The Flog – The Fabry Log

Step 1 – Have your wife ask you to go to the store for paper towels and a few other things. In the Walmart parking lot, notice an old, beat-up RV and think, “I wonder who’s in that thing.” Keep thinking about that as you wander inside.

Step 2 – Once you get inside, look at the old guy who is greeting you and smile at him, and then glance to your left and notice the “Missing Children” posters on the wall. Notice one composite photo, massaged to show what she would look like at age ten.

Step 3 – Notice a little boy, alone, wandering around in the store and ask the question, “I wonder where his parents are?”

Step 4 – Get home and put the paper towels away and wander to the bedroom where your wife and daughter are talking, sit on the bed and say, “I think I just came up with a really good story.” Stephen King says not to tell that story to anyone, but go ahead. Tell them, “A little boy is riding around with his dad in an old RV. He wanders into a Walmart one day and looks at the missing children pictures and sees himself.” Have your wife and daughter say, “You should write that.”

Step 5 – Change the little boy to a little girl and pattern the whole story after Les Miserables, where Jean Valjean rescues Cosette from the Thernadiers.

Step 6 – Chew on the story for months. Let it percolate. Figure out what happened early in her life to get her in that RV. Figure out the backstory of her father, the man who drives the beat-up RV.

Step 7 – Name the man John Johnson and think that’s really cool.

Step 8 – Go to a writer’s conference with the goal of getting something really good for your story about this little girl. You need a name for her, a nickname, something that would be key to tie her to the land where she was born. Sit in a lecture given by Dave Lambert where he talks about the importance of place in novels and doodle things from your childhood as he talks. Write down the words June Bug, because you remember tying a string to a junebug and trailing it like a kite. Look at the page again. Stare at it. Then, suddenly, realize you have her name. It’s right there in front of you. And write the story.

Step 9 – Have your kids get progressively sicker and sicker and discover the home of your dreams, the place where you think you will live the rest of your life, is killing you. Vacate the house with only the clothes on your back. Lose just about everything but your cars. And keep writing.

Step 10 – Use the pain of all you’re going through to inform the characters on the page. Have the little girl who lives in an RV go through the same feelings you do as you write and edit the book in a pull-along camper your neighbor lends you.

Step 11 – Write the last word and weep.

Step 12 – Send the book off to the publisher. Go through the editing process. Change some things, massage, tweak, and then let it go.

Step 13 – See the book published to some good reviews. See sales that are okay but not fantastic. Wonder about your little girl.

Step 14 – Five years later open your email and see a friend telling you she just saw your name on Jeopardy!

Step 15 – Wonder how Alex Trebek came across the 5-year-old novel and try not to complain that he mispronounced your name.