11 December 2010
I'm contemplating participating in A Round of Words in 80 Days, sponsored by Kate Nolan. The idea is to set a word (or other accomplishment) goal to be done in 80 days, four times a year. I think she's got a great idea, and if I can pull myself into focus for these short but realistic periods, I might be able to advance my writing career a little. The first one doesn't start until January 3, so I'll be figuring out the goal between now and then. We'll see.
03 December 2010
Okay, I have two new novels written, what’s next? I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of trouble taking the next step. I’ve written nine novels and one play script since 2004. Yeah. Cool huh?
One novel has been published. For Blood or Money was published in 2008 by Long Tale Press. One novel has been polished and submitted to one agent. Gutenberg’s Other Book won second prize for thriller in the PNWA Literary Competition this year. It is time to start sending it to more publishers/agents now. The first of those will go out this weekend. I need to put this on a schedule of one submission per week until someone bites and puts this up. If it has not been picked up by March, I’m taking it private and will self-publish. It will be available next summer one way or another.
I have a rewrite to do on the play, an adaptation from two of my novels, Steven George & The Dragon and Steven George & The Terror. Those were NaNoWriMo novels in 2007 and 2008. They’ve got good bones, and if the play is picked up for production in 2011-12 season, I’d like the books available by the time we go into production. Those are definitely self-publish eligible.
So, priorities. What do I do first? (Especially when I’m already thinking of another novel idea in the back of my head. Down boy!)
- Weekly submissions of Gutenberg’s Other Book shouldn’t be that difficult to orchestrate.
- Polish first 25 pages of The Volunteer and prepare it for two submissions. This summer I had an editor express an interest in it, so I’ll send it to him. And it will be my entry into this year’s PNWA Literary Competition. Both should be ready by YE2010.
- Finish polishing The Volunteer over the course of the next few months so that it is ready to hand over if I get a request at the next PNWA conference or from the editor. This should be top writing priority.
- Start putting the two Stn. George novels in shape for publication by fall. They should be ready for Holiday season 2011.
Well, the question now is whether I can exercise the discipline it takes to focus on “only” these tasks, while writing blog articles, stories, and presentations that might mean actual payment for work instead of bread and water. Here’s hoping.
EDIT: 12/11/2010 As to number three, I've accelerated that item to have a polished draft before Christmas because I have an editor request to see it over the holidays. That should simplify my objectives for the next two weeks!
01 December 2010
Well, It's all done. I finished both "The Volunteer" and "Stocks & Bondage." Here is the wordmap for "Stocks & Bondage":
And here is the wordmap for "The Volunteer":
Grand total of 101,000 words plus change.
And here is the wordmap for "The Volunteer":
Grand total of 101,000 words plus change.
30 October 2010
Typically, when I sit down to write a book I have a pretty good outline and I know what the outcome is supposed to be. Sometimes (in fact, often) that outcome changes as I write, but I start with a direction. For example, I know what the outcome of The Volunteer is expected to be. I know how I'm going to get there. The rest is writing.
When it came to Stocks & Bondage, though, I've had a lot of what happens in mind, but not what the outcome is. I know that the key has always been in the six computers that the dead woman has in her home. (Why else would you hire a computer forensics detective to investigate the death?) But I really had no idea what was on the computers that was so important. I had thought vaguely that it had to do with finance or credit card theft. But this morning as I tossed between not enough sleep and have to get up, it finally dawned on me. Oh my! Suddenly, my book not only has action, it has an outcome and it is mind-boggling. No wonder Deb Riley has to get into those boxes. Now if she can just do it without being exposed...
If you'd like to read the adventure in November as Deb blogs it, just go to my Sponsor Me page and make any donation. Send me a note (comment here) with your email address, and I'll unlock the blog for you. There's other great prizes, too.
Now that I know where I'm going, I can't wait to get started.
When it came to Stocks & Bondage, though, I've had a lot of what happens in mind, but not what the outcome is. I know that the key has always been in the six computers that the dead woman has in her home. (Why else would you hire a computer forensics detective to investigate the death?) But I really had no idea what was on the computers that was so important. I had thought vaguely that it had to do with finance or credit card theft. But this morning as I tossed between not enough sleep and have to get up, it finally dawned on me. Oh my! Suddenly, my book not only has action, it has an outcome and it is mind-boggling. No wonder Deb Riley has to get into those boxes. Now if she can just do it without being exposed...
