As usual, before we get into the meat of the discussion, we’ll offer you a distraction. I chanced to hear a Science Friday broadcast from my local NPR station about distractions. It was as if my car radio had read my mind because…hang-on.
OK… back with you. I just talked to my partner on the cell, and he’s getting ready to board an airliner in Florida to return to Nashville at the end of his deployment to the hurricane stricken areas. (see the Black Ops sidebar) Now, let’s see…YES…distractions.
I am not only having trouble remembering little things, but I have virtually no ideas for my next novel. I’m distracted, and I did it to myself.
The Science Friday Broadcast About Distractions
This from Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California. “From an observer’s perspective, you’re watching a person [and] they’re typing in a Word document. And then, for no apparent reason, they suddenly stop what they’re doing and they shift and look at e-mail or check Facebook. These kinds of self-interruptions happen almost as frequently as people are interrupted from external sources.”
The upshot of the broadcast is that three critical mental processes are being effected with these self interruptions: ability for reflection, restraint, and concentration. Check out the article and listen to the podcast of Science Friday by clicking on the sidebar story with the distracting cell phone.
I’m cutting back on my cell phone usage starting now. I plan not to take it with me every time I go out, and concentrate on what I am doing at the moment, rather than checking the cell every few minutes so that I can concentrate on the…
Chapter One Outline for the New Novel
The top photo of this blog is of the Hall of Presidents at Morris Library on the campus of Southern Illinois University. This is tentatively the place where I will start my new novel. (At this point everything is tentative, and subject to sudden and possibly catastrophic changes)
The novel might start with a scrap of paper, on which is written,
You’ll find the clue in a book at Morris Library.
The protagonist (lets call him Chet-a security guard) exclaims, “Holy (Expletive) Morris Library has a collection of two-and-a-half-million volumes!”
By next week, I plan to figure-out who Chet is, why he was given the clue, and what he is looking for.
Regardless, someone else is after that same clue, and that person is not very nice.
A chase ensues, and Chet flees from the library through Thompson Woods…
(Our hero would be moving at a markedly quicker pace through the woods than my docile stroll)
…Chet is running in a blind panic now, because he has no idea who’s chasing him, but the man is very big, athletic, and is brandishing something that might be a gun.
Our hero ducks into the concrete brutal Faner hall, runs down a corridor to a classroom where he meets Barbara, the only person in the room. Barbara is studying for a test. Chet quickly tells Barbara his story, and she agrees to help him.
The two run down to the basement and enter the steam tunnels. While fleeing through the tunnels Barbara quickly gives Chet a thumbnail biography: She is a graduate student in electrical engineering, and spelunking is her hobby, so while on campus, she frequently roams the tunnels for relaxation.
Barbara drives Chet to the Amtrak station, where he takes a train to Chicago. But first, they exchange numbers.
So that is the briefest skeletal outline of chapter one.
And the reason why I am outlining this chapter rather than, “Just start writing,” is because I wrote nearly all of Saluki Marooned before I hired an editor. The editor pointed out some serious flaws in character and plot development, and minor flaws everywhere else. So he suggested that I outline my chapters first.
Questions About Chapter One
Who is Chet, and how did he find the note?
What is the significance of the note?
How can I set-up the rest of this novel to address student debt, the diminishing middle class, and a university with declining enrollment? Maybe Barbara is having problems with paying back her student loans, and the College of Engineering at SIU is suffering from further budget cutbacks.
And how does Barbara fit into the plot? Does she go with Chet to Chicago?
Why is Chet a security guard? Maybe he lost his other job through automation.
The plan now is to write the first chapter before I have any idea where the following chapters will lead.
It worked for Casablanca.
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