Mastodawn

#FantasticPromptsEnglish August 30: To plot or not to plot? What's your path?

I've begun to question my path with the current WiP. My usual course is to have an idea that I follow to a predetermined probable end. So too it was to be with Bolt's story, Reluctant Courier. I knew she'd been blackmailed and that her life was difficult and lonely, as depicted from the outside as an empathetic supporting character in another completed story. However, I wanted to approach her POV of those times as more of a cozy mystery SF tale, as slice-of-life rather than adventure. I know how the parallel stories tie together in half-a-year—a ticking clock if you will—but I chose different earlier endpoints for Bolt so my series main character doesn't overshadow her new friend.

So, to the point. I've been imagining as I write the story various "beats" along the way. Really, it's more like I am writing parts of the story in my head as they occur to me, never quite in order. The mob boss will do X. The devil-girl will do Y. The neighbor will do Z. Mentally, I am left with a saw blade full of missing teeth. Some scenes I've written immediately, some remain vague as things I will write.

When I think of the process of writing what was visualized as a novella but is already around 25K half-written, it feels like I am plotting out the story! I am creating the chapters in my head, writing them non-linearly, but as I decide I like this or that, it fills in her life and leads to elucidating the main mystery in her story.

What do you think? Am I plotting?

Certainly I am NOT writing an outline!

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