If you'd like to read the adventure in November as Deb blogs it, just go to my Sponsor Me page and make any donation. Send me a note (comment here) with your email address, and I'll unlock the blog for you. There's other great prizes, too.
Now that I know where I'm going, I can't wait to get started.
27 October 2010
When I write a mystery, especially one that happens in real time for 30 or 31 days, I do a lot of planning ahead of time. Having only decided to do this mystery 2 weeks ago, my planning time is short to say the least. This story has been in my head for quite some time. In fact, I intended to write it immediately after Municipal Blondes was finished. but I've learned a lot about the few factual events that surrounded a somewhat similar case than I did at the time. Nonetheless, I have to do planning. I thought you might be interested in seeing the first week of the plan for Stocks & Bondage.
| 1 Monday | 2 Tuesday | 3 Wednesday | 4 Thursday | 5 Friday | 6 Saturday | 7 Sunday |
| I got kissed. Her new assignment. Going to a party at Jordan's house. | I met Detective Handsome. I have to get new car tabs. I'm running errands. Jordan wants to talk to me | I hate funerals. Dealing with Davy. Running into Simon. At least Brenda is dead. | Call from Det. Handsome. Going to visit Grover Sat. Getting a new look… or two. | Date night. What do you do with a man? | Savannah. Stepping into a dead woman's shoes. | Seeing Savannah through the eyes of Georgia. A ragged old man. |
13 October 2010
Dear Friends, Family, and Righteous Supporters,
This November, the nonprofit Office of Letters and Light will be bringing together the most mighty of endurance novelists for an event that will define our generation forever. I'm speaking, of course, of National Novel Writing Month. It's a global writing challenge in which participants spend November (and portions of our sanity!) writing a 50,000-word book in just 30 days. This will be my 7th NaNoWriMo and my 8th and 9th novel since November 2004!
My good friend Cloister has a way of bringing out the best in me, whether it is as a book doctor analyzing and improving what I write, as a business partner choosing books to publish, or as my own personal social conscience egging me on to do some good. I met Cloister in 2004, just after finishing my first NaNoWriMo novel, Willow Mills. Over the course of the next few months, I convinced him that he should join me for the next NaNo and he finally agreed, providing we find some way to use our books for a good cause. Joined by "GCK" the three of us combined our first drafts of the 2005 NaNo into an anthology and used sales of the book to raise over $5,000 (including Microsoft matching funds) for The Office of Letters and Light (sponsor of NaNoWriMo).
When the idea of sponsorships came up this year, Cloister beat me to it and pledged to raise $1,000! What could I do but commit to match this great fundraising effort for the Young Writers Program at the OLL? The problem is that neither of us work for Microsoft anymore, so we can't get matching funds there. That means we're really counting on the generosity of our friends across the country to help us out.
In order to reach this goal, Cloister has put up the offer of a bunch of prizes for those who sponsor him, so I of course, I'm putting up some prizes, too. I'm upping the ante a little, too. I have a novel that "needs" to be written called "The Volunteer." It will be my cradled baby during November. But I also have a novel that "wants" to be written called "Stocks & Bondage - A Deb Riley Mystery." Yes, Deb Riley is back! So I'm going to do them both! At the same time! Now, here are the prizes:
The Wallet Quick-Draw winner: The first person to donate (other than me) gets the first bound and printed copy of their choice of "The Volunteer" or "Stocks & Bondage". I'll produce a special edition from a print-on-demand service just for you, sign it, and ship it.
The Luck of the Draw winner: From the list of sponsors who don’t win any other prize, I’ll pick a random person in traditional raffle-style fashion. That person shall receive a free Book Cover Design for their own novel. Don't think that you have to be a NaNovelist to enjoy this prize. You come up with the title of your novel (even if you haven't written one) and a two sentence blurb about the story. I'll create a cover for your novel, and print the dust jacket. Even if you haven't written the story, you can frame this full color print for your wall!
