Plotting -- The Basic Outline of my Story "Slug"

The idea for my work in progress came to me while sitting in three hour traffic on I-95 one day.  With envy, I watched the motorists whizzing by in the HOV lane, and thought to myself that I should grow a pair and head on over to a commuter lot to pick up a slug.  A slug is a person who stands in a line in a commuter lot and waits to get a ride from someone going to same general destination.  It was too late to try it that day, so instead of getting out of my car and running down I-95 like a lunatic, pulling out my hair and screaming, I let a story idea take root.  I decided to name my story "Slug." 

Here is the basic, rough, outline:

SLUG

My story is a romantic comedy about Arnold, and Maggie, an unlikely pair, who meet at a “slug line” in a commuter lot in the DC area.  Arnold normally would take the VRE train to work, but because of a bomb scare, and an important 7:30 am meeting, he has to pick up a “slug” in order to make it in time to work.  He is a single 34 year old that runs his own investment firm, and although has everything that money can buy, he has an empty, robotic life.  Not a dust bunny resides in his Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired glass house sitting at the edge of a river.  His Bentley Continental GT is detailed regularly and rarely sees the light of day as Arnold is, well, a maniac about his car.  Maggie works as a temp at the Bureau of Prisons and is a student at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  She is as disorganized as he is organized.  She’s a slug because she knows her ’90 Toyota Corolla barely gets her to the commuter lot a half a mile from her apartment. 

There are some rules on the Slug Line website that Arnold takes to heart. There’s a big No-No list: no smoking, eating, drinking, talking on cell phones, changing the radio station, talking about politics, or religion, rolling down windows, to name a few.  Basically just a hello and goodbye is all that is required of him.  He can deal.  But Maggie breaks all the rules which make for an uncomfortable ride.  She accidentally leaves her cell phone in his car and he slips it into his pocket hoping to find a way to reach her later in the day.  During his important meeting her cell phone rings.  Inadvertently hitting the speaker button, everyone hears a raging maniac threatening to kill him.  It is Maggie’s ex who thinks Arnold is Maggie’s new love interest. 

Arnold spends a day trying to track down Maggie by going down her contact list.  On the way down the list he meets the characters and places that make up her daily life and in the process, Arnold learns to meditate, receives a massage, models for an art class in the nude, has high tea with Maggie’s eccentric grandmother, gets involved in fisticuffs with her ex ,and gets a scratch on his Bentley.  By the time Maggie finally realizes she is missing her phone and calls her number at 11:30 that night from her land line, Arnold is five steps from her door, and more than half-way in love. 

Part I

Chapter 1   Arnold gets a call from his assistant that there is a bomb scare on the VRE.  He needs to make alternative arrangements for getting into work.

Chapter 2 Arnold picks up Maggie at the slug line

Chapter 3:  Arnold and Maggie get to know one another on the ride in to work.  Arnold decides Maggie is the most annoying person he has ever met.  Maggie thinks Arnold is a stick-in-the mud. 

Chapter 4:  Maggie’s exit from the car.  More mishaps.  Portfolio falls and papers start flying.  Arnold has to get out of the car and help chase down papers in his best suit.  Horns are honking.  She hurries off, and he hurries to get in the car.  The light turns back to red.  He sees a paper flying toward the windshield.  It is a pastel painting.  He gets out and retrieves it.  He gets to work and sees her cell phone in the backseat.  He slips it into his pocket, hoping she’ll call it so that he can return it to her. 

Chapter 5:  Before his meeting, he thinks he turns the phone off, but inadvertently presses the speaker button.  During the meeting, the phone rings, he answers, and Maggie’s ex, a raging maniac, threatens to kill him. 

Part II

Chapter 1:  After the meeting he goes into his office and starts going down Maggie’s contact list.  Cathy is the first one  Maggie’s best friend who is out of town on business.  She tells Arnold that Maggie normally goes to a yoga class on Monday afternoons, and gives him the address.  Thinking she hasn’t arrived yet, he is told to join the group, or leave.  Arnold learns to meditate.  After the class, Arnold learns from the yoga instructor that Maggie takes the Tuesday session and that on Monday she works at her roommate’s massage clinic . 

