Stuck in the Middle

by P.A.Thompson

I guess this is one of the costs of pantsing your story, right now I am Stuck in the Middle (more cowbell!).

Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you.

And by you, I mean my WiP.

As I’ve said before, my WiP started as a short short in response to a writing prompt on one of my teachers’ blog (My entry is a few screens down under PAT). I liked the characters, Marty and the dog, so I wanted to expand.

Who is Marty? Hmmm, don’t know yet. Okay, then where is he going? Don’t know that either, probably nowhere. Yeah, that’s good, he’s going nowhere.

Click on “read more” 😉

Why? Who goes nowhere? Someone who is lost, a lost soul. Good. Why is he lost? Who are the lost souls in our society?

Veterans. Young men and women exposed to the horrors of war. Scarred, mentally and possibly physically. PTSD.

That’s Marty. I can fill in his background now.

So, what do you do to recover? If you are aware of your situation, you seek help. If you are not aware…

Enter the dog. “I am yours” her tag says. Weird, Marty thinks, but he kind of accepts it. And, being a good guy, he needs to make sure it’s not just a lost dog. He doesn’t like animal shelters (the pound) so he takes her to an animal hospital to try to find out if she’s missed by anyone – and to get her checked, though she seems healthy.

They meet Suzanne and Doc – more beginnings for the story. I think through possible plots now and I decide what I want to happen – I’ve found an ending. Yay! Okay, so how do I get there?

Um, yeah. How do I get there? “Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”

Subplots? Meandering? Exploooosions? Aliens? Time travel? Clones?

Help…