Yesterday the plot thickened.
You may be asking yourself how can that be? Just last week, Jolene revealed the See Jane Ride! cover and said the manuscript was now in the concept editor’s hands for review. Does that mean the editor wants a total plot revision? Say it ain’t so!
Rest easy readers. It ain’t so.
The plot being referred to in this post’s title is for the yet-to-be-written sixth book in the West River Mystery series. To stay on track for its release in October of 2026, my handful of notecards about a mystery that takes place during prairie fire season needed a lot of thickening. That handful of cards was also intended to contribute to the overall arc of series and its overarching mystery. That needed some thickening too.
Yesterday afternoon’s plot workshop with Midwestern Book’s concept editor and I was thick enough to accomplish both aims.
I’m not gonna lie. It was a brutal afternoon. Mainly because the concept editor kept asking hard questions like:
- Why would such-and-such a character do that?
- What possible reason could there be for Velma to stay overnight this time?
- Is that concern big enough for Jane’s mom to get her underwear in a bunch?
- How will Jane’s students contribute to solving the mystery?
- What spiritual growth will Jane experience?
- What’s the community event that gathers the town together?
- What about Dick and Jane?
My initial answers to such unreasonable questions were:
- I haven’t thought that through yet. I just thought it would be funny.
- I’m not sure yet, but Dick is going to agree with Velma.
- Everything gets her Mom’s underwear in a bunch.
- Still working on that, but they will.
- Still working on that, but she will.
- I assumed coming together to fight prairie fires was a community event.
- What about them?
To which my diabolical editor replied:
- Think harder.
- Let’s brainstorm until we figure it out.
- True, but be more specific.
- We’re not moving on until you come up with something.
- Ditto.
- Wrong assumption.
- Time to brainstorm again.
Thanks to the editor’s uncanny ability to spot plot holes and not move on until they were plugged, we worked on thickening the plot for almost 4 hours.* The picture at the top of the page shows that by the end of the 4 hours, my handful of notecards had expanded to almost 50 and categorized into 5 “acts.” The feat is actually more impressive considering the number of cards we torn up and rewrote. They’re the messy pile visible in the bottom middle of the table.
At that point the diabolical editor abandoned me, citing a flimsy excuse. Something about frosting a birthday cake for her daughter who turned 7 yesterday. After she left I used the calendars ,also visible on the table, to fit the plot into a three week mid-September 1978 through early October 1978 timeline. Then I stacked and rubber banded the cards for each act in chronological order and then banded the acts together into one thick and beautiful plot outline.
Oh, the burden the brutal workshop afternoon lifted from my shoulders!
Oh, the joy!
Oh, the freedom!
Oh, to begin writing the first draft of Book 6** and doing research to keep the story historically accurate!
All this because yesterday, the plot thickened.
*Minus 1 potty break per person and 1 session each at the espresso machine.
**The name of the next See Jane book will be announced in a few months.
