Plus ça change – February 16, 2026
I started plotting Laveaux: Mother, and then the holidays happened. We had a granddaughter visiting for Christmas, and I took a long break. Honestly, I’m ducking the task, because it’s not clear to me how to get to the end of the story. Here it is middle of February, and I’ve made a little progress in the past couple of months. And then…
I know what I need to get started. While to me this is a continuing story, a reader could pick up Mother without Dancer. So I need to reestablish Marie in this new reader’s mind. I need who she is, set the scene, describe her, make her real, all in one, while at the same time NOT driving someone who comes from Dancer into boredom.
How to begin is different problem, although it is (sorta) still a plot problem. I had a chapter to open the new book, set on Jan 1, 1826, but it really didn’t say “This is Marie.” And then…
Aha! I have this. It’s the beginning of the last chapter of Dancer. I slice out about 800 words, and start tweaking. More to go, but I have a really good start. The end of Dancer loses nothing, because those readers know who she is.
The beginning of Mother is now solid. It’s the same day, Jan 1 1826, Marie is dancing in Congo Square (Place des Nègres in the story). She’s dancing with her snake Simbi. Her religion is hidden. Americans are watching, so is the white power structure. She’s being the Voudou mother, she knows all the nations, all the dances, all the instruments, all the songs… That she leads a community, provides food for the hungry, it’s all there. It’s two, three years later. A lot has happened. So I augment, to drop us into where she is in her life. She is a widow. Her two children have died, and she is alone. I have pathos, I have power, and I have HER for the new reader.
And then, I decide, you know what, I KNOW how Mother ends. It’s already written. I know how it starts. I just did it. What’s in between… I have some milestones, some chapters in my outline. But I’m not gonna plot the whole thing. I’m gonna see what happens if I just start writing. Perhaps the milestones I have are sufficient guide. There are some real uncertainties: Should Robinette reappear? How do I keep Thomas Kelty Smith active as my antagonist? What do I do with Uncle Joseph? (That last one was easy.) But, I’m stepping off into uncertainty. I’m a plotter without a detailed plot.
Writers are plotters or by-the-seat-of-the-pants, pants-ers. Pantsing has not worked for me in the past, but Marie is central, and I know her very well. So I’m gonna give pantsing a shot.
It is New Year’s Day, 1826. It is the biggest holiday of the year. A maven of the times writes (about white people): “Before noon, ladies were in their parlors, prinked up, pomatumed up, powdered up, to “receive.” Calling began as early as 11, for it was a short winter day, and much to be accomplished. A small stand in the hall held a card receiver, into which a few cards left from last year’s stock were placed, so the first caller might not be embarrassed with the fact that he was the first.”
Ah, you see, but Marie is dancing in Place des Nègres, it’s who she is. Jan 1, 1826 two hundred years ago, was a Sunday. So, because I know her so well, I know it’s late afternoon, not 11AM. I know she’s a widow (although the husband was a real bastard), and her children have died. She is alone, 25, and too old for this sort of nonsense, so she is not expecting callers. But it’s tradition. Young men are calling on young ladies. They bring tiny cornucopia of bonbons, a candied almond called a dragee. Family and friends call, sit in parlors, snack.
Marie sits in the parlor with her Gran Catherine, tired from dancing all afternoon, enjoying the beautiful light at the end of the day. She’s freshened the fire to ensure Gran is warm in the rocking chair Joseph made for her. The door to the garden out front is open, as is the gate to Rue Sainte Ann. Not that she expects any callers, but it is a marvelous tradition to see all the young dandies in their finery moving down the streets, calling on the young ladies.
This is now the start of Chapter 2. But so it begins, and we are on our way.