Chapter 2:  Arnold goes to the massage clinic and is led to a room.  He asks for Maggie, but gets Buzz instead.  A ripped, gay, body builder.  Against his wishes, Arnold gets a massage after which he is told that Maggie is only a receptionist, and that she cancelled that day because she had to make an appearance at the art gallery that sells her work.

Chapter 3:  Arnolds arrives at the art gallery and is told he just missed her, but is asked if he is interested in buying any of her paintings.  He is totally blown away by her talent.  Her paintings are of DC spots with people caught in casual poses.  One painting is just of the feet of people in line at a Starbucks: tourists, business people, and hookers.  Another painting is of two homeless people on a bench engaged in a conversation.  Another painting is of two hookers on the street trying to sell their wares.  These are balanced out with office building scenes – chrome and glass stairways, showing a couple’s legs ascending.  There’s also a painting of a chrome and wood and glass elevator with a couple stealing a kiss.  He begins to see this girl in a different light and finds he respects her talent.  He ends up buying the one with the couple stealing a kiss.  The person wraps up his painting and tells him that Maggie probably went to her art studio.

Chapter 4:  Arnold arrives at the art gallery and sees her in the class.  He observes her for a while and witnesses her concentration, the way the holds herself completely still, studying the still life for a while before placing brush to paper.  He realizes she is quite lovely.  The art instructor notices Arnold and says, oh there you are, please come this way, and Arnold tries to shake his head and wave his hand no.  But the instructor is emphatic so Arnold makes his way to her.  She said, oh thank God.  I thought you weren’t coming.  Here, she says, and hands him a robe.  Put this on.  “But I’m ….”  Oh please!  Don’t get shy on me now!  Just do it!”  So he finds himself taking off his clothes.  Maggie recognizes him and smiles.  He tries to get her attention but the instructor poses him so that he is not facing her.  After the session, he tries to catch her, but she has already left.  She has left the painting on her easel.  She gave him a tiny one.

Chapter 5:  Arnold finds who is next on her contact list.  It says Nam, her grandmother.  She says to come on by, that it wasn’t unusual for Maggie to stop by before she goes home for the night.  Nam is eccentric, but sharp as a tack and clearly loves her only granddaughter.  There are pictures everywhere from the time she was a baby to current.  He learns a lot from Nam while drinking tea and chowing down on dainty sandwiches and tea cookies.  He learns about Maggie’s parents dying when she was 10, how she could write, and dance, and play the piano.  He also learns about Maggie’s ex, Drew.  Arnold finds he likes the old bird, and is surprised at the amount of time that has gone by.  Nam is equally impressed with Arnold, and gives him Maggie’s address.

Chapter 6:  When Nam closes the door and Arnold hops down the steps, he is greeted with a sucker punch to the jaw.  Maggie’s ex, Drew, is before him.  He tries to explain to him that he is not Maggie’s boyfriend, that he was just returning her phone.  Drew isn’t buying it.  They struggle, until Nam comes out with a glock.  Drew is afraid of Nam, and scrams.  Arnold finally makes it to his car and finds that someone has keyed his car. 

Part III

Arnold parks in front of Maggie’s Apartment building.  He walks up the stairs, and the phone rings.  It’s Maggie.  He says, “I think I have something that belongs to you.”  She says, “my phone!”  He says, “well, yes, that too.”  “What else is there?” she asks.  “This,” he replies as he comes to stand directly in front of her.  And there they are in the doorway, she in her pink robe, and bear claw slippers, and he with a bruised eye and ripped shirt.  He holds out the pastel painting she thought she had lost.  They both looked down.  It was a painting of two lovers kissing in the night under a neon light.  She looked up and thanked him.  She asks him if he would like to come in for a cup of coffee.  He says yes.  She opens the door wider, and says, “don’t mind the mess.”  And Arnold found he didn’t.