Do you have a love/hate relationship with your job? Some days you love it. Other days you hate it.
That pretty much describes how I feel about writing. I love it when the scene presents itself like a movie in my mind and I can’t get the words on the paper fast enough. I love it when the perfect word comes to mind to complete a sentence, or when a turn of the phrase brings a tear to my eye.
I hate it when the stubborn words won’t come. When the plot keeps changing and the characters can’t decide if they want to be in this story or not. Sometimes, they can’t even decide on their own name!
That’s been the situation with my current WIP (that’s writer language for Work In Progress). I’d hoped to have the first draft completed by now, but I’m still only a third of the way through. But last week, one puzzle piece fell into place and that one piece brought a few more with it. And now I’m starting to see more of the whole picture.
A large part of my story takes place in a care home in Texas. I wanted to model it after the CBRF (community based residential facility) where my mother lived in Wisconsin–a personal residence that provides assisted living services for people who need minimal supervision. I spent some time researching such homes in Texas and discovered Personal Care Homes (PCH) which are limited to three or fewer unrelated residents.
Suddenly, I loved writing again! Initially, I’d planned four or five residents for my story’s setting. But as I stated, some of my characters decided they had better things to do than hang out in an assisted living home. I fired two of them, even before I knew I’d be limited to a maximum of three. Serendipity! In addition, this limit of three residents creates a realistic obstacle to my protagonist being allowed to stay there, which she must in order to hide from the people who are trying to silence her. So how does a healthy, active 73 yr. old lady persuade a Personal Care Home’s manager to let her stay without a doctor’s referral?
Ah, that’s a secret…for now.
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