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Thursday, 24 July 2014
Where Have You Been?
Topic: Writing

When I initially returned to the weekly blog, a principal part of the purpose was to encourage myself to keep writing, the theory being that if I could convince myself to commit to at least some kind of weekly output, it might well encourage an increase in output towards completion of the next novel and beyond.

For more than a year, I diligently completed the weekly column, documenting issues with which I was struggling in the creative process, sharing some successes when I would begin to see some increase in literary output (I know, I know, some critics, including my own inner critic would chafe at defining what I do with the term ‘literary’) and a host of other (mostly) writing-related topics. Some good ideas came from the columns too, not only from me but from some of the responses I received from readers (yes, there have been some).

And then I hit a dry spell of comparatively epic proportions.

It’s true what I assume they say (because I’m not sure I’ve ever really heard it said outside my own head): once you skip your routine once, it becomes much easier to do so again. And again. And again. And…well, you get the picture.

The weekly column was like a psychological commitment that once broken just became easier to break again. It took me over a year to break the spell but once I did it was like the little devil sitting on one shoulder just let me know it wasn’t so bad and it became easier to skip weeks every now and again. And just as I expected, it has had an impact on my written output elsewhere. To be fair, it could just be that I’m crazy – and I’m not yet willing to rule that out – but giving myself permission to stop writing the weekly column has translated to giving myself permission to stop writing, period.

And it’s been quite a dry spell.

I could come up with a litany of excuses…or reasons, I would prefer to more positively phrase them…for why I have hit such a resounding low in output. They would include things like:

I was busier and more stressed in the day job these past few months than I think I have ever been. Yes, I have now “officially” been on holidays for coming up two weeks but it really has taken this long for my mind to get free of that space, at least some of the time. Truth be told, I’m writing this column at three o’clock in the morning because my mind still won’t completely free itself of its day job obligations, though I would like to remind my mind that it’s supposed to be a day job, not a middle of the night job.

My second night job, going to school has involved more of my time and mental resources than previous classes have been as well. Admittedly, the actual workload paled in comparison to my most recent previous course but the subject matter so closely mirrored the work in my day to day work it added a degree of complexity to what I was studying.

There was the little matter of surgery. Yes, those who know me might rightly point out the surgery was on my ankle, a part of the body not generally utilized in producing written content. But pain is tiring. And while I’m up and about and have been for quite some time, there’s still physiotherapy and just being generally uncomfortable that have slowed down if not my ability to produce at least my will to do so.

Then there’s the epiphany.

Recently, it occurred to me that I’m behind on W3.doc. Okay, regular readers (you know you’re out there) will argue I’ve been saying that for a long time. But this epiphany recognized something of a milestone and it goes like this: when Deadly Lessons was published in late 2006, I was already well under way with the manuscript that would become Last Dance. So while the gap between publication of the two books was an unacceptable, really, five years, I submitted the first draft of the manuscript for Last Dance around about November of 2008, roughly two years after Deadly Lessons was published.

It has now been more than two and a half years since Last Dance was published and I have yet to complete the book, let alone do even a cursory edit before submitting a draft. And rather than spur me into action, this has frozen me on the spot, struck me with the fear that my publisher, already potentially not necessarily keen on continuing publishing my books, will determine the gap is too great and just drop me.

Fear is fun, isn’t it?

But I’m back. For now, I need to re-commit myself at a minimum to documenting this so-called creative process if only to hold myself to account. Feel free to nag me to account whenever the mood strikes you.

Next week: an update on some of the written work I’m doing.


Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 23 July 2014 3:30 AM PDT
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Thursday, 19 June 2014
Action!
Topic: Writing

 

At some point in the past I've mentioned that one of my resolutions for this year was to put some increased efforts into finding movie possibilities for both Deadly Lessons and Last Dance.

Yeah, okay, I also determined that W3.doc would make it through first draft stage this year too. That one's still on but the movie stuff? Let's look at that.

There are a lot of different ways to get a movie made. I'm not an expert in any of them. In fact, search the entire imdb database and the closest reference you'll find to me is much more widely known for movies about detectives solving existential crimes than heroes of the reluctant high school teacher sort.

