Everyone in the Pool

Concept for chapter three finalized on the hike. Nice long hike. I started the journey thinking I was going to write about one thing and ended up with another that became an interim chapter, which will be chapter three and chapter three now will be chapter four. One thing I've learned about this process is that it never stops being a process. When I first jumped into the pool and committed to the novel this time around, I literally went into a pool. A warm soaking pool in Sonoma. I was sent there by Brian to write for four days. I made a ritual of inviting my characters into the pool with me, one at a time, to get to know them better. Over the four days, I talked to them, asked them questions, learned about their lives. They spoke back. One character, for example, is 80 years old, and I had this grandmotherly persona all set for her. Easy. Then, in the pool one day, she told me she had been raped when she was 17. It shocked me, but you know, it worked. The plot tensed up, which is what it needed. The story instantly became richer, deeper, more textured. Today, on my hike, she told me she assisted girls who needed abortions before they were legal. Suddenly, she was another person altogether, and did that ever thicken the plot! I'm much more open to things changing like this now, whereas before the chaos of their organic nature terrified me. The basic plot remains the same, but I'm relieved that the creative process can be continuously creative, not just creative at the beginning and mechanical upon implementation.