Usually I plot my novels out in as much detail as I can before I start writing. This time I just started writing. I was hoping this would turn into a short story; I haven’t written a short story in decades.

This was a mistake.

Fifty thousand words into the first draft I realized that I had gotten too much wrong and I needed to start over. I finished the second draft, but there was so much missing and unclear with it that in the third draft I added characters and subplots and changed motivations, and the thing ended up 20 percent longer.

It’s closer, but I’m still not done. At least it feels real now. The plot is pretty much what I want it to be.

One problem with the plot is those pesky subplots. Don’t think I’ve ever had to deal with them before, at least not at this level of complexity. With subplots, you need to figure out how to switch from one to the other without confusing the reader, and you need to wrap them up appropriately at approximately the same time. This in turn involves figuring out a rough timeline — who is doing what when — and keeping the action in sync. And you have to keep the main plot at the center of things. Which means figuring out what the main plot is.

Things are mostly under control now, I hope. Except there has to be a sequel, and I sort of need to know its plot so I can end this novel appropriately.

At least this is all keeping me off the streets.