Checkmate…
C.E. Grundler
When I woke this morning my husband asked if anything was wrong. "You look like something's bothering you," he said. I assured him I was fine; aside from some self-inflicted sleep deprivation and a questionable diet (wasabi peas and seaweed snacks washed down with Mountain Dew isn't exactly a nutritionally sound lunch three days running,) I couldn't be better. My characters, on the other hand, are all currently wired up, strung out, mis-informed and generally trying to figure out who is trying to kill them and who they should kill first. It's my favorite sort of mayhem, but to truly get inside their alternating heads I have to step outside my own, and that does leave me occasionaly wandering around mumbling to myself about some pretty strange things. It suppose it's understandable that this behavior raises concerns, but not to worry. I really am okay.
Yes, I'm on the home stretch with No Wake Zone, when the action ramps up to full-blown chaos, in more ways than one. I'm coming down to the last pages, and while, as I've posted in the past, I start writing with some very structured outlines, as I reach this point I've long since veered away from those notes. I knew this would happen; it usually does. Whether it's a post, an article, a chapter or an entire book, I always set out with a specific direction in mind, knowing full well I may wind up somewhere else entirely.
I haven't played Chess since I was young, but from what I recall, there is a parallel to writing a mystery. There is an opening, a middle game, and an end game. At the start you have a neat, orderly board with all the pieces in their specific locations. But the moment you make the first move, that initiates counter moves that gradually weed down the pieces (characters) until you're left with only the most critical ones, facing off against one another. Within the game, each piece can only move according to specific guidelines, and as the board clears it all comes down to strategy and how well you planned out positions as events unfolded. Even as I come into the last pages, I'm still seeing possible moves that never entered into my original outlines. I knew from the start who was behind what would unfold through the story. I knew who had the most to gain and the most to lose. Who was motivated by greed, or loyalty, and who was simply batsh*t crazy. Those motivations set the rules to how each of these characters would respond. I know who is going down and who will be left standing. But at four in the morning I realized if one character made one simple phone call, that could send this whole thing spinning another direction to that end, and that presented a fascinating can of worms I'd never considered. So don't mind me as I wander around mumbling to myself. I have much work to do!
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