You Never Know... The Unpredictable Factor

Okay, here's a tidbit about my routine (not than anyone is rabidly chasing down information about Sioux even mildly interested in me): on Sundays I love to watch the show CBS Sunday Morning. The stories inspire me. They enlighten me. They nudge me into reflecting.

This past Sunday was no exception. I watched a story on Lonnie Bunch III (the Secretary of the Smithsonian). He began the National Museum of African American History and Culture with a staff of 2 and no collections.

He started with virtually nothing. Now, it's a gem of our country... and 70% of their artifacts came from people's basements and attics.

I also watched a story about Marlene Rose, a glass artist. She uses a method of casting glass pieces in sand--which many glass studios weren't willing to accommodate--and explained how unpredictable glass is.

Showing off one large piece, adorned by splashes of orange, yellow and red, she said that it was only supposed to be red.

"What did you think when you saw the finished piece ?" the interviewer asked. It obviously was not what she envisioned, not what she planned on.

Marlene Rose said she jumped up and down, thrilled with the result.

When you write, you begin with nothing (just like Lonnie Bunch III began with nothing). Nothing's on paper, but certainly (hopefully) there's a kernel of an idea in the writer's head. If the writer's lucky, there's a whole outline tucked into the recesses of their brain.

My current WIP--the manuscript I'm frothing-at-the-mouth to get published--began with a historical event. I created a family of five, secure in the knowledge that the family would survive.

They'd survive the event--of course. No doubt about it. I didn't even think that some of them might not survive the revising process.

As I slogged through the sludge of my first draft, my second draft, and so on, the unpredictable factor reared its head up, over and over.

Where will the family hide? In my first draft, the family didn't hide. They got out of their house and headed out of their neighborhood. However, I got my manuscript professionally edited (an eternal thank you to Margo Dill) and it was apparent I needed more tension. Hiding somewhere, while you're being hunted like an animal? That could add some necessary excitement. I had to decide on where the family hid, a place where they conceivably not be found. Again, the spot came to me in an unplanned way.

How will the family escape to a safe place? In my second draft, I completely changed what happened to the family.

What is in Mama's bag? When the family leaves their home, the mother has a cloth bag in her hand. Despite their life-and-death journey, she always held onto it. She never showed anyone what was in the bag... until the end. I didn't even know what was in the bag until that point. More unpredictability.

So, as a writer, celebrate what you know. Celebrate all the details you know about your characters, and revel in all you've fleshed out in your plot... but don't forget to embrace the surprises, the details that come hurtling at you at unplanned times.

Learn to love the unpredictable.

Sioux Roslawski is a novelist wannabe. She's also a middle school teacher, and is working on a second manuscript (not much headway being made on that project lately). Keep your fingers crossed for her that sometime--soon--a publisher offers Sioux a contract.