Something Goes Ping!
Something Goes Ping!

Something Goes Ping!

I have been on a mis­sion, for the last two weeks, to solve a prob­lem in my story; one that had been brought to my atten­tion by a par­tic­u­lar industry pro­fes­sion­al with the power to Effect Change.

It is so excit­ing when I’ve been puzz­ling and puzz­ling over how to solve a prob­lem in a story, and then some­thing goes Ping! It is some­times with the help of a friend who is will­ing to listen to me talk through the prob­lem I’m try­ing to solve, and even tosses in the odd idea here and there. Today we were out walk­ing (in the hail, I might add, so that may have had some­thing to do with it) and it hit me. In fact, it was prob­ably a hail­stone that went Ping! off my hat, or my ear, or my nose–there were lots of those–but whatever it was, it clicked. I said good­bye to my friend, who offered me her umbrella for the rest of my walk home, but I did­n’t take it, 1) because I’m not afraid of the rain, and 2) because I had made a decision not to bring my umbrella when I left in the first place so it was my own damn fault. But whatever.

The point is that some­thing went Ping! and by the time I got home I had for­mu­lated a plan. By the time my wet jack­et was hung up to dry and my hat was hooked over the closet door handle and I had gone upstairs to find not-wet things to wear, I had the whole thing mapped out. Sev­en dif­fer­ent places in the story where I could rewrite or tweak things and the prob­lem of the Sag­ging Middle would be solved.

And now I must shut this blog down and get back at it because I have only tackled two of the sev­en things, and these things don’t rewrite themselves.