe just a few thoughts about one of the characters, and it's likely that none of those pieces will end up in the same chapter. Then I might think about a future scene and skip ahead to write part of that. I always write the end of the book before the rest of the book is finished, which means I might have the last line in place before I have the opening of chapter five written. Before I know it, I have a mess of a manuscript in one huge file that's about as well organized as puzzle pieces rattling around in the box. And truthfully, it drives me a little nuts.

Then somehow, as I'm floundering around in the mess, the story starts to come together. I see new connections among characters. Interesting plot events develop. A secondary character comes to life that didn't exist before. I see all kinds of opportunities for comic dialogue and situations. I move scenes around, create bridges between them, form a through-line, and little by little, it becomes a complete manuscript. And in the end, I can look back and see that the whole time my left brain was baffled, my right brain was at work, tossing out pieces of the puzzle that my left brain could eventually put together into a compelling story.

I've tried to change. To organize the book before I begin. To force the story to play out in a linear way. But no matter how hard I try to keep things tidy, every manuscript eventually turns chaotic before it becomes orderly again. I just close my eyes, embrace the madness, and have faith that eventually the pieces will fall into place!

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