Who's The Hero?

Okay, I've got as many as seven characters meeting up for the final confrontation in "Seer, Tyro, Fiend" and still no place for it to happen. They won't all be there together at once, but that leads to the question of who is going to save the day. Actually, it could wind up being multiple people doing the saving. The whole scene is still nebulous at this stage with only a few bits and pieces in my head.

It's times like these that I wonder about my urge to write stories. It has always been there, although it originally took the form of let's-pretend games as a child. Even so, this weird process of juggling characters, motives, scenes, clues, words seems like something unnatural while it feels absolutely natural to me. Once the story begins happening in my head, it will continue to play like a movie in my mind, filling my dreams or keeping me awake thinking about it, rewriting itself endlessly until I commit words to a manuscript. Only then will it cease haunting me.

Have to keep this post short because I have company coming to dinner tomorrow, I haven't finished half of what I need to do, and I've got one kitty with an upset tummy I have to monitor. Fortunately, our company is our best friends, so if things are not perfect, they understand.

Back to Writing

I finished another key scene in "Seer" yesterday and this morning which sets up for the confrontation of good and evil. As I wrote it, I saw a way to employ one character's flaws to heighten the action. I did go back and tweak parts of the scene because I realized I'd left out some crucial questions that Stefanie would have definitely wanted to ask the person she was talking to. She didn't get a direct answer, but it was important to keep that element of the puzzle in the forefront. I also had an inspiration about the final scene and maybe an idea of where it takes place. Don't have all the pieces just yet, but it's finally coming.

Did a bit of web searching for cover art ideas for "Seer" and tried to figure out how to execute some of the images that have developed in my head. One idea I sort of discarded because it was too intricate and would leave no room for the title and my name without covering important details. An image I saw somewhere (can't quite remember exactly where) presented a good option that sort of meshed with the design of the "Dabblers" cover. Still a long way to go on cover art, I guess.

Advertising Day

Since the latest scene for "Seer, Tyro, Fiend" is still under construction in my head, I spent some time this morning creating a book brochure which can be downloaded as a PDF file. I tried adding it to this blog page, but I can't figure out how to "attach" a file for download. Hmmm. Anyway, I have provided a new link at the left of this page to get to my Google site where you can download the brochure. I thought this might be a good way for people to get information on my books in a manner they can easily save and look at later.

My other goal for this new brochure is to start sending emails to area libraries with the brochure attached, also indicating that it can be downloaded if anyone has a problem with attachments to emails. In the email, I plan to tell them of my willingness to do events--signings, book fairs, book clubs, etc. Creating the content of this email is next on my list, along with finding addresses to send it to.

Another thing I'm considering is some sort of promotional video. Right this moment, I know nothing, make that less than nothing, about making videos for the Internet. If anyone out there has information on the subject--how to do it yourself or how to get it done--I'd love to hear from you.

Congratulations to Gunter Kaesdorf on the publication of his first novel! I met Gunter at Love Is Murder back in February and we talked at some length about the trials and triumphs of getting published. I told him, in glowing words, about my success with Write Words, Inc., and he said he planned to send a query letter. Lo and behold, he got a contract and his first book is soon to be published.

So to all you "uns" (i.e., unpublished) authors out there, by all means, give real consideration to small publishers. While they might not have the resources of the "big boys," and you will have to fill in some of those gaps yourself, you also stand to gain some things the major houses will not offer. Artistic freedom comes to mind. I've heard stories from authors about zero control on the cover art, titles being changed, endings being changed. That hasn't happened to me at all, plus I can handle all the business of getting the books out via my computer. 

Couldn't Put It Down

Haven't had a lot of time to get words into the manuscript so far today, but I'm homing in on the big confrontation for "Seer, Tyro, Fiend" in my head. As noted yesterday, timing is a factor. So far, Stefanie and the other main characters have not had many encounters with the "bad guys," and I want to bring those out of the background in a measured way that does not seem as jarring as waiting till that last scene. Also on the subject of timing, I find my story currently on a Friday, and I think that will work out for the denouement to come.

In the back of my mind are issues that will be addressed when I start editing the first draft. Chapter breaks are one of them. One of the earliest books about how to write fiction that I ever read had a chapter called "I Just Couldn't Put It Down." I remember thinking, lo so many years ago, that I was about to find out what to do when I couldn't figure out how to say what I wanted to say. Instead, it was a reference to making the reader reluctant to stop reading, and the way to make that happen is to have each chapter end with a sort of cliff hanger. Gotta keep reading to find out what happened. Arline Chase from Write Words also talked to this topic in her blog, wherein she says that the scene/chapter ends when something changes forever.

Without even looking back at "Seer" in its first draft, I know I've broken this "rule" in places. I also have to catch myself being overly concerned with the number of pages per chapter. Personally, I find it annoying when a book has fifty or more chapters, some of them quite short. Often, a scene break would do the same job, but there's something about the white space and chapter heading that makes for a more profound stop in the action. It gets me thinking about why we use chapters in fiction at all, unless of course the story relies on multiple points of view or action in different locales occurring at the same time. Dean Koontz is one author who really mixes things up in this organizational area. Take a look at his "Strangers" as a good example. It's also one of my favorites of his works.