But I do have to think that one way for a movie to be more likely to be made would be to have someone bankable attached to it, which led me to naturally begin to wonder who I would want to play Winston Patrick. If you've read the books (and if you haven't - what are you waiting for?) you may have developed a picture of what my protagonist looks like. People who know me both as a writer and in person have repeatedly said they hear me when they read Winston's words. Sure they hear me, but Winston surely doesn't look like me. For starters, he's taller.

I suppose on the one hand I would like to think of my protagonist as the Brad Pitt type. But I like to think of at least part of his charm his geekishness, his just 'regular guy' nature. So I need a different kind of actor with different kinds of qualities, two principally: I want him to be famous enough that having him behind the picture would be more likely to get it produced and I want him to be not so famous he's constantly in demand and unattainable.

Not so much to ask, really.

So after much research, largely consisting of reading Deadline during pilot season and I have settled on….

Josh Radnor.

Yes, that Josh Radnor of How I Met Your Mother fame. Radnor, while not being completely geeky, isn't exactly traditional leading material (please don't share this column with him if he happens to be your second cousin or something). He has charm, likeable warmth that isn't terribly threatening and he fits the age of the character. Radnor has also written, produced and directed, qualities that just upped his appropriateness in my book for my books.

He also doesn't appear to be working on anything right now.

It may seem that my problems are solved: Radnor likes the books, gets on board to play Winston Patrick and maybe even adapts the books for the screen, large or small.

But reaching out to major television stars, you may be surprised to learn, is not as easy as it seems. Even just accurately tracking down who his representation is can be a significant challenge. And when you do find them, they have a pretty large disclaimer on their website proclaiming they do not accept unsolicited materials for consideration by their clients.

Which led me to wonder if the adventure of trying to get Josh Radnor to make the Winston Patrick movies wouldn't make for a good movie in and of itself. Could I find someone who could produce a documentary feature of my efforts to track down Radnor, get my books in his hand and convince him to come aboard with filmed versions?

Sure if the film was going to be interesting I would have to do more than just pick up the phone and repeatedly try to phone people. It would probably need to involve travel to New York and L.A. and at least the possibility of some kind of stalking charges. Maybe even some cross-promotional opportunities on COPS.

I guess the first stop would be crowd-sourcing sites. Even documentary filmmakers need to get paid.

Of course, if Radnor is your second cousin, getting your help might be a whole lot easier.

Next week: writing by committee


Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 18 June 2014 11:26 AM PDT
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Thursday, 29 May 2014
So What is it You Do, Anyway?
Topic: Writing


I know, I know. I’ve stepped away for a couple of weeks. It’s disappointing (to me, and hopefully at least to some readers) that after more than a year of faithful weekly blogging I’ve fallen off the bandwagon a couple of times, this time for two weeks.

This is a symptom of the degree of exhaustion my day job has been causing of late (what? Canadian authors don’t make buckets of money?) – coupled with my potentially foolish or at least self-punishing decision to go back to university at night.

A couple of weeks ago I was “tagged” by writing and education colleague Mark Smith, author of Carvaggio: Signed in Blood, as part of a Writing Process Blog Tour. In essence, writers will answer four questions about their writing process (and already I’m nervous about trying to describe what I do as having any kind of “process”), and then we’ll introduce our readers to three other writers we know who will hopefully do the same thing – and hopefully not seem infinitely better versed in coherent process than I.

Thus, without further ado, the questions:

What are you currently working on?

Regular readers of this space (I know you’re out there) know that for longer than I care to admit I’ve been working on what I’ve been lovingly – or at least not hostilely – referring to as W3.doc, the name of the file of the third novel in the Winston Patrick series. At one point I mentioned that the publisher wanted an actual title, only about six weeks after the release of Last Dance, which I took as a comforting sign of their belief in the project and the series. Of course, that was two years ago so it’s entirely possible their patience is fast wearing thin.

Since the premise of the third book begins with a missing person, I initially came up with Failing to Appear, though I’m certainly not married to that title. On the other hand, both Deadly Lessons and Last Dance were ‘working titles,’ neither really intended for final publication. The publishers felt otherwise, though, so they stayed.

In a subsequent post – say, next week – I’ll talk about another project on which I’m working simultaneously, because really, I need more things to occupy my time.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Uh, oh. Does it have to?

I guess I could call the series a very specific sub-genre in which the protagonist was a lawyer but gave it up and became a teacher instead. That makes it different, right?

