Where to from here?

That looks easy enough, doesn't it? Yeah. Simple really. All the main ingredients of a good book just mapped out in neat little shapes. Well....I'm here to tell you, it isn't SO easy!!! Why..well, for starters, I'm not a mapper. I don't plan things out like this, not in my real life or in the lives I make up on a page. I never set out to be a mystery writer. REALLY. NEVER. My monaker always seemed to be, "If it ain't got no love, it ain't got no me..." more or less. Everything was swell when I believed that. I sat down in a day to write and was floored and excited about where and what my beloved characters were getting up to that day. It was magic on a page....or ten, whatever the case may be.

I never had a problem with that until now. Currently I'm working on FLASH, a mystery/ crime drama (which has romance, I'm still me people!;) Seeing as how I have all these loose ends to consider in this new genre I kinda have to know the where I'm going and/or the who in all of this. I did wing it for quite a while and it seemed to flow. At this point though, I am looking at only 1/4 of the book left to write and I'm finding a need to break down and....well.....MAP! Ugh!

I've resisted mapping up till now because I feel like it takes the imagination out of it. I've always loved how a book comes to me as I write it. It takes shape on the journey and that, to me, is part of the absolute wonder of writing it. I still think that is true, but maybe only to an extent. Creation is creation and whether it's actually written out or locked away in my crazy mind it's really the same, right? New content. I'm sure the loose dots I outline will have lots of room between them for that momentous scene I hadn't thought of to fit itself right into the story, right?

In order to do the mystery justice I think this must happen. What do you think? If you're a writer, do you map? Do you plan? Do you outline? What is your take on it? Don't get me confused with some other perfectly planned writer though. I still have a lot to learn about these characters and what they want to do. Will this make my story better?

I guess there is a first for everything. I gotta tell you...I'm shaking in my boots! I'm rolling up my sleeves....I'm goin' in! Wish me luck!