Crunch Time

Added some more to "Seer, Tyro, Fiend" this morning after the weekend's hiatus, and then I hit a brick wall. The time has come to set up for the big scene, and I don't even know the particulars of that yet. Who will be where and how will it be resolved? Should I have one more scene in which one of the conspirators is called to account? How close should that happen to the final confrontation? Oh, but wait! What about the objective in the story, the missing woman? What do I do with her? Bring her in? Keep her off stage until after it's all over? I have some ideas for things that should happen in order to weave together facts and events, but I think I really need to make a serious effort to consolidate it all. There should be excitement, suspense, drama, and a satisfying "crunch." I already know there will be a secondary crunch at the end which will close the loop on the story.

I'm already toying with a theme for a third novel in the Windsong Lake series, but it's just a broad stroke of an idea. This one might actually require some research first in order to explore the reincarnation aspect of Stefanie and Paul's relationship. To do that, I'm thinking about having them return to England and the place where Paul bought Stefanie her moonstone locket, the place that seems to inspire a lot of her paintings. One idea I had was to interleave their exploration of their history with what was happening in the time when they were first united. (If that seems confusing to anyone, I suggest reading "Dabblers" for references that help explain it.)

Before a third Windsong Lake, however, I feel compelled to do a third Jack Watson. I may have posted about this before, the idea of a stalker being one facet of the story with an embezzlement plot as the mainline case. I have a bunch of notes I wrote up some time ago which probably contain more details than I remember. It's why we make notes, right?

And then there's the inspiration for a sort of dystopian adventure which would be a major reworking of an earlier novel that I've rewritten a number of times already. That one sometimes calls to me, too, and would be something of a departure for me as the new incarnation will be set in the future.

Could I possibly work on more than one novel at the same time? I know I tried it once before and then dropped one when the other started coming together faster. Lucky for me, there are no rules for how to do this job, and I'll never know until I try.

Flying Over Hurdles

"Seer, Tyro, Fiend" is closing in on the Big Scene. Along the way, I've been dealing with the build up to that, hitting obstacles and clearing them just as fast. Yet I'm abundantly aware that I don't know where all the build up will lead. Where will the showdown take place? Who will be there? Who will be instrumental in achieving the outcome? For the moment, there are at least six characters involved who should probably take the stage, but that seems a bit too complicated to be believable. Yes, I know, this is fiction and I can tell my tale any way I choose. Or can I? If someone who eventually reads it finds it hard to accept, they might review it as being silly or preposterous or contrived. A review like that might make others steer clear.

So I now must ask myself the philosophical question, why do I care? Is it about sales? As an author, of course sales are meaningful, but the fact is, I would probably write stories even if I wasn't getting published. (I sure did a lot of writing before I got published.) Is it about fame or acclaim or respect? Those would be nice. Restating the question, why do I write? I weave these intricate stories in my head and feel compelled to put them on paper and attempt to get others to read them. Being published means the chance to find more readers. That leads to the question of why people read fiction at all. Escape, enjoyment, inspiration, education--any and all might apply.

Kind of interesting, though. Some can't get enough to read and some can't stop creating stuff for them to read. Expand that to music or performing arts. It's about creativity, both the act of it and appreciating it. Only humans (so far as we know) do this. Therefore, I create because I am human.

Okay. Good enough reason. Done with philosophy for today.

Once again, as I wrote this, I hit upon a Gotcha. This one is a true homonym: steer, one word with two meanings. It means a head of livestock or to guide or pilot, as a ship. For some reason, I always thought there was another spelling, i.e., stear, but a check of my dictionary says no such word. Well then, I guess I no longer have to question that one.

Zowie!

So far today, 21 hits on this blog, up there in the record books. My inclination is to believe that it had a lot to do with the wonderful comment I received on yesterday's post. Any author who doesn't publish with the big houses knows how much effort must go into self promotion, and word of mouth is a huge component of that.

Now I must confess something. In a way, I broke one of the rules in my sixth novel, "Stranger Faces." Usually, I'm the first one to cite the rule about getting the story's conflict out there as close to page one as possible. In "Stranger Faces," I tried something a little different which stretches that rule, and I'm going to explain why I did it. My POV character, Tracy Wiley, is your basic amateur sleuth even though she's not investigating a murder in this one. She's a shoot-from-the-hip, seat-of-the-pants type of problem solver, figuring out moves to get herself out of jams on the spur of the moment. (How's that for overloading on cliches?)

In her latest adventure, she's hired by her old friend, C.I.A. agent Kevin Fox, to accompany him on a road trip to Chicago to help him figure out who betrayed him on his latest assignment. He wants Tracy along to throw anyone watching him off guard since they won't know who she is or why she's with him. He's out in the cold (oh, do the cliches never end?) and doesn't know who in the intelligence community he can trust. He gives her very little information to work with, so she's flying blind. Later, she gets dragged back into his troubles, in serious danger, and must figure it all out for herself.

Now, back to the broken rule. The book opens with Tracy doing her normal job, which is solving people's non-legal issues for an hourly fee. Later, after her trip with Fox, she does another routine job for a regular client, and then further on, a third one, not so routine. These mundane jobs are the set up for her problem solving skills, giving her someone to turn to for help when she needs it. While the situation with Fox is presented in Chapter 1, the heart of the conflict and the dangerous situation she faces are unveiled more gradually. Since it's all told in first person from Tracy's viewpoint, I wanted the trouble to be unclear to her (and the reader), unfolding as she investigated it.

Okay, confession over. In a way, I did follow the rule about getting the story started as close to page one as possible, but I did it sort of sneaky. Maybe even a little bit of a refreshing change?

Something I wrote here triggered a Gotcha for today. cite/site/sight You cite a rule or regulation. A building is erected on a site. What you do with your eyes is sight.