The Grand Prize winner: Whomsoever shall donate the single largest lump-sum to this sponsorship drive shall receive a free Book Cover Design for their novel, a complete print layout in PDF form, and an industry-standard ePUB of the book, delivered on a CD in a case with your cover on it. Yes, that assumes that you've actually written a novel. If the grand prize winner has not actually written a novel, he or she may either donate the prize to their choice of budding novelist, or a short-story written by me following the blurb they provide, designed and delivered as above.
The Everybody’s a Winner winner: This is the one that everyone really wants. In the tradition of "For Blood or Money" and Municipal Blondes, I will be blogging "Stocks & Bondage." Because everyone who donates deserves something, each donor will be recognized in the "Sponsors" sidebar of that blog (unless you prefer not to be) and will have access to the new novel while it is being written on Deb Riley's blog. You will be able to interact with the story as it takes shape, communicate with computer forensics detective Deb Riley of DH Investigations, and become an active part of the story from the inside! I've blogged several previous novels, but this one will be locked for access to sponsors only until the end of November.
That's it! Click here to donate and win a great prize, but more importantly, support the great work being done in the Young Writers Program, encouraging kids to put their dreams in print. And, by the way, after you donate, leave a comment to this post so I can unlock the story for you. You'll get a sneak peak at what Deb's been up to when you do!
This November, the nonprofit Office of Letters and Light will be bringing together the most mighty of endurance novelists for an event that will define our generation forever. I'm speaking, of course, of National Novel Writing Month. It's a global writing challenge in which participants spend November (and portions of our sanity!) writing a 50,000-word book in just 30 days. This will be my 7th NaNoWriMo and my 8th and 9th novel since November 2004!
My good friend Cloister has a way of bringing out the best in me, whether it is as a book doctor analyzing and improving what I write, as a business partner choosing books to publish, or as my own personal social conscience egging me on to do some good. I met Cloister in 2004, just after finishing my first NaNoWriMo novel, Willow Mills. Over the course of the next few months, I convinced him that he should join me for the next NaNo and he finally agreed, providing we find some way to use our books for a good cause. Joined by "GCK" the three of us combined our first drafts of the 2005 NaNo into an anthology and used sales of the book to raise over $5,000 (including Microsoft matching funds) for The Office of Letters and Light (sponsor of NaNoWriMo).
When the idea of sponsorships came up this year, Cloister beat me to it and pledged to raise $1,000! What could I do but commit to match this great fundraising effort for the Young Writers Program at the OLL? The problem is that neither of us work for Microsoft anymore, so we can't get matching funds there. That means we're really counting on the generosity of our friends across the country to help us out.
In order to reach this goal, Cloister has put up the offer of a bunch of prizes for those who sponsor him, so I of course, I'm putting up some prizes, too. I'm upping the ante a little, too. I have a novel that "needs" to be written called "The Volunteer." It will be my cradled baby during November. But I also have a novel that "wants" to be written called "Stocks & Bondage - A Deb Riley Mystery." Yes, Deb Riley is back! So I'm going to do them both! At the same time! Now, here are the prizes:
The Wallet Quick-Draw winner: The first person to donate (other than me) gets the first bound and printed copy of their choice of "The Volunteer" or "Stocks & Bondage". I'll produce a special edition from a print-on-demand service just for you, sign it, and ship it.
The Luck of the Draw winner: From the list of sponsors who don’t win any other prize, I’ll pick a random person in traditional raffle-style fashion. That person shall receive a free Book Cover Design for their own novel. Don't think that you have to be a NaNovelist to enjoy this prize. You come up with the title of your novel (even if you haven't written one) and a two sentence blurb about the story. I'll create a cover for your novel, and print the dust jacket. Even if you haven't written the story, you can frame this full color print for your wall!
The Grand Prize winner: Whomsoever shall donate the single largest lump-sum to this sponsorship drive shall receive a free Book Cover Design for their novel, a complete print layout in PDF form, and an industry-standard ePUB of the book, delivered on a CD in a case with your cover on it. Yes, that assumes that you've actually written a novel. If the grand prize winner has not actually written a novel, he or she may either donate the prize to their choice of budding novelist, or a short-story written by me following the blurb they provide, designed and delivered as above.