Certainly, the books fall within the ‘reluctant/amateur sleuth’ sub-genre of crime fiction. Winston doesn’t really set out to solve crimes or be involved in violent incidents; he just happens to be in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time.

On the other hand, the book’s setting within a high school community but not being written as a young adult novel might bring at least some sense of being fresh to the genre. Those of us who work with teenagers – tortured souls, some might say – have come to discover that we often take for granted some of the extraordinary lives these people have already lived before their twentieth birthdays; their stories are not always given the attention they would merit.

Not that I mine students’ lives for crime dramas, mind you.

Why do I write what I do?

Regular readers know my influences include stalwarts of the genre like Robert B. Parker, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais and others. I’ve always enjoyed mystery writing and legal/courtroom thrillers. My series blends my passion for the law (you don’t want to sit near me in meetings when legal issues come up for discussion – at least most of my colleagues don’t) and what I know and have experienced as an educator. It’s clichéd to say we write what we know but we do: and I know kids. In fact, few things take me out of a story more than when teenagers are portrayed in a manner that doesn’t seem genuine, as in a book I just finished reading.

Still, I’d like at some point to take Winston more in the direction of the courtroom drama – a bit of a departure from the first three books – and the fourth one that’s planning is underway – that would require a great deal more research on my part. Given my inherent disorganization, it’s not clear how likely this will be to develop.

How does my writing process work?

If it could accurately be described as a process, I would say that mine ebbs and flows. I go through periods of real productivity – fewer periods than I’d like, unfortunately – followed by droughts, often precipitated by fatigue, where not a lot happens. I concur with nearly all writers I know who have been asked the question: consistent writing, even if for shorter periods of time, always yields better results than when gaps of time have appeared between bursts of productivity.

Often times, my stories have begun with a single incident: a news event, a story I’ve heard, or an experience that has been shared. From there I’ve literally been pulled into a web of “what would I do if I were confronted with a situation like this” daydreaming, followed by “how would Winston deal with it?” When those questions are strong enough in my mind they form the basis of my story. Admittedly, I tend to do only a very rough outline of where I’m going and I discover the rest along the way. When it happens organically, as it did as I was typing out some handwritten pages the other day, it’s quite inspiring and can spur me back into the story with new gusto.

And now, let me introduce you to some friends…..

Debra Purdy Kong

Debra Purdy Kong’s volunteer work, criminology diploma, and numerous day jobs have provided the inspiration and background for five published mystery novels, all set in the Lower Mainland. The first two in her Alex Bellamy white-collar crime mysteries, Taxed to Death and Fatal Encryption, came from ideas generated while working for a firm of chartered accountants. Later employment in the security field as a patrol and communications officer provided great background material for her Casey Holland transit security mysteries, The Opposite of Dark, Deadly Accusations, and the recently released Beneath the Bleak New Moon.

Sharon Rowse

Sharon Rowse is the author of the historical mystery The Silk Train Murder—which is set in 1899 Vancouver, and was nominated by the Crime Writers of Canada for its Arthur Ellis Awards--and its sequel, The Lost Mine Murders. Sharon has also written four books in the contemporary Barbara O’Grady mystery series, of which A Shadowed Death is the most recent. Sharon lives in Vancouver, where she is at work on the third book in her historical mystery series, The Missing Heir Murders. 

Robin Spano

Robin Spano grew up in downtown Toronto, studied physics at Mount Allison University, dropped out to travel and explore North America on her motorcycle, worked as a waitress in several towns along the way, and now lives in Lions Bay, BC. When she’s not lost in fiction, she loves to get outside snowboarding, hiking, boating, and riding the curves of the local highways in her big black pick-up truck.
Her secret dream was to be one of Charlie’s Angels, but since real life danger terrifies her, she writes crime fiction instead.
She’s a founding member of Off The Page Toastmasters – a public speaking group for writers.
She is the author of the Clare Vengel Undercover novels Dead Politician Society, Death Plays Poker and Death's Last Run (which I just started reading this week)

Visit their blogs to find out about their work and their processes. Tell them I sent you! 


Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT
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Thursday, 20 February 2014
The Wall
Topic: Writing


Every marathon runner reaches that point in the physical and psychological journey of the race when he or she hits the proverbial wall, that moment in the competition in which exhaustion hits so solidly that it can feel like a physcial barrier more than a metaphorical one.

