31 January 2022

Gettin' Back My the Mojo


I used to outline my novels but not my short stories. For them, I'd jot down the basic idea and let it ferment for a few days until the main points worked themselves out. Then I started writing. I usually had a fairly clear idea of the solution if it was a mystery, but I always struggled with how the sleuth would figure it out. That's still one of my biggest problems, and may explain why I write more "crime" stories than true mysteries with a solution.

Recently, an idea tapped on my shoulder, and the more we got acquainted, the more she felt like a novella, which meant I needed a subplot to flesh out her figure. One plot is tough, and subplots, variations on the major theme, are exponentially tougher. In my Zach Barnes series, Barnes's girlfriend Beth Shepard is a writer in her own life, but she also makes book appearances as "Taliesyn Holroyd," who writes over-the-top bodice-ripper romance novels. The real writer is male, but his publisher pays Beth to dress to thrill at signings and pose for pictures on the website because everyone "knows" romance writers are women. The pen name is an in-joke, too: Taliesyn was the legendary bard of King Arther, and even though the name sounds feminine, the guy, if he really existed, was a man.


Consequently, every Barnes story that involves Beth also has a subplot revolving around identity. The most compicated of those, The Night Has 1000 Eyes, involved a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder, what we civilians call "Multiple Personality," and I used Beth's experimenting with different names (Elizabeth, Betty, Betsy, Lizzie, Elspeth, etc.) as she grew up to amplify that same idea.

You see where this is going, right?

Well, I overthought the new idea so much that I painted myself into an intellectual corner. A short story or a novella is short enough so I can go back and tweak detals later to make everything fit instead of micro-planning. The novella is neither fish nor fowl, or maybe both fish and foul play, so it falls between. 

When that idea appeared to me several weeks ago, I knew it required some research, and the sources of the info I needed were close at hand. Unfortunately, I fell down the rabbit hole and got so interested in the research that it got in the way of my half-formed plot. It crowded out the mystery and I couldn't find a way to connect them. It got so bad I even developed a chronological list of scenes (My version of an outline), which I've never done for a short story or novella. The 8000 words in eight or nine scenes kept bouncing off one wall and into another like a racquetball on steroids. I finally put all my ideas and scenes and fragments into a separate file and stuck it in a dark corner so I could go on about my other copious and crucial business. 

Two weeks later, that same idea started nagging again, like the six-year-old in the back seat demanding, "Are we there yet?"

Last week, I decided to attack the story from the opposite direction and introduce the research idea later, which turned it into a subplot without further effort. I spread all those old notes and jottings across my desk and went to work with my favorite fountain pen (A Parker Sonnet, if you care).


Some of the characters would still work, and different details blended with them I found a crime that could logically connect to the research eventually, too. Even better the subplot would become a red herring.

I started writing again with more energy than I've felt in months, no outline, beginning in a completely different place, and using some different people, except for Zach Barnes. I quit every night knowing what the next scene would be. 

Last night, as I lay in bed listening to the wind whipping our foot of new snow, the idea crawled under the covers and spoke to me again. A soft voice whispered, "He didn't do it." That hasn't happened since Megan Traine told me her huge sad secret when I was struggling with Woody Guthrie over a decade ago. The best thing was that I wouldn't have to change any of the new stuff to find the right culprit; adding four or five sentences to a couple of early scenes would fix everything.

When the story starts telling you where you're wrong, you know you're REALLY on the right track. I don't know when I'll finish this first draft. It's not aimed at any deadline, so I don't even care. But it feels like it might actually happen.

Jimi Hendrix once said, "I play a whole concert, some nights I'm just trying to find that one pretty note."

Well, I found that one neat twist.

I've been away a long time. 

How do YOU know when it's really working?

10 comments:

  1. I missed seeing this yesterday. Good post. "When the story starts telling you where you're wrong, you know you're REALLY on the right track" is right on.

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  2. O'Neil, it's actually the wrong day. It was supposed to appear tomorrow (Monday), but I apparently clicked the wrong date on the publishing calendar. I just notified Rob & Leigh, but I don't think it's going to cause any real problems.

    Thanks anyway.

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  3. Usually, right before it "really" works, I feel like a constipated crab, scrambling around sideways and so frustrated... And then (if I can) I go for a long walk, and when I get back, I hear something like, "Well, how DID that fire start?" And I know it can move on. Great post!

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  4. When the writing really starts to flow, that's how I know I'm on the right track. How I know I'm on the wrong track: this happened to me only once. I was writing a story and had finished my work for the day. I was reading before bed, and I literally heard in my head the voice of the main character telling me: "Please don't make me do that. I don't want to do that." So, I didn't.

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    Replies
    1. Barb, yes. That's only happened to me once, too, but it was so loud and clear I couldn't ignore it.

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  5. Thanks, Eve. We definitely have a few work habits in common. I don't know how often I've been on an elliptical or an arc trainer at my health club when the solution to my current problem occurs to me. Repetitive action so my mind can go walkabout is the best solution. It's like persuading the kitten to come closer by ignoring it.

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  6. You reminded me of an author I introduced on CriminalBrief.com . He'd written a crime novel featuring a pastor, which included a subplot with a short, clever mystery.

    Steve, I've been considering writing about Gantt charts, which I happened to use recently to get a visual of historical events. I'm familiar with them from project management, but they could prove incredibly useful to writers plotting stories.

    I looked at some of the free offerings and wasn't impressed, but a good Gantt chart can help a writer arrange and rearrange his point plots along a timeline.

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  7. Leigh, I've never even heard the term before. Definitely, do a post so I can find out more.

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