For those of you who are following the story of Cathy’s cancer treatment, I’m happy to report she’s feeling much better after getting out of the hospital last Sunday. She starts her second round of chemo (twelve weekly infusions) this Friday. We’ve heard this drug is less harsh than the ones from the first round, and of course, we’re hoping that’s true. In the week since her last hospitalization, she’s had enough energy to get out of the house a few times, and she’s even prepared a few meals. She still tires easily, but she’s making progress.

As for me, I’ve found time to go back to the novel I’m writing. My plan was to have the first draft finished by the end of summer. I doubt I’m going to achieve that goal, but I’m going to be close. I’m ready to start the final section of the novel, and, as I look toward the end, I’m registering all the loose ends that need to come together in a more organic way. I know I’ll have to think about characters and situations I created on the fly and ask myself how they’re necessary to what I’ve always known to be the dramatic center of the narrative. Yes, I’ll need to do loads of revision, but first I need to have a finished draft, so I’ll know exactly where the novel is going to land. With that knowledge firmly cemented, I can start thinking about how each chapter and scene is in some way carrying me (and the readers) to the end.

I’ve never been one to outline a novel. I prefer to work from what the characters are showing me as I begin to move them along a plotline. Before I begin writing, I think about what trouble will set the narrative into motion. As I write, I look for opportunities to further complicate the plot. At the same time, I want to complicate the main characters. I let their own choices reveal their contradictory aspects. I challenge myself to think in terms of opposites. Saintly characters are only interesting if they have certain flaws. Villainous characters are memorable if they also have some redeeming qualities. My goal is to create human characters, and, as we all know, people are mysteries, not only to others, but sometimes even to themselves. My job isn’t to judge any of my characters, but I’m remiss if I don’t try to understand the sources of their behaviors.

Once I enter the revision stage of this new novel, then, I’ll be considering two questions. First, do the pieces of the narrative work to form an organic whole? Second, have I made the characters come alive by drawing out as many of their qualities—particularly the contradictory ones—that I can. There should always be a necessary union of character and plot. Years of practice make me alert to this union as I work by instinct on the first draft. The second draft requires a more analytical approach and a willingness to take the book apart piece by piece to see whether everything fits and to gauge what may need to be left out, rewritten, or moved to another place in the narrative. Remember, narratives work by the principle of cause and effect. To put it more simply, what happens creates what happens next, and all the things that happen next are there to reveal more about the main characters and the situations they’ve created.