Putting The Pieces Together

Like a lot of writers, I'm absolutely addicted to jigsaw puzzles. In fact, my day doesn't start until I finish the free daily Magic Jigsaw puzzle. There's always a point during the solving of the puzzle where there are more pieces scattered about than are locked into place and you begin to lose hope that it will come together. But then, as you keep moving like colored pieces together, a few more lock in and before you know it, you've figured it out and the final pieces come together quickly.

This is a lot like the process of writing a story. You start out with the borders in place and locked down. You know how the story starts, what the conflicts are, and how it will end. But the middle pieces can get confusing regardless of whether you plot or not, and you'll soon end up with more pieces scattered about with no solution in mind. Then, the eureka moment happens and you can see what the big picture is supposed to look like.

That happened this past week with my current WIP. I'd written two versions of the story prior to this one, and am picking up pieces from each of the first two to use in the third version. I had bits and pieces scattered all over the place with no big picture idea of how to put it all together. Then, like magic, a piece fit nicely to what I had already locked in place, and then another. I think I can put the remaining pieces together without too much of a hitch. It's a good feeling, and I race through the Magic Jigsaw Puzzle in order to get to the puzzle that is my story.

There are days when I struggle to write, and then there are days like what happened last week, when I remember the reason I show up for work every day. Because it's fun to spin out a story and see if, in the end, it makes sense and makes someone else as happy as it made me when I wrote it.

Today's the last day to take advantage of the big Christmas sale over at Prairie Rose Publications. The revised The Reluctant Debutante is only 99 cents, but there are many more at that price or even Free! Take a look here: https://prairierosepublications.blogspot.com