Looking like a train wreck…

…wearing too much makeup
the burden that you carry
is more than one soul could ever bear…

I should probably have more Jayhawks music in my collection than I do.

Save it For a Rainy Day may or may not be on the Ben & Marina soundtrack for the sole reason that Marina is named in the song. And I may or may not have concocted a scene between the pair during a rain storm simply to fit the song into the timeline.

What?

I do a lot of random research when it comes to writing. Depending on how big of a role certain things play in a given story, I like to at least sound like I might know what the hell I’m talking about. Though if someone were to take a gander at my internet search history, they might be a bit confused and possibly concerned. It looks like we’re trying to adopt a teenager, or at least take permanent custody of one. One of us is diabetic. One of us has endometriosis. Somebody is in need of anti-emetics. Song lyrics suggest we’re having marital trouble. You can, in fact, file your taxes separately if you’re married. And somebody really needs to know the asinine tuition costs of a private high school.

Or…you know…I’m just writing things.

Most recently I was looking up some information on high schools. It’s been a long damn time since I was a student, and things have changed…a bit. Technology and all that. And whilst perusing the website of ye olde BHS, I realized it’s now been twenty-two years since somebody set fire to my former high school. I was only in eighth grade and still had two years until it was my school, but our junior high was impacted in a big way by the accommodations made to finish out the school year. (Before there were school shootings every other damn day, people were setting fire to the buildings in the off hours. The mass shootings didn’t become trendy until the year after I graduated.) The same year they changed the sports teams from the derogatory Braves to the stoner-endorsed Blaze, somebody tried to burn the place to the ground. Though we didn’t get the creepy, demon-like Sparky the Human Flame mascot until two years later.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I can still remember the pep fest sophomore year that introduced Sparky. (On a zip line into the gym.) Crunch, Goldie, TC, and that purple thing that the Vikings have were all in attendance for the occasion. Minnesota still didn’t have a new hockey team at that point, so there was no Wild…bear…thing…but I’m sure he would have been there had he existed. I want to say it was Home Coming Week, but the memory kind of fizzles out. I could dig out the yearbook I suppose. I’m pretty sure the event was prominently featured in full-color.

Though if we’re being honest, what I remember most about high school pep fests was the drumline and all the blue-eyed drummers I was so in love with. (In between my one-sided love/hate “relationship” with Aaron.)

Oy.

That was a trip to the past I hadn’t planned on taking.

What I really need is a teenager at my disposal I can pose all my dumb questions to. Then I get a proper perspective that a district website isn’t going to give me.

I mean, technically I do have three teenagers I could ask. Hunter could tell me a thing or two about an alternative high school. Noah would likely prefer I just be on with my merry way than try to talk to him period. Ellie is twelve, so I suppose I could get a middle school perspective. Though I’m pretty sure they all think Auntie Sara is a bit touched in the head as it is, so getting weirdly nosy about school and life would probably only intensify that notion.

I mean, they’re not wrong, but…

Anyhoo…

I’ve been trying to build a proper timeline for the current project. There comes a time in every story when I stop and ask myself, “Where is this thing even going?” And then I need to take a step back and spend a little more effort focusing on the timeline. If I don’t have a clear picture of where it should end, I run into problems and end up sputtering out far faster than I would if I had a more concrete destination.

I see things possibly ending around the one-year mark of when Tyler gets dropped off on Parker and Alison’s doorstep, but an actual conclusion is still pretty muddled. The story technically starts on New Year’s Day, so I could end it on the following January 1st. The existing scene could really work as an ending. But there are other things that need to happen beyond that point to wrap up certain parts of the story, and it would be too much to just stick it in an epilogue.

When it comes to all these stories I write, I have so much detail built up in my head, I always lose track of what is actually relevant and what is just for my own reference. Does it really matter the exact days Tyler has appointments for his newly diagnosed illness? Is it really important how often Alison talks to her twin brother in a given week? I need to hammer out the major plot points and get those filled in, and then decide which smaller details to connect the dots with.

I am incapable of doing anything in a linear fashion when it comes to writing.

I just know that Tyler’s multitude of appointments are far more elaborately documented than any of my own have ever been.

And the kid doesn’t even actually exist.

Save it For a Rainy Day
The Jayhawks

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