Building a structure for BedlamA writer's plan for tying up the elements of a story ran into an obstacle course
Published:
May 18, 2010 The idea for Breaking Out of Bedlam occurred to me from out of nowhere, with no regard for the other novel I was working on at the time. The book is about Cora Sledge, an 82-year-old woman who’s forced into an assisted-living facility by her children. I wanted to tell the story of her past along with an account of the intrigues that were brewing in the nursing home in the present. My plan was to have past and present collide at the end of the novel, tying things up, illuminating everything. The reader would experience a sensation of completion, of everything falling into place.
My plan immediately crashed into a number of sizable obstacles.
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