Roughing It With Scout and Ellie

Scout and Ellie, the characters from my middle grade chapter book, just finished telling me their story in rough draft form.  They were on a crazy adventure of getting Ellie ready for the Miss Dainty Flower Beauty Pageant. Can you imagine watching a beauty pageant and seeing an elephant come on stage as one of the contestants? Walking in a fancy dress, then bathing suit, and finally juggling peanuts?

I have fun writing about the antics of this human-like elephant. Although I write an outline of what the pair will be doing in each chapter, Ellie is the wild card that keeps the outline from getting too specific. Truth be told, I don't know what she is going to do, or how she is going to react to each situation until I am with her in the chapter.  Going to get her nails painted? Oh, sounds innocent enough. Until there is another store she decides to visit along the way.  And how will she react if laughed at, loses, or wins?  She is like that inner raw emotion inside of us that we don't know quite how to control.

Scout gets stuck with helping her get ready for the contest.  All that poor kid wanted was a new toy. He didn't ask to get dragged into Ellie's emotional roller coaster life.  But then again, roller coasters can be fun.  Just hope this one doesn't get going too fast and fly off the rails.

This weekend will be spent recharging for the next writing adventure--revising the rough draft of the sequel to Red Nectar, the young adult novel about Emily, girl with dangerous telepathic powers.  She's not crazy wild like the elephant, but I do enjoy watching her mature.

Revising is easier than writing the rough draft.  It's more like fine tuning a piano that already exists as opposed to building one from scratch.  Well, maybe it is just as challenging but in a different way. In writing a draft, I don't worry about the details. I just figure they will get the magnifying glass treatment later. So now is the inspecting and fretting time. The time to make sure my 'i's are dotted and the 't's are crossed.

Wonder what I will end up doing this weekend? I have an outline of events to cover and will probably stick closely to them.  Because to my misfortune, there is no elephant in my life to screw everything up.

Heather Leigh