The Crazy Idea Board

I'm not a very effective outliner. I've tried, really I have, but the sticky notes and the color coded spreadsheets really only tell me where I've been. They have been moderately helpful with remembering what I called characters from chapters past, but no help whatsoever in working out where to go next.

Isn't that always the way? Aren't we all trying to figure out what to do next? I have an idea about where my characters will end up eventually, but a whole lot of nothing about how to get them there and keep my readers along the way. So, I keep a "crazy idea board." On it, are things like (Spoiler alert):

Gina's mother shows up
Mark disappears
Assistant chef has secret past
Could Gina be adopted? 
Affair with former boss - baby?
Did Marisol's young lover return?

You get the idea. I threw a bunch of items from the crazy idea board into Chapter 11 as the hook to get to Chapter 12.  When it came time to make sense of that mess, I had my work cut out for me! But, the beauty of fiction is that we don't want it to be too real, so I didn't over explain. And it's not only perfectly legitimate to hint at wild red herrings, it's expected, even necessary, so I may have gone a little crazy. I will have plenty of time to even out the cray cray once my draft is done.

The sad part is no matter how nuts I get in one chapter, the "what happens next" problem is back again when it's time to write the next one. If I throw the kitchen sink at every chapter, It will be all Dan Brown like, and not in the this author is a gazillionaire kind of way. In any case, demand is nearly always ahead of supply so I'm always looking for inspiration for the crazy idea board. My friends and coworkers are both hopeful and afraid that things that they say or do might end up in my stories. One office colleague even accused me of basing things entirely on a thinly veiled version of real people I know from work - an interesting thought since she has never read a word of my work and has no idea what it is about. It was a little fun to tell her that I write mysteries and figure out ways to kill (fictitious) people in ways that makes it hard to catch the killer. Enter awkward silence and nervous laughter...

Anywhoooo...I think the crazy idea board is a good idea for real life. It's not too difficult to get complacent, become too comfortable with the day to day and suddenly a year goes by, then two, then - holy crap! I've worked here eight years!  I've lived here nine years! I haven't seen/been to/tried/dared to (fill in the blank) in ages!

I'm not really a bucket list girl, at least not in any organized way, but I do believe that we should strive to make our short time here count - for ourselves and the ones we love. What's on my personal crazy ideas board? Here are a few things:

Speak better French (C'est tres bien!)
See the English countryside (land of the classic Bristish mystery)
Publish my own mystery novel
Write song lyrics that don't suck
Visit the Pacific Northwest/Yosemite/Grand Canyon/Alps
Visit France beyond Paris

You get the idea. This list is so much more important than the "Stuff I Did" board because it's about  tingly, scary, exciting possibilities.  Zing!  Sometimes stuff crops up that should have been on my crazy idea board only it happened before I had a chance to plan for it. That works! Make time and room for a little crazy now and then. Without it, life is bland - just time passing - and the soul stagnates. Who wants to read that story?