By Shannon Baker
I went for a bike ride this
morning and nearly died. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but only slight.
We just moved from Arizona to Colorado, in the Boulder area. I’ve lived around
here before but in a different part of the community. I know of a few trusty
bike trails and have scoped out a sweet course to work that involves all bike
lanes. Boulder is a super biking city.
I haven’t found nice recreational
routes from my new home yet. There’s a wonderful trail along a creek but it’s
not paved and I have road tires on my bike, a little too narrow for a dirt
road. So I’ve been exploring early in the morning, before traffic heats up.
One morning I followed a bike
lane that took me into an old-town area and petered out. It was 6 AM so no
traffic. But in the middle of the day it would be hairy riding. I crossed that
off my list of possibilities.
This morning I took a turn,
expecting it would take me under the Interstate and around to a quiet road to
complete a loop. Logic told me it would work that way and I looked forward to
climbing a hill, scooting through a quaint downtown, angling back across a busy
highway and sliding into my garage.
That’s not exactly how it turned
out.
I ended up on what, in effect,
was an off ramp of the Interstate with cars barreling down and the shoulder
strewn with rocks. Whoosh! Aghghgh! Talk about getting my heart rate up! I
escaped with my life and my bike intact, but it seemed touch and go for a
while.
Sadly, this search and find
process is how my writing often progresses. I start going down one way and by
the time I’m in the middle of the road, I find it strewn with potholes, traffic
and danger. I have to get out quickly and make a new plan. I read books on
craft and attend workshops and seek out better ways to plot a book. I also read
maps to find the best road, path, or trail. But, as with writing, I’m never
really sure how it goes until I’m on the ground, pedaling it out.
Sometimes I set out on a certain
mission only to find an interesting path I hadn’t intended to take. I don’t
know where it goes but I’ll follow it anyway. Even if it doesn’t get me to my
destination, it’s rarely a wasted trip. You know that Zen saying, “Wherever you
go, there you are.”
I often wish my writing,
route-finding, and life in general was less messy. Then again, by not always
having a plan, or not always following the plan I lay out, I’ve done, seen,
written better things than my pea brain thought of in the first place.
This morning, I discovered a
route I should never take again. It won’t stop me from exploring another unknown
next time. There’s got to be a nice morning ride somewhere close and I intend
to find it.
If anyone out there has a
foolproof plotting method, I’d love to hear from you. Currently, I’m using
Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks. I find it extremely useful.