At least so I've been told: I get tired driving twenty-six miles, never mind running them.

Last week explored the topic - again - of writer's block, an all too real affliction with which I have been suffering on and off for some time, the better part of a year and a half, really. Lasat week was my clumsy metaphor of writers' block as recovering addict model. I'm hping that this metaphor might be more apt and somewhat less controversial. Because I've hit The Wall.

In running, The Wall is a barrier that, despite the training that's been undertaken, makes it seem insurmountable that one could continue to the finish line. Different runners offer different strategies for overcoming The Wall,and the startegies variously describe moving over, past, around and even through it, though the last strategy sounds the one to cause the most pain in its effort to thwart the pain experienced by encountering The Wall in the first place. Likely there's no silver bullet that works for everyone but The Wall is a common enough experience among runners to warrant a great deal of research and writing on the topic. In common is the intensity of the phenomenon and that it tends to occur in the latter half o the journey, often when the finish line is darned near within sight.

In writing, more specifically, in my writing, The Wall is perhaps not in the latter 'half' of the journey per se - I'm probably in the second third of W3.doc - but it parallels the running experience as I understand it in that a significant portion of the journey is completed when we encounter The Wall. And it doesn't matter how strongly one starts. The first part of the race may have gone off like gangbusters, continued at a steady, consistent pace, been well planned and was flowing and on track to a timely finsih,maybe even a personal best. But despite those primarily positive conditions, I have hit more than just writer's block but what could more accurately be compared to the marathoner's Wall. It feels real. It feels tangible. It's visceral. At times I'm sure I can actually see it - that very real sense that I could amost reach out and touch it with my hands.

This isn't even the result of heavy drinking.

Thus, again, despite how fired up I appeared to be with my twenty minutes per day regiment, I am stalled. And this stall feels like a big one. Because like the marathon runner, I know exactly where the finish line is. I've seen it. I've planned for it. I know what happens and have a very good idea what my characters and story line will look like when I get there. I know that just beyond The Wall there may still be some bumpy parts on the road that I have yet to experience, but this damned Wall won't even let me head down the path.

In practical terms, I just killed someone. Don't get me wrong: I think he needed to be killed. I created a character that I found kind of charming, enough of a threat to my protagonist that frankly, he had to go. But also his death really does propel the story forward, created a plot point that seriously increases the stakes for Winston and adds legitimacy to the actions he has been taken. And it's thrown a nasty Wall in front of me.

So for now, I'm going to be revisiting some writer's block exercises, reviewing the outline of the story and the scenes I've already created and see if I can find the way over, under, around or through this barrier.

If you hear a loud bang, I've either resulted to the Wile E. Coyote school of demolition or my brain has exploded.

Next week: premature outlining


Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PST
Updated: Wednesday, 19 February 2014 8:55 PM PST
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Thursday, 30 January 2014
A Protagonist Grows Up...Kind Of
Topic: Writing

 

Last week began the journey of the creation of the hero of Deadly Lessons, Last Dance, and the in-progress W3.doc. As I talked about, Winston Patrick was originally conceived as a private detective named Mickey Jones.

The evolution of Winston from detective to teacher was in some part due to the nature of the story that had developed as I thought of Deadly Lessons' plot. One way or another, the story was set in a school and, working in a school at the time as a teacher, creating a character whose job I was pretty familiar with made a whole lot of practical sense.

But apart from Winston's apparent similarities to me, he owes a lot of his characteristics to my original conception for my private eye protagonist. Both Mickey and Winston have made significant career changes as the reader first encounters them, Mickey from accountant to private eye; Winston from lawyer to teacher. Originally, I fancied this newness to the profession aspect of the character because I enjoy the reluctant hero perspective it gave me to work with: if Winston is new at his job it's totally acceptable for him to make mistakes, even significant ones. Subconsciously, perhaps, I may have been giving myself permission as a first time novelist to make significant mistakes as well.

Dealing with change is thematically something I find fun to explore as well. In both characters' lives, the men were single; Winston was newly divorced, Mickey perennially single. I like the idea of my protagonist bumbling through changes in relationships as much as he is in his crime fighting.

