Thanks to my mom, I have a new understanding of the plot work I do with writers. Leave it to my mother to be the one to teach me.
In February, during a lull in preparing for 2 giant birthdays in one — my mother’s 90th and my sister’s 60th, I made the Beginning section of a Plot Planner for my mother’s blog.
Never did I know how much angst that 8 X 11 piece of paper with a simple line and some sticky notes could cause.
Rather than write the scenes she had come up with, my mother left the Plot Planner out in plain sight. Now that I know better, I assume the long pause in her blog posts these past several weeks because of computer problems was likely due to the looming Plot Planner. The compulsive knitting she undertook could also be due in part to resistance to the threat of the Plot Planner.
She reminded me today of how simple things can scare her, this from a woman who has never shied away from anything she wanted in life!
Anyway, now I know why sometimes it takes so long to hear back from writers after the work we do together. Rather than a help, seems some of the support I offer limits more than broadens a writer’s passion — at least that seems to be the case with my mother. Drat!
Perhaps I’ll direct writers interested in a plot consultation to read this post first as a disclaimer.
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