Theme scheme

I'm sitting here looking over the umpteenth draft of Murder by the Mile and thinking about its theme. I never have a theme in mind when I begin a book, but one always results by the end. In reading what has happened so far in MBTM, I think the theme has to do with decisions and the consequences of making them and not making them.

The characters are confronting decisions, some good and some bad, and using various ways of dealing their choices. I have characters who are:
- rushing headlong into life-changing decisions without considering the costs,
- attempting to not decide, even though not deciding is also a decision with costs,
- waiting on other people's decisions, which is dangerous because you can spend your whole life waiting on another person,
- and calmly making decisions for other people who will have to live with the consequences without having any input.

Curious how all these decisions have popped up in the book. Apparently my subconscious/muse/writingfiend is wrestling with that subject. Not that hard to see why as I have a habit of reviewing my bad decisions for the past 20 years and beating myself up over them. It's a habit I'm breaking. I'm tired of making a meal of regrets and sorrows.

I've made bad decisions, but I've made good ones, too. Why those good ones don't seem to have the staying power of the bad is a mystery to me. In the outdated but useful language of transactional analysis, I have an overactive "parent" in my subconscious. Whatever. The point is that I've done good things in the past and will in the future, too. We all will if we try.

And on that note, I'll close. See you tomorrow.

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