I like to view both men as, essentially, highly moral characters as well. Though they may not have showed the most competence as they tried to solve crimes - and I like to think that was part of their charm - they had strong values to which they adhered. Winston Patrick is torn in Deadly Lessons by his obligation to his new friend, who is accused of having an affair with a student and his intense belief that an inappropriate teacher-student relationship is entirely reprehensible. He is also torn between his devotion to the law, which he views as a sacred trust between the citizenry and the government, and his belief in the value of education. Similarly, Mickey, as I conceived him, would have taken great pains to ensure that no matter how difficult it was, he would always conduct his investigations within the confines of the law and individual rights.

And, of course, they're both Presbyterian.

I'm not entirely sure why I put the protagonist who would eventually become Winston Patrick in church, just as I had Mickey Jones. Heck, I even planned for Mickey to spend Thursday nights in a men's choir practice. Considering I'm not a regular churchgoer myself, it might seem an unusual trait for a crime genre protagonist. But I wanted my crime buster to really be the antithesis of the tough guy that inhabits much of the genre. So we don't see Winston preaching in the streets, I think his membership in the neighbourhood church adds a layer to Winston that make him hopefully more interesting.

Plus, I think Presbyterian is kind of a funny word: just stuffy sounding enough without sounding like zealotry.

Of course, one of the most prominent characteristics of Winston Patrick is his dual roles as teacher and lawyer. Not only did this permit me to write about things I knew about - teaching - and loved - the law, it was also inspired by a number of teachers I encountered who had, in fact, come from the legal profession. Admittedly, I frequently had envisioned going to law school, even after I had begun my career as a teacher, but I found it surprising how many I found who had gone the other way. It made me wonder if there weren't underlying personality traits in common that lend themselves to both careers.

As W3.doc progresses, Winston is no longer a rookie teacher so he can't fall back on his newbie status for how well he is or isn't doing in the job. It was those feelings of doubt that initially pushed him out of the legal profession and into teaching. By W4.doc, Winston may well have to decide which of the two professions he was better suited for - or at least which one he is least unsuited for.


Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PST
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Thursday, 23 January 2014
A Protagonist is Born
Topic: Writing

In previous columns I provided not only the genesis of Deadly Lessons but also the roots of the character that would become the protagonist of the series: Winston Patrick.

As my publisher describes him: Winston Patrick, a successful lawyer but dissatisfied with his career defending the downtrodden of Vancouver's criminal world, trades in the courtroom for the high school classroom.

But he wasn’t always thus. A long time crime reader, my original plans for the genre had me creating a character that was a private detective. Certainly, my formative years in the genre had me deeply involved with the late Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. My introduction to the literary version, who I confess to occasionally having to ensure I am only paying homage to, not emulating, in my own writing, was originally sparked by my interest in the television series, Spenser for Hire, a show panned by most Spenser readers – and originally Parker himself. Of course, I was also a fan of Vega$ and S.W.A.T. so it’s entirely possible I was actually suffering the effects of a man-crush on Robert Urich. Creating a sleuth as my protagonist was pretty much a natural.

But I live in Canada. As much as nearly every seventh person in the state of California is a licensed private investigator, most of whom are licensed to carry a concealed weapon (of course, isn't everyone in California carrying a weapon?), I didn't know any in my circle of friends or acquaintances. Not even a distant cousin of the ex-girlfriend of a friend, kind of connection. And I had a hard time imagining what kind of private investigating they did: trying to scoop the starting line-ups of a client's opposing hockey team? What really is poutine and is it all a ploy by the cardio-thoracic industry to drive up national blood pressure rates?

Still, when I started looking for Spenser's north of the border equivalent, I found Howard Engel's Benny Cooperman series, set in fictional Grantham, Ontario, where Benny, essentially your divorce-photo snapping gumshoe found himself almost inadvertently solving more serious and deadly crimes that landed on his office doorstep, almost through no fault of his own. And in Benny, an inspiration for my west coast private eye was born: enter, Mickey Jones, Private Investigator.

