Lexington

"Well, I think it is bloody stupid." I have my first line of my next book about events leading up to and including the battle of Lexington and Concord.

I suspect most of it will be from the point of view of two British soldiers, but there's a man who makes fire buckets and his daughter, Bostonians, who are creeping in as is the couple who just moved to Boston so he could be the head of the consulate. A brand new Park Ranger keeps saying she wants a role too.

There is tons of research to do. Normally, I write in order, but I think it is important to get the ideas down knowing that there may be hundreds of changes, rearrangements and writing tossed.

There was one novel I wrote covering several decades. I wasn't sure whether to do it chronologically or go back and forth starting from present day.

I finally wrote a summary of each chapter on a different file card, then divided them into chronological order, divided them into piles A and B. I took one from pile A, one from pile B, one from A, one from B except in a couple of cases when I did two or three from one pile. At the end there were a few As left over which were all current time. Then I rearranged the chapters on the computer to match the pile order. When I read through the manuscript it worked.

This may be the case with Lexington.

I also am keeping a file on the characters as I think of them, although I am not sure where they will go. In a way it is a bit like the auditioning for a part.

And I am contacting people for information, following up on things I found on the net.

I LOVE BEING A WRITER!