Read On                                                                Pat Zabriskie

This week’s assignment was Research. The book gave us 1-6 days. I thought, This will be a cinch. What will I do with the rest of the week. Ha!

That was before I read Chapter 4 of Wiesner’s First Draft in 30 Days. I was flabbergasted. Chapter 4 dumps us into the meat of the story. To help us there were seven worksheets. Gulp! Now I know why we were allotted six days.

One sheet deals with characters, their idiosyncrasies, unique way of speaking, favorite saying, mannerisms or tags.

Now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. Next is a fact sheet—what somebody did and where. Then two timeline sheets, and, of course, the suspects list, followed by motives and alibis.

And I haven’t even gotten to worksheet 15 which has five pages spanning the beginning, middle and end. These pages deal with conflict, which we all know, is what moves the story along and keeps the reader turning pages.

All those, plus lots of short-term goals which are thwarted, disappointing the characters, who react, letting us see more deeply into them.

I hate to distress my characters, but without conflict there’s no story—so I’ll be wrestling with these worksheets and putting my beloved characters up a tree, through the wringer, up the creek without a paddle, and down the tubes.

If we all survive, I’ll talk to you next week.