Well, I’m happy to say, Velma’s sojourn at
the spa will be over this weekend and she’ll be returning home, all topped up
and batteries charged. (Actually, it was a new battery, but you know what I
mean.) Velma is my car for any of you who have not read previous posts.
Not having the car, I was basically house
bound, except for the one trip to the grocery store with my daughter.
I should have been able to get a lot done,
and I did if you count 15,000 words into the new book a lot of ‘done’. The
words don’t reflect the amount of time I spent doing online research, (which if
you looked at my ‘history’ would look a bit scary), and rewrites.
Normally my writing style would be
described as being a ‘plotter’, rather than a ‘pantser’ a fly by the seat of
your pants writer. That means that I usually plot my story line from beginning
to end and do in depth characterizations, I research for authenticity, things
like locations, careers and if it’s a murder story, details of how to conduct a
police investigation.
If I were a ‘pantser’, I’d do all of that
as I went along.
As you may gather from all this, I tend to
be a bit rigid in my set up. (I prefer rigid to anal retentive.)
Last fall, my son and his wife gave me a very
interesting phrase, thinking it sounded like a book title. I agreed. “Where the
forest meets the corn” was the phrase. It was hunting season, and that’s
exactly where they were sitting. As I was knee deep in my NaNoWriMo novel, I
let the phrase percolate in the back of my mind.
So, I had three chapters written before I
even had my main characters named, the name of the town, or any other details.
I began with my victim leaving work one
snowy night, finding her tire flat, and accepting a ride home from someone she
thinks looks familiar but doesn’t really know. She’s being trusting because
she’s mad at being stranded, and the stranger seems to know her, her dad and
where she lives. It’s no surprise her faulty judgement will end up getting her
killed.
The next chapter was the farmer, looking
for his lost dog, and finding a dead body instead.
Of course the farmer calls 911 and the
investigation begins.
So now what? Where are my notes, my
characters, my locations, my ever loving details? Who writes like this? OK, my
friend Carol writes like this, but maybe it’s different if you’re writing
fantasy rather than murder.
I’ve been making notes like mad, now that
I’ve begun. I figured out who the killer is, an important detail, and why he
did what he did. I found my strong male lead, Gage Donovan, named Gage for his
mother’s maiden name. He’s the detective on the case.
I have notes on the victim’s family,
potential other victims, the killer’s story, and the location. Once I started
making notes I had to go back to the beginning because not all of it fit
anymore. I had made the victim seem like a nice person, and she wasn’t. So I
had to change a few things, make her not quite so likeable.
Part of my routine is to reread what I have
written, at least the last chapter, to get back into the story before I start
writing. This means I edit as I go along, I just can’t stop myself.
I swear, I’ve written and rewritten those
18,000 words so many times, I don’t want to go over them again. Not until it’s
all said and done and I edit for real.
At Christmas, my son and I were driving
across the county road, when I suddenly called out. He of course thought
something was wrong. But we had just passed a cornfield with a wooded area, and
I wanted a photo, for inspiration.
He not only backed up, he turned around so
I could take the pictures from the passenger window. What a great kid, eh?
I’m not sure I can handle the whole
“pantser’ thing. I need a bit more preparation than that. But I kind of like
having the story evolve as the characters become real to me and I get invested
in their lives.
Gage is a nice guy, dedicated, but a loner.
He needs someone in his life, and I have just the woman for him. It should be
interesting.
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