Connecting the dogs; I mean dots…finding your plot

Islands of Deception: Lying with the Enemy is a story of a brother and sister, dual narrators. Are their lives one plot or two?  The trick is to sequence events, or to make it clear when things are concurrent.  So, I had a nice chapter on the young man’s experiences in New York City, and no parallel event for his sister in Amsterdam.  On a long drive, I turned off the radio, and started thinking about the two characters.  Ideas floated out of the ether.  What would her day in Amsterdam look like?  Where would she be a year from the originating date of the story?  Who would be around her…. the questions kept flowing, and as I turned over possibilities in my head, I began to get a clear picture of the young woman and events that would have been very likely to happen.

My best thinking does not happen at the keyboard.  I just use the keyboard to record what happened somewhere else. By letting the events flow, I ended up with a very sharp plot twist that brought all the pieces together.  In the words of an independent critic, “Islands of Deception features great literary elements and I particularly like Constance Hood’s masterful use of suspense, developed around the switch in the plots.”

For the record, my dog does not write at all.  The cat writes.  Arlecchina prefers good quality pens and Post-Its. She sits on my right forearm when I am working, ten pounds of calico retriever.  I take an Aleve mid-morning to celebrate her efforts and relax the shoulder.