The Everybody’s a Winner winner: This is the one that everyone really wants. In the tradition of "For Blood or Money" and Municipal Blondes, I will be blogging "Stocks & Bondage." Because everyone who donates deserves something, each donor will be recognized in the "Sponsors" sidebar of that blog (unless you prefer not to be) and will have access to the new novel while it is being written on Deb Riley's blog. You will be able to interact with the story as it takes shape, communicate with computer forensics detective Deb Riley of DH Investigations, and become an active part of the story from the inside! I've blogged several previous novels, but this one will be locked for access to sponsors only until the end of November.
That's it! Click here to donate and win a great prize, but more importantly, support the great work being done in the Young Writers Program, encouraging kids to put their dreams in print. And, by the way, after you donate, leave a comment to this post so I can unlock the story for you. You'll get a sneak peak at what Deb's been up to when you do!
09 October 2010
I'm thinking I may do two novels during NaNoWriMo this year. Yes, crazy, but "The Volunteer" is going to pretty much write itself and I've been thinking about a sequel to "For Blood or Money" and "Municipal Blondes" for some time. To recap, FBOM introduces computer forensics detective Dag Hamar and his assistant Deb Riley. It is told from Dag's perspective. "Municipal Blondes" is fully a Deb Riley mystery in which she chases down a corporate cartel using cell phones to rob the industry blind.
In "Stocks & Bondage" Deb is back and in disguise as she investigates the apparent suicide of a 50ish woman who had a roomful of computers. Working with police in a sting operation to catch the woman's boyfriend, Deb is trapped in her new identity, unable to risk her friends, her business, and her life as the boyfriend relentlessly pursues her. And at each step of the way, the dead woman's computers reveal a little more of the story.If you want to get caught up, "For Blood or Money" is available in eBook and paperback from Long Tale Press. "Municipal Blondes" (and Deb's view of the FBOM story) can be read on-line at Municipal Blondes. (The story starts with the blog entry on November 30, 2006.) If I pursue the Deb Riley story, you'll be able to follow the daily action on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dhinvestigation.
08 October 2010
November is nearly upon us once more, and that mean National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This year will be my 7th Nano. My subject this time is very different than anything I've done before. Here is the blurb:
Yes it is dark. No, the ending is not particularly uplifting. In reality it is the shadow self that haunts the dark places in my mind.
Wandering through the streets of America's cities and towns looking for a handout, a meal, or a bottle, Gerald Good has lots of time to think about what led him to chronic homelessness and alcoholism. He was so certain he would rise above it thirty years ago and thinks often of the life he left behind. When it is all offered back to him, however, he realizes the true reason he volunteered.
Yes it is dark. No, the ending is not particularly uplifting. In reality it is the shadow self that haunts the dark places in my mind.
25 July 2010
Last night Gutenberg's Other Book won the second place award in the 2010 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Competition in the Mystery/Thriller category. Needless to say, I am pretty stoked and very grateful to those who have helped me get here. Without doing an academy speech, I have to say that my wife has been a constant encouragement and constructive critic, and that my business partner, Jason Black, has proven why he is a Book Doctor. Visit him at Plot to Punctuation.
15 July 2010
Samples take from different parts of Gutenberg's Other Book.
I write like
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
Hmmm. I'm not sure that's a compliment. According to the Publisher's Weekly review of his book Infinite Jest,
With its baroque subplots, zany political satire, morbid, cerebral humor and astonishing range of cultural references, Wallace's brilliant but somewhat bloated dirigible of a second novel (after The Broom in the System) will appeal to steadfast readers of Pynchon and Gaddis. But few others will have the stamina for it. Set in an absurd yet uncanny near-future, with a cast of hundreds and close to 400 footnotes, Wallace's story weaves between two surprisingly similar locales: Ennet House, a halfway-house in the Boston Suburbs, and the adjacent Enfield Tennis Academy. It is the "Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" (each calendar year is now subsidized by retail advertising); the U.S. and Canada have been subsumed by the Organization of North American Nations, unleashing a torrent of anti-O.N.A.N.ist terrorism by Quebecois separatists; drug problems are widespread; the Northeastern continent is a giant toxic waste dump; and CD-like "entertainment cartridges" are the prevalent leisure activity. The novel hinges on the dysfunctional family of E.T.A.'s founder, optical-scientist-turned-cult-filmmaker Dr. James Incandenza (aka Himself), who took his life shortly after producing a mysterious film called Infinite Jest, which is supposedly so addictively entertaining as to bring about a total neural meltdown in its viewer. As Himself's estranged sons?professional football punter Orin, introverted tennis star Hal and deformed naif Mario?come to terms with his suicide and legacy, they and the residents of Ennet House become enmeshed in the machinations of the wheelchair-bound leader of a Quebecois separatist faction, who hopes to disseminate cartridges of Infinite Jest and thus shred the social fabric of O.N.A.N. With its hilarious riffs on themes like addiction, 12-step programs, technology and waste management (in all its scatological implications), this tome is highly engrossing?in small doses. Yet the nebulous, resolutionless ending serves to underscore Wallace's underlying failure to find a suitable novelistic shape for his ingenious and often outrageously funny material.
