I’ve Gone Dottie!

So I thought I would tell you a bit about the adventures of Dottie. Her girls hate that; they think she should go by her full name, Dorothea. Dottie is a widow of several years. She was in an unhappy marriage and hasn’t made a lot of changes since being on her own. She has low self-esteem and doesn’t really know what, if anything, she wants to do. Her daughters–Carrie (24), Natalie (22), and Jenna (17) are about to take her in hand and make her over, but they have differing reasons for their plans. And different ways to go about it. And different–just about everything.

I’ve been writing Connect the Dot most workday mornings into my Palm Tungsten E2 before I flip on my computer and get sidetracked with the many things that actually NEED doing. I sync the file to my home computer every few days; the story is now at almost 9K. Today, being as I have Friday afternoons off, I had a Devoted-to-Dottie Day. Or half day as the case may be.

I started off with some college program research for Dottie and Jenna. You see, I’ve started writing with very few preconceived notions, which is NOT how I normally write. Then I went through the story file and made notes of everything that I ought to remember–friends’ names, hair colors, mentions of certain businesses and streets, etc. It’s a royal pain to scroll through 9K on the Palm to find the lawyer’s name. Again. Though now that he’s asked Dottie out I imagine I’ll remember him–but I digress.

I’d come across some old Sears catalogues that should have hit the recycling depot awhile back and decided to look for Dottie and her daughters amongst the models, being as I’m doing a contemporary for once. I did pretty well, all things considered. Like that Jenna’s look is rather *out there* and I doubt she buys her clothes at Sears! Also the model I chose for her doesn’t have any piercings at all, other than the quite proper earlobes. Jenna has more. A lot more. I don’t actually want to know where all she is pierced, and neither does Dottie.

So while I was on a roll, I also drew a house plan for Dottie’s decrepit little house, and a basic map of the town. Wow. I feel all organized or something. Not that I know what will happen next in the story. That’s going to be a little surprise for Monday morning.

Will this novel ever be salable? I doubt it. I’m writing it for fun, because I need something creative to do while my life seems swallowed up in revisions.