In the tech world there is a concept called “analysis paralysis,” which actually commutes to many situations.  Analysis paralysis (in tech terms) is where a project gets so bogged-down that it stalls because of over-analyzing the requirements.  At some point, you have to jump, and, as Nike so succinctly put it, Just Do It.

So it is with writing.  All of the schools of thought, from Aristotle to Egri, Vogler to McKee, teach the STRUCTURE of writing.  How to make a story conform to some set of rules extrapolated from great works of literature, fiction, playwrighting, etc.  Many would-be writers drown in the quagmire of analysis that these techniques mandate, as they attempt to work backwards through the process, analyzing, designing, structuring, then finally TELLING.  Myself included.

As I lay in bed at night, waiting for the Sandman to sweep me away, I use the quiet time (I have two small children so it is about the only quiet time I get :>) to think through the analysis and structure of the story.  As I delved into a particular aspect, in this case what could cause a child to want to kill a parent, my muse struck and revealed a bit of the story to me.  I quickly grabbed my notebook and wrote feverishly for 45 minutes.  Satisfied that I had captured the essence of the inspiration, I re-read what I had written, and that was when it hit me.  I have MANY MANY bits like I had just written.  In Writer’s Boot Camp language, M2 elements (M2 for Movie Moment) are the big set-pieces that make up a story, knit together with the connective tissue of character and plot, and if you consider any movie or story you love, you will find it to be filled with “moments” that reach through the screen or pages and touch you in some way.

This revelation got me thinking, and what I concluded was that I had plenty of M2 elements for at least the first story of this trilogy, and all I needed to do was put them together, and then allow Anne Lamott’s concept of the “Shitty First Draft” to take hold as I filled in the mortar surrounding them.  Then, armed with a “Shitty First Draft,” I could apply my own phrase, “It is far easier to make something better, than it is to make something.”

And that is where I am at right now… assembling the M2 elements along some semblance of a timeline, such that the story to be told is more clear, needing only those stitches of plot and character to tighten it up into something, hopefully, enjoyable.