The book Plot has been a bit of a disappointment. As I was saying yesterday, I thought it was going to be about how to find plot, instead, it’s about how to write plot, or how to tell a story from a plot’s perspective. There are valuable discussions of the storytelling process, but I was hoping for something simpler. That simpler discussion, the magic bullet of plot development, probably doesn’t exist, I’m seeing. Plot is about decisions in storytelling, not about the brilliant idea and self-creating story. I’m naive, what can I tell you? I’ll finish the book and find more hints about how to tell a story.

One of the valuable tools the book started with was how to identify whether an idea is sufficient to write about, i.e., what questions should I ask of the ideas floating in my head to determine whether those ideas would make good story.

Below are some notes I took on a few people I saw in the bucks of stars. There might be a story there if I can figure out what happens next.

Today ended up being a good day: I went for a long bike ride (I got a little lost, which is normal David), wrote a bunch this morning, and played video games with Doolies in the evening. Not the best fourth of July, but next year Doolies will be here, which will make it so much better.