Oh yeah! Do it like the master. About Under the Dome,
King's return to supernatural horror is uncomfortably bulky, formidably complex and irresistibly compelling. When the smalltown of Chester's Mill, Maine, is surrounded by an invisible force field, the people inside must exert themselves to survive. The situation deteriorates rapidly due to the dome's ecological effects and the machinations of Big Jim Rennie, an obscenely sanctimonious local politician and drug lord who likes the idea of having an isolated populace to dominate. Opposing him are footloose Iraq veteran Dale “Barbie” Barbara, newspaper editor Julia Shumway, a gaggle of teen skateboarders and others who want to solve the riddle of the dome. King handles the huge cast of characters masterfully but ruthlessly, forcing them to live (or not) with the consequences of hasty decisions. Readers will recognize themes and images from King's earlier fiction, and while this novel doesn't have the moral weight of, say, The Stand, nevertheless, it's a nonstop thrill ride as well as a disturbing, moving meditation on our capacity for good and evil.
Well, there is something a little old-fashioned about this, but I guess that's just me. About Murder on the Orient Express:
"Need it be said -- the little grey cells solve once more the seemingly insoluble. Mrs Christie makes an improbable tale very real, and keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end." Times Literary Supplement "A brilliantly ingenious story." Dorothy L. Sayers, Daily Herald "Ingenuity at its height ! the idea is utterly novel, the setting a model of realism, and the characters a versatile, attractive crew." Woman's Journal "A piece of classic workmanship .. exquisite and wholly satisfying." News Chronicle "A brilliantly ingenious story." Daily Herald "Agatha Christie has given a noble start to 1934 with a murder mystery coceived and carried out on the finest classical lines." DOROTHY L. SAYERS, Sunday Times "A piece of classic workmanship ! exquisite and wholly satisfying." News Chronicle "Ingenuity at its height ! the idea is utterly novel, the setting a model of realism, and the characters a versatile, attractive crew." Woman's Journal "In Poirot Mrs Christie has created an extremely likeable and lively character, and his adventures are always welcome." Morning Post --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
It was inevitable. But, at least it should say something about being commercially viable. About his best novel (though not movie), Angels & Demons:
Pitting scientific terrorists against the cardinals of Vatican City, this well-plotted if over-the-top thriller is crammed with Vatican intrigue and high-tech drama. Robert Langdon, a Harvard specialist on religious symbolism, is called in by a Swiss research lab when Dr. Vetra, the scientist who discovered antimatter, is found murdered with the cryptic word "Illuminati" branded on his chest. These Iluminati were a group of Renaissance scientists, including Galileo, who met secretly in Rome to discuss new ideas in safety from papal threat; what the long-defunct association has to do with Dr. Vetra's death is far from clear. Vetra's daughter, Vittoria, makes a frightening discovery: a lethal amount of antimatter, sealed in a vacuum flask that will explode in six hours unless its batteries are recharged, is missing. Almost immediately, the Swiss Guard discover that the flask is hidden beneath Vatican City, where the conclave to elect a new pope has just begun. Vittoria and Langdon rush to recover the canister, but they aren't allowed into the Vatican until it is discovered that the four principal papal candidates are missing. The terrorists who are holding the cardinals call in regarding their pending murders, offering clues tied to ancient Illuminati meeting sites and runes. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that a sinister Vatican entity with messianic delusions is in league with the terrorists. Packing the novel with sinister figures worthy of a Medici, Brown (Digital Fortress) sets an explosive pace as Langdon and Vittoria race through a Michelin-perfect Rome to try to save the cardinals and find the antimatter before it explodes. Though its premises strain credulity, Brown's tale is laced with twists and shocks that keep the reader wired right up to the last revelation.
