We go through life filling in holes. Holes in our teeth are quickly seen to by a trip to the dentist. Holes in the road are repaired by Council (sometimes and notice I didn’t say quickly either). Holes in the wall can be fixed with a bit of know-how and patience. Even holes in knitted jumpers can be stitched together. But what about the holes in our story plots? Can they be fixed as easily?

Yesterday, I started work on my chapter plan and discovered holes in my plot. They were shallow holes, but a hole is a hole and they need to be fixed. Needless to say, I went to bed feeling a bit low last night. I had worked hard on my planning all weekend, only to discover that I still hadn’t done it properly.

Today, determination set in and I set about mixing a good textured paste that would fill in those holes once and for all. It took many hours, but I succeeded. And here I am at the end of the day with a solid chapter plan for Cat’s Paw.

Thing is, now I should go back and make some amendments to the other steps in my planning. I should, but I’m not going to do it. The Snowflake method of planning a story is great. Personally, I don’t use all the steps and I don’t feel the need to go back and make changes to earlier stages. I have my characters planned, the plot is now solid and the chapter plan is ready. I no longer need those earlier steps. They served their purpose and now it’s time to think about the opening sentence…to be written on 1 November 2006.

Filed under: Cat's Paw, My Writing: