Back to the Beginning

On Friday, I came to a standstill on my work in progress. I was writing words, but the plot seemed to found a holding pattern and was going round and round instead of moving forward. I concluded the book was broke. The only way to move forward was to go backwards. One of the issues was the person I had designated as the killer was not the guilty party. Now, this didn't come as a surprise to me because out of the fourteen mystery/suspense stories I have written, I was never right. The real killer was always revealed by writing the story.

Usually, I'd make notes in the manuscript and continue writing until the draft was complete and then add any necessary clues and details. This time that method wasn't working. I was adding to the word count but I knew they were filler words. The problem I was having was the motive for the crime was a little different than I originally thought, the "heart" matter of it wasn't the same, and that changed the mood of the story.

The only way to move forward was to go back to the beginning and adjust the mood in some places, lighten it up some, deepen it in others, and add in more about one relationship that at first was complementary but now drove a part of the story. 

How I Begin a Book

Well... it’s different for most books, or at least most ideas. Sometimes, a character speaks to me and demands that her (or his) story be told. This is most usual with my mystery series. Others, a situation screams at me to tell about it dramatically. This is most often how my paranormal ideas come about.

For individual stories, such as those within a series, my mind’s always working on what comes next for my characters. As always, my subconscious is most prolific at night, while I’m in the bathtub, and when I get out I jot down ideas on notecards. (I started writing this even before Monica’s post yesterday!) Those, if I can read them the next day, I transcribe onto the computer.

When I first started writing, I had to plot out every story minutely. I came up with detailed scene lists and followed them as I wrote--on the order of outlines, but since I wasn’t sure how many scenes would fit into each chapter they evolved as scene lists. Today, I write a synopsis for each story so I know where it’s going, and then sometimes remember to refer to the synopsis when I’m stuck while writing the story.

Best I can say is that it’s an evolving process. Fortunately, it always somehow seems to work.

At the moment, I have a paranormal thriller idea that’s circling my brain but I’ve been under deadlines and haven’t been able to satisfy that wannabe character’s demands to get her story started. One of these days, though...

I do tend to listen to my characters, BTW. Like Kendra Ballantyne, the protagonist of my Pet-Sitter Mystery series, the protagonist of my new spinoff Pet Rescue mystery series, Lauren Vancouver, wanted me to write it in first person so she could speak her mind. Her voice is different from Kendra’s. I enjoy them both!

Do you find that your processes evolve as time goes on?