126: A Writer Plans & the Gods Laugh
4/6/2023
Things are not going as planned.
This Chapter 58: Denouement is not only difficult to pull together, but it’s now becoming clear that it won’t be the last chapter in Part Three like I thought. I just finished transcribing what I’ve got done with it so far and it’s already eight pages and 2,658 words long, yet I haven’t got a single element completed that I needed for this chapter. Basically, all I’ve got done is Diallo’s trail of trials – his hardships navigating the Nagala-Nar marshlands. And because it’s just him with no Guma, there’s no dialogue.
The next thing I need to do is have Diallo find the Ghost Frog, then I’m thinking he’ll blow his horn in his excitement, followed by the discovery of some ancient ruins. But I’m not sure how exactly I’m going to pull any of that off, only that I want to do it as succinctly as possible to wrap this chapter.
Which means there will be an extra chapter after this that will be the REAL final chapter for Part Three. Which will have to be written from Dougga’s or Tamal’s POV. Probably opening with them hearing Diallo’s horn calling.
I’m not sure what problems this might create since it will be a POV that’s not Diallo’s. Who knows, it may not be a problem at all but rather a solution to a lot of problems I was having trying to imagine how all the pieces will fit together.
We’ll see.
But I’ve been trying to get to the library all week to get some crucial research information on quicksand or mud pits, which I’ve decided will be how Diallo Saves Dougga’s life and sacrificing the ghost frog prize. And unable to get to the library, and unable to imagine how all the pieces fit together, I’ve been focusing all week on those things I DO know that leads up to the final parts.
Spent Monday writing 829 words describing Diallo’s state of mind as he first embarks on his own and comes upon a group of kudus.
Didn’t write any new material on Tuesday but merely copied to paper what I wrote on my tablet Monday.
On Wednesday I compiled pretty much all the material of Diallo’s struggles journeying to the mangroves, and the spider’s web scene, and spent all of today – Thursday – editing and fine tuning that before copying it by hand to paper.
And I still have a couple pages to create and transcribe to paper before I can call this chapter done. None of this is how I typically construct and write a chapter but then maybe there is no typical method. Like with drawing or painting, it’s all about problem solving, and doing what’s necessary rather than working from formulas or past methods.
Follow my gut. Be creative.
Present-Day Reflection
9/28/2026
It feels like nothing ever goes as planned. Indeed, it feels like if I want something to go a certain way, it seems like my best bet would be to plan on it not going that way. That may be the only way to get things to go the way I want them to. Though that subterfuge in itself would be a plan to get a particular outcome, which would fail because it was planned. Planning to fail in order to succeed is still a plan for success.
I can’t cheat the system. The system being that I never get what I want. Or at least, not what I imagined I wanted. After all, it’s not that fate has it in for me, it’s more that fate refuses every time to play her hand in accordance to my preconceptions. Sometimes I get lucky and it turns out better than I imagined. Sometimes just as good as I imagined, though in a completely different way. And, of course, sometimes it turns out worse.
The only thing I can count on is that it won’t go according to my plan.
3 days left until my launch date.