01 July 2010
I'm incredibly excited to have learned that Gutenberg's Other Book has been chosen as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2010 Literary Competition! It is a great honor to be among these other fine writers. Winners will be announced on Saturday night, July 24 at the 2010 PNWA Writers Conference. Yes, I will be there!
21 February 2010
You are probably aware by now that I’m a writer and a publisher. In fact, everyone in my family is a writer. Just Friday night, DW rushed DD and me to a mailbox service to get our entries for a literary competition delivered before the 6:00 deadline. We barely made it before they locked the doors. And neither of us would have had our novels ready to submit if it hadn’t been for countless hours DW spent editing our material and pushing us to revise and clarify what we had written. Whether we win or not, both DD and I know that we have submitted quality work, perhaps our best ever, to this competition.
It was in the midst of this frantic revision cycle that I was inspired with the topic for this post. In my thriller, the heroes are driven in their quest to find a hidden treasure, pursued by unknown forces bent on preventing them from succeeding. There are explosions, injuries, mad dashes across country, biblio-terrorism (a term I coined for this story), and kidnappings. At some point—and I’m sorry I don’t remember the exact words—DW asked me why they were so anxious to find this treasure. What would happen if they failed?
You’ve probably read a book or have seen a movie at some time that sounds a lot like what I’ve described. The heroes have to overcome all kinds of obstacles to complete their quest, but someplace along the line you realize that if they just stopped running the villains would never find the treasure that only the heroes have the clue to. The secret would be safe from their enemy; or someone else would discover it.
As a by-product of this, we find that thrillers have to have increasingly cataclysmic risks. If I don’t pursue the killer in spite of being warned off by my superiors, the president will die. A nuclear weapon will be detonated in a major metropolitan area. World War III will break out. An asteroid will hit the earth and all life will end.
We start thinking that if the obstacles are there, then the result of failure is world-ending.
Unfortunately, in writing as in life, the level of the obstacles can completely hide the value of overcoming them. Yes, your hero should be thwarted at every opportunity. As a friend said once, "Steal his shoes." But there really has to be a reason for him to continue, and it doesn't always have to be the end of the world. Many times, the intense personal issue that the hero faces will motivate their actions more than the end result of actually reaching the goal.
For example, protecting or saving a loved one (common in thrillers) is often just as important as stopping the next world war. Personal obsessions, though legitimate motivators, are significantly less interesting to readers. High moral standards are the classic tragic flaw. Oedipus must uncover the truth, even though the truth causes the suicide of his mother/wife and the blinding of his eyes. He is warned not to pursue this line of questioning, but because he is essentially a just man, he must uncover the cause of the plague on his country. The thing at risk is not always the object of the quest.
I'm an amateur at making this happen, but realizing that it has to happen is changing the way I write and the motivations of my leading characters. What do you think would motivate a historical librarian to pursue the discovery of an ancient treasury of documents even when he is being threatened, chased, and injured at every turn? It has to be important enough for him to deny his own instincts for self-preservation. Otherwise, why go on? Just so he can call himself the discoverer? Most people don't really have that big an ego. If biblio-terrorists start chasing me I'm not going to the library any more!
Is your character's motivation believable? logical? sufficient to drive him past the obstacles?
It was in the midst of this frantic revision cycle that I was inspired with the topic for this post. In my thriller, the heroes are driven in their quest to find a hidden treasure, pursued by unknown forces bent on preventing them from succeeding. There are explosions, injuries, mad dashes across country, biblio-terrorism (a term I coined for this story), and kidnappings. At some point—and I’m sorry I don’t remember the exact words—DW asked me why they were so anxious to find this treasure. What would happen if they failed?
