Charity Marie Blogs!

Plot a Children's Book in 24 Hours? Check!

Okay, so the title is a little misleading because I didn't actually set out to plot the whole novel in 24 hours. In fact, I was just batting around ideas with my husband. I think the real culprit was the steroids we were on.

Wait, wait, wait. I'm getting WAY ahead of myself here. Let me start at the beginning. Hubby and I have both been sick for a few weeks with some weird upper respiratory crud and we've been having a battle of wills about who was going to outlast the other one and beat the crud without spending money on a doctor's visit. Fortunately for me, I won. Well, mostly. This Saturday hubby came home from work and after we went to breakfast, he admitted I was right and he should have gone to the urgent care last weekend so he wouldn't be sick all week. So with him finally admitting I was right, we agreed then and there that we would BOTH go to the urgent care together and get treated.

It's a good thing too because I was feeling so miserable but wasn't about to say anything. So we immediately headed there and after a short wait, got a room and waited for the doctor. He quickly realized I had a sinus infection mainly in my right ear, hubby had a general sinus infection and both of us were suffering from extreme exhaustion. Unfortunately, there's nothing in pill form to resolve exhaustion and we chuckled at him when he said we should rest more. He didn't bother to try and convince us otherwise after we detailed our 70 hour work weeks + two kids. It's just where we are in life right now.

So the good doctor prescribed antibiotics for us both as well as steroids. We didn't realize just what a blessing and a curse they would be! Hubby got a shot in the rump, but I hate needles and there's almost nothing that will make me allow anyone near me with them. So I covered my terrified eyes while he took a shot like a man (and would later come to regret it a bit). In true husband-ly fashion he ragged on me the whole time for being a wuss, which I accepted good-naturedly (and then rubbed in his face later).

We took care of our business and left to go get prescriptions. After bragging for a few minutes about how he never felt the shot, while sitting in the car is about the time that shot started to really kick in and the whining began. He began to swear the needle must have nicked a nerve AND the bone, the pain was so excruciating. I did my wifely duty and ragged him about how needles are awful, and wasn't I the smart one for avoiding it? I got the last laugh on that one too. One of these days he's going to start listening to me, I just have to keep proving to him I'm right. Eventually, he'll learn, right?

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent running errands, time with the kids, and resting. Or trying to. We were both so wired it was pathetic. We finally went to bed around 8pm to try and rest. I eventually fell into a light sleep only to be periodically woken by him. Indigestion + completely wired from steroids make it really hard to sleep and he was pacing the room like a caged beast. He was planning to get up at 4 a.m. and so was I but it ended up being about 2:30. Frustrated by our mutual inability to sleep and failing to find any creative ways to exhaust ourselves, we gave up around 4 a.m. and went to the local IHOP.

We ate and we talked. I'd been batting around some plot ideas for my third children's book and since we had nothing better to do, we discussed it. All. Day. Long. It was THE topic of conversation all day. And man, when you take two highly intelligent individuals with a passion for writing and fill them with steroids and Red Bull - watch out! It was the most epic, adrenaline fueled, fast-paced plotting session I've ever experienced in my life. I'd come up with an idea, he'd expand it, and then I'd expand that. We got on such a roll at one point we were solving plot issues the other created. It was MAGICAL!

From 5 a.m. - 5 p.m Sunday we worked on it and by 5 p.m. we had it completed. I have three new characters, a protagonist, a series of challenging but resolvable problems for them to solve, and a beautiful ending. This might turn out to be one of the best books in the series even. Now mind you, normally plotting a children's middle grade book takes at least a month, sometimes longer. There's a lot of elements to consider and you have to be careful and strategic not to overwhelm younger readers with too many complications in the story. And yet somehow, magically, flawlessly, and beautifully, we navigated it all together with almost no effort. I reread all my plot notes and it just flows. It wasn't a dream, it really happened.

I have worked with a lot of writing partners over the years but never in twenty years have I had a partnership like this one! I just hope the writing goes as well because we set a goal to launch it in time for St. Patrick's day 2018. (EEP!) It's still tentative but hopefully it's still doable. With a projected word count of 20,000 - 30,000 words and 4 months to do it, that's only 7,500 words a month or 250 words a day. I have had days where I hit 2,500 - 4,000 words in a day so it should be very doable. If I weren't working, going to school, trying to sell houses, run a business, and raise two kids. But where there's a will, there's a way. What's that saying about if you want something done, have a busy person do it? Hmmm... too bad those steroids run out in two days.