Writing is a bizarre process. I think, though I’m not sure, that I admire the outliners, the writers who know precisely every step of their story before they type the first word.
That ain’t me. I’m told Kurt Vonnegut was not an outliner, but a seat of the pants writer. James Patterson spends more time outlining than writing the story. If you’ve ever read either of these guys, you can see the difference.
I must drive my editor, Mark, nuts. He’ll often comment, “I didn’t see that coming!” My reply, “Neither did I!”
A story must have its own life. In the current WIP I’ve got two guys running away from a bad situation and headed to a new one. Dependingon what happens along the way; who they meet, and the troubles they encounter;these factorswill determine the story, not me, I’m just along for the ride.
Right now, the pair is dealing with an unfolding climate crisis, made worse by a government that is unable to deal with the situation and provide basic services to the people. This leads to riots of scared and angry people. The ensuing misinformation campaigns that inevitably drive public opinion and in some way or another play out in the streets my characters find themselves living on.
In this case, I’ve got to ponder how would I react to the information I’m being fed? One radio broadcast tells the pair the government has fallen, and Washington is overrun. Another, hours later, reports the military has put down the uprising and is in control. Is the military in the streets of the US Capital a source of comfort or terror? Who knows? I’ll find out as the story unfolds.
I think misinformation and disinformation may be the greatest crisis we face as a nation. I am finding it harder and harder to take a stand or even know what to think or believe.
Case in point; I read an article the other day from a fairly legit source that there may be some truth to the rumor that Covid was leaked from a lab. First you have to consider the source, the writer, his politics, etc. once you do you need to ponder the story itself. If there is any truth to this, it means that a lot of the stories I’ve heard since 2020 is not true. Then you need to consider the spin of the story and ramifications. If Covid did indeed come from a lab in China, will that lead to even more unfounded hate and attacks on innocent Asian people? And where does this leave me with my faith in leadership? I posed this question to a cousin, a very bright guy, physics professor, he said, “I always start by taking everything the left says about the right and everything the right says about the left and filter that out. Whatever remains in the middle, the tiny fragments of truth are what I’ll choose to believe.
It’s a lot like my characters driving south now to escape the hellscape they’d been living in. Do they believe the conflicting stories on the radio as they motor south, or do they believe the reality unfolding on the streets before them, or do they fall into some opaque almost hologram reality where each man’s truth is some kind of twisted fabrication of all those pieces.
I’ll let you know as soon as I find out!