You’ve probably read a book or have seen a movie at some time that sounds a lot like what I’ve described. The heroes have to overcome all kinds of obstacles to complete their quest, but someplace along the line you realize that if they just stopped running the villains would never find the treasure that only the heroes have the clue to. The secret would be safe from their enemy; or someone else would discover it.
As a by-product of this, we find that thrillers have to have increasingly cataclysmic risks. If I don’t pursue the killer in spite of being warned off by my superiors, the president will die. A nuclear weapon will be detonated in a major metropolitan area. World War III will break out. An asteroid will hit the earth and all life will end.
We start thinking that if the obstacles are there, then the result of failure is world-ending.
Unfortunately, in writing as in life, the level of the obstacles can completely hide the value of overcoming them. Yes, your hero should be thwarted at every opportunity. As a friend said once, "Steal his shoes." But there really has to be a reason for him to continue, and it doesn't always have to be the end of the world. Many times, the intense personal issue that the hero faces will motivate their actions more than the end result of actually reaching the goal.
For example, protecting or saving a loved one (common in thrillers) is often just as important as stopping the next world war. Personal obsessions, though legitimate motivators, are significantly less interesting to readers. High moral standards are the classic tragic flaw. Oedipus must uncover the truth, even though the truth causes the suicide of his mother/wife and the blinding of his eyes. He is warned not to pursue this line of questioning, but because he is essentially a just man, he must uncover the cause of the plague on his country. The thing at risk is not always the object of the quest.
I'm an amateur at making this happen, but realizing that it has to happen is changing the way I write and the motivations of my leading characters. What do you think would motivate a historical librarian to pursue the discovery of an ancient treasury of documents even when he is being threatened, chased, and injured at every turn? It has to be important enough for him to deny his own instincts for self-preservation. Otherwise, why go on? Just so he can call himself the discoverer? Most people don't really have that big an ego. If biblio-terrorists start chasing me I'm not going to the library any more!
Is your character's motivation believable? logical? sufficient to drive him past the obstacles?
12 January 2010
I is not lost on me that I last posted to the noveling notes in October when I had just gotten feedback on Gutenberg's Other Book that made me decide to start over. Here's the story and what has happened in three months.
Trying to get my fiction off dead center, I've tried a couple of new techniques with Gutenberg's Other Book that have worked so well that I want to share them.
I decided last year that I'd gotten too heavily involved with NaNoWriMo and that overall I wasn't taking the time and care that I used to take with my writing. I've improved as a writer by forcing myself to focus all my writing energy on 30 days a year, certainly my productivity, but the projects were dying as quickly as they were created. I've been doing research and preparing to write GOB for two years and last January I decided that it was time to give it life. I filled a journal with pencil-written notes and according to the time-stamp started writing on January 4th. I wrote a little almost every day, letting the ideas germinate and following an evolving outline that I kept in the journal.
But by August 12th, I was in a stall. I had 43,000 words and just couldn't force myself to add the next chapter. So I put the project aside and in September I asked Jason and the DW to read and comment. (BTW, if you haven't read Jason's "Show some character" blog, you are missing some of the best free advice on the Internet!) The comments I got back really shed light on the weaknesses in my story and in my characters. They also showed that there was the germ of a story that was worth following through with, but needed serious rethinking. For one thing, in the liesure of months instead of days to write I allowed myself to follow no less than five different story-arcs. Everyone had a secret agenda or organization or both. It had gotten so complex that I lost the main story and POV. So I closed the book and started over.
I did some outlining, culled my character list, and focused on the main event. I completely avoided thinking about the pseudo-historical backstory that was over a quarter of my current draft. November 1, I put pen to paper, literally, and started writing again. In 31 days, I had 54,000 pretty well-crafted words in a story with a single arc and minimal distractions to the limited POV. I was pretty happy with the result, but knew that there were other things that had to be exposed as well, so the book -- in spite of ending -- wasn't finished. I set it aside and came back to it after the first of the year, intending to write the bakstory arc.
As I read the new work, I was still aware that it wasn't quite right. There were inconsistencies and weaknesses that I could see right away. So I decided to take an entirely new approach. I began rewriting the story in first person. I've had pretty good success with a couple of books written in first person, but I wasn't sure I could expose enough of the storyline if I didn't have a narrator. The first revelation in rewriting the first four pages was that the book started in the wrong place. According to my MC, the story started a bit further in than I thought then looped back to catch people up. I let him tell it as he saw it.
