I have made a plan. By Labor Day I will have the flow of my linked stories completed, and all the stories will fit together. How to get it done is the big question.
There are fifteen weeks until Labor Day. I made a calendar delineating the progress I expect to make each week. Although each story has to stand alone, perfectly complete with a beginning, a middle and an end, each story must also contain the seeds of another--a character or event, a mention of something that links back or forward to another story. I have picked the ten to twelve stories, already written, that I hope will comprise the collection which traces the four generations of family. Now I have to refine the stories and make the links work.
This week I am rewriting the first story of the collection, "Ruby 1941-1945." The plan is to complete the first edit and go on to story number two, "Earth, Air, Fire, Water." On my calendar I have the names of the stories, the names of the characters, the dates and events that weave back and forth. I intend to complete a genogram, or family tree, so that I have a visual picture of the four generations.
If I stick to my plan then, as I say above, 'by Labor Day I will have the flow of my linked stories completed, and the stories will fit together.' To do that I have to work the plan.
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