I haven’t done a literal cut and paste in years, but this draft-in-progress needs one. Characters, time lines, interactions – almost everything is a muddle working toward…something. A few characters obvious targets of suspicion. Obvious targets need careful examination, obviously. Unless the thrill of murder provides the only required motive – but even then, something must trigger le passage à l’acte.

Many years ago, while working on a story from a picnic table in a New York State campground, I’d taped the story outline on the side of the camper – an old Jayco. One day, as I typed away on my laptop, a mother black bear ambled by with her cub, some twenty or thirty feet down the incline. She was busy with a noshing/teaching session – lifting large stones with her claws and feeding on the bugs she found under them. Her cub attempted to do likewise and got a helping paw from mom, from time to time.

At some point the wind must have shifted and she caught my scent. Raised up on her hind paws, small myopic eyes scanning, mouth open and snout raised. Getting a sense of whatever mattered to her about that scent. Then fell back on her four and continued her amble, stage left. The cub followed.

Strange to say, I didn’t feel even a twinge of fear. Apparently, neither did mamma bear and offspring.

What this recollection has to do with this draft-in-progress? I haven’t a clue.