Since my major goal in this rewrite is to have a solid 30 pages and synopsis for the PNWA Literary Competition in February, I'm focusing all my energy on the first chapter. So my next step was to rewrite the first four pages again, shifting to third person narration but maintaining the refocused limited POV.
Wow! What a difference. My first four pages are an order of magnitude better than the first four pages of the second draft and so far beyond the first that I can't believe that's where I started. You drop into my MC's head from the first paragraph and watch the story unfold from there.
Now, I'm continuing to do the double rewrite, continuing to narrate the story in first person from the MC's point of view and then recast it into third person. It's an interesting technique and involves a lot of actual re-writing. I think that is where I lost it with previous NaNo books because I thought all they needed was editing. It's simply not so. If you are writing something as complex as a novel, it deserves the kind of thought that comes from actually writing the sentence again and evaluating if it is the right sentence for the book. It makes a huge difference!
Trying to get my fiction off dead center, I've tried a couple of new techniques with Gutenberg's Other Book that have worked so well that I want to share them.
I decided last year that I'd gotten too heavily involved with NaNoWriMo and that overall I wasn't taking the time and care that I used to take with my writing. I've improved as a writer by forcing myself to focus all my writing energy on 30 days a year, certainly my productivity, but the projects were dying as quickly as they were created. I've been doing research and preparing to write GOB for two years and last January I decided that it was time to give it life. I filled a journal with pencil-written notes and according to the time-stamp started writing on January 4th. I wrote a little almost every day, letting the ideas germinate and following an evolving outline that I kept in the journal.
But by August 12th, I was in a stall. I had 43,000 words and just couldn't force myself to add the next chapter. So I put the project aside and in September I asked Jason and the DW to read and comment. (BTW, if you haven't read Jason's "Show some character" blog, you are missing some of the best free advice on the Internet!) The comments I got back really shed light on the weaknesses in my story and in my characters. They also showed that there was the germ of a story that was worth following through with, but needed serious rethinking. For one thing, in the liesure of months instead of days to write I allowed myself to follow no less than five different story-arcs. Everyone had a secret agenda or organization or both. It had gotten so complex that I lost the main story and POV. So I closed the book and started over.
I did some outlining, culled my character list, and focused on the main event. I completely avoided thinking about the pseudo-historical backstory that was over a quarter of my current draft. November 1, I put pen to paper, literally, and started writing again. In 31 days, I had 54,000 pretty well-crafted words in a story with a single arc and minimal distractions to the limited POV. I was pretty happy with the result, but knew that there were other things that had to be exposed as well, so the book -- in spite of ending -- wasn't finished. I set it aside and came back to it after the first of the year, intending to write the bakstory arc.
As I read the new work, I was still aware that it wasn't quite right. There were inconsistencies and weaknesses that I could see right away. So I decided to take an entirely new approach. I began rewriting the story in first person. I've had pretty good success with a couple of books written in first person, but I wasn't sure I could expose enough of the storyline if I didn't have a narrator. The first revelation in rewriting the first four pages was that the book started in the wrong place. According to my MC, the story started a bit further in than I thought then looped back to catch people up. I let him tell it as he saw it.
Since my major goal in this rewrite is to have a solid 30 pages and synopsis for the PNWA Literary Competition in February, I'm focusing all my energy on the first chapter. So my next step was to rewrite the first four pages again, shifting to third person narration but maintaining the refocused limited POV.
Wow! What a difference. My first four pages are an order of magnitude better than the first four pages of the second draft and so far beyond the first that I can't believe that's where I started. You drop into my MC's head from the first paragraph and watch the story unfold from there.
Now, I'm continuing to do the double rewrite, continuing to narrate the story in first person from the MC's point of view and then recast it into third person. It's an interesting technique and involves a lot of actual re-writing. I think that is where I lost it with previous NaNo books because I thought all they needed was editing. It's simply not so. If you are writing something as complex as a novel, it deserves the kind of thought that comes from actually writing the sentence again and evaluating if it is the right sentence for the book. It makes a huge difference!
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