Unlike so many of the hard boiled private detectives in the genre's literature in the U.S., I did not intend Mickey to be a former police officer, tired of the bureaucracy and politics of the institution, going out on his own. That would look like too much skill. In one of my earliest iterations of the character, Mickey was, in fact, an accountant who lost his licence after failing to properly account for money being laundered through a small company for whose books he was responsible. Recognizing that without accounting he had few skills on which to fall back, Mickey determines that he does have an inquisitive mind and the ability to solve puzzles - he was addicted to crosswords and could, given enough time on a Sunday afternoon, even complete the Sunday New York Times variant - key ingredients to being a successful private investigator. Plus there was the added bonus that the industry in British Columbia was entirely unregulated so his lack of any formal investigative training and expulsion from the only professional organization to which he had ever belonged, made it seem logical. That and the fact that when he looked in the Yellow Pages (that's how long ago I created the character) there was only one other in the city. It seemed the industry was ripe for the picking.

The challenge for me as a writer - and consequently for Mickey as a detective - was that I knew very little about detecting beyond what I'd read in the genre. This is what the idea of working with Mickey intriguing: I quite literally wanted him to solve mysteries more or less entirely by accident, that he would reach satisfactory conclusions despite himself. It meant that creating clue for Mickey to find to solve crime had to be the wrong clues that someone had him stumble onto the right ones.

Additionally, I didn't want Mickey to be tough. Even though many of my favourite detectives, both private and on the police pay roll, are unmistakably tough guys like the aforementioned Spenser, Elvis Cole, Hieronymus Bosch, I wanted Mickey to virtually never be able to rely on brawn to get him out of a scrape.

And of course, he was Presbyterian.

 

Next week: Enter Winston Patrick Part II - the evolution of Mickey to Winston


Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PST
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Thursday, 16 January 2014
This Time It's Personal
Topic: Writing

I have previously talked about the questions I sometimes have about how much I ought to share of my protagonist's personal life.

It should come as no surprise that I am deeply invested in Winston Patrick. He is, of course, for the uninitiated, the protagonist in both Deadly Lessons, Last Dance and the soon to be completed W3.doc (see how confident I'm sounding? More about that later). And like I'm sure any writer feels, I want the reader to become more deeply invested in Winston Patrick as well.

I have discussed in a previous column the challenge of finding the right balance between deeping the readers' appreciation for and understanding of the character (hopefully) in addition to following the plot of the crime drama unfolding. Of course it is intended to develop interest in wishing to follow the protagonist on future exploits but also just because we want the reader to be as intrigued in our hero as we are. In theory, to carry this yen to his natural conclusion, we could publish a book just about the trials and tribulations of the character's life even without the crime plot.

Don't worry - I'm not going to do it.

In Deadly Lessons and Last Dance there were significant events going on in Winston's life that, while providing at least part of the foundation for the plot and certainly contributing to the story unfolding, were also about deepening our getting to know him and (again, hopefully) like him. Or at least not want him to die. Obviously, Deadly Lessons essentially served as the pilot for the series, so everything about the character is new and about getting to know him, give him layers and complexities and develop empathy for him. When we meet him he is undergoing a life change in that he is transitioning from the legal profession to the teaching, which puts him in the initial position to participate in the plot. But I also spend time getting to know his ex-wife, Sandi, how their relationship continues to transpire past their divorce and how she continues to complicate his life by, well, not leaving. Similarly in Last Dance some of the story focuses on continuing to develop our knowledge of Winston; his never-ceasing insomnia, for example, does little to specifically drive the plot, though in the first book, it sets up events that help to further the crime saga.

In W3.doc, as I've mentioned, I have set up a significant life event for Winston (no ladies, don't worry: he's not getting married) that, so far at least, has little to no bearing on the crime drama that is the central tenet of the plot, though I suppose that may change as I continue. I believe it deepens him somewhat, providing some substance and history that may be surprising or may make the reader question their initial understanding or impressions of him. It's not that readers won't like him, more that they may have more nuanced opinion of him at the end of this book than with the others.

I'm finding adding the personal storylines is doubly challenging in W3.doc: while I'm enjoying the added dimensions it's adding to the character, I have, as I've mentioned, experienced with this book more doubt about the story. I need to make sure that I don't overdo my 'B' story, so to speak, in order to compensate for any crisis of confidence in the 'A' story.

On the plus side, I've been sticking to my writing resolution: 20 minutes per day without fail - with the exception of Tuesday, the 14th - and you really don't want to know why that exception occurred.

And as I've continued to push the writing, the story continues to develop in my mind. Indeed, it has become increasingly, well, complicated.

Next week: In the beginning…Winston Patrick


Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PST
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