Lucy Burdette Ponders the End #amwriting

LUCY BURDETTE: A couple of weeks ago, as I was drawing to the end of my good first draft of Key West food critic mystery #14, I discovered a problem. I’d never actually had my heroine come face-to-face with the bad person. Lest you worry too much, there was an exciting scene at the end involving Hayley and the murderer; but there was no discussion of why that person arrived at the conclusion that the only way she could stay safe from discovery was to murder someone. There was no denouement with Hayley Snow questioning this bad person about why, why, why.

John and I were having dinner as I explained that I was going to have to find a way to build a scene like this into the ending so readers would feel satisfied.

‘But what will she learn?’ John asked.

‘She will learn why the perpetrator committed murder,’ I said.

‘But what will she learn?’ he asked again.

I could see that we weren’t communicating well so I asked him to say more. He explained that as we finished the final episode of Happy Valley with the astonishingly good actress Sarah Lancashire, the cop heroine comes face-to-face with the horrible, nasty, vicious bad guy who raped and murdered her daughter and fathered a baby. He lies in wait at her home and they have a rather long discussion in her kitchen. While it might have felt a little unrealistic, it wrapped things up in a very satisfying way. John reminded me that the protagonist did not only learn why he done what he done, she understood some new truths about herself. He hoped that Hayley and I could come to a conclusion as powerful as that as well.

Smart guy, right? So here was my first stab at having her ask herself that question. It may well change after revisions! (A=the murderer, B and C were suspects.)

Nathan asked, “Did A tell you why she did it?”

I told him about her feeling desperately in love with B. And how angry she was at C for seducing him. “She asked me if I’d ever had that experience, because then I would understand what she did.” Even though the question seemed absurd in this situation, I took a moment to think about it, and then explained. 

“You remember Wally, my ex-boss? He was a flash in the pan. A nice guy, but not the kind of guy I’d feel desperate over. Instead, it was a time in my life when I was generally feeling desperate about where I was headed, especially, if I’d ever find a mate. I kind of transferred that feeling to him, even if it didn’t quite fit.

“You, on the other hand, are a soulmate. It took us a while to wipe the cobwebs from our brains to be able to see it.” 

He grinned and the adorable dimple in his chin deepened. 

“Honestly, when I think of you, I don’t know what I might have done to someone who tried to get between us,” I added. “Not sure I would have stabbed someone with a pair of scissors, but it would have been ugly.”

Red readers, how important is it to you to understand fully a murderer’s motive? Do you think the detective must learn this directly?

Samantha Downing on Writing

Lucy Burdette: Today the JRW team welcomes Samantha Downing with a story about persistence that will blow your mind... Welcome Samantha!

SAMANTHA: Hi everyone! Thank you to the Jungle Red writers for having me here today, I’m really looking forward to all of your questions and comments. 

Last week, my new book He Started It was released. This is my second published book and the first one I wrote under contract. And it was

quite a challenge.

First, I had to write a synopsis for the book. My first question: What’s a synopsis? 

I’ve been writing as a hobby for twenty years. My first published novel, My Lovely Wife, was actually the 12^th novel I’ve written. I had never created a synopsis and never outlined my books. But I created a synopsis because that’s what I had to do. After some fine-tuning with my editor, I finally sat down the write the book.

It was terrible.

When I say terrible, I mean it was predictable. For a thriller, that’s a bad thing. It turns out that when I know all the twists in advance, I telegraph them in my writing. So what did we do? 

We threw the book out. Yes, the whole book, the whole idea of the book. Everything.

At that point, my editor and I both agreed that writing a synopsis was not the way to go. I’m a pantser, meaning I write without an outline or any advance knowledge about the book. That’s how I’ve always written and it’s what works for me. 

The good news: We were on the same page about this.

The bad news: I had three months to write a new book. Three!

Basically, this was me:

But I had to write the book, so I did. After some serious editing, He Started It is now a real book and it’s out in the world! If you have any questions about the book, or about the writing process, I’d love to answer them! I’d love to know what you think about thrillers that revolve around siblings. What do you like or not like about them? Do you prefer a different kind of thriller? I’d love to hear what you all think!

Book synopsis:

Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven't all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we'll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.

But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.
It's even harder when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory—a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.

But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.

AND HERE ARE A FEW WAYS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH SAMANTHA!

Website: www.samanthadowning.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smariedowning/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smariedowning

My Favorite Part of Writing

JENN McKINLAY: Currently, I am writing a new mystery, page proofing another mystery, and revising a women's fiction book. All three are very different stages in the writing process, and I find while I am switching hats three times in one day just to keep ahead of it all that I am most eager to work on the revisions, whereas the page proofs are dreadfully dull and the writing of the first draft is work, hard work. I'd never really thought about which part of the process is my favorite, but now I am quite sure it is revisions. The brutal work of the first draft is done, and I can now go back over each word, trying to make it the best it can be without having to pluck it out of thin air. Fun! At least to me. So, I thought I'd ask my fellow Reds, which is your favorite part of the writing process and why?

LUCY BURDETTE: Jenn! I never considered the fact that we might be twins, but it's true! I am revising THE KEY LIME CRIME (so many good ideas--why didn't I think of this!) and trying to hammer out food critic #11, and trying to come up with another plot for a women's fiction. Edits are so rewarding, whereas first drafts are murder. It's not only the words that are hard, it's plot points and character motivations. Everything from scratch. On the edited KL Crime, I've already done my best to map all that out. And now a talented editor is saying "this section is perfect" (occasionally) or "not sure this follows, will the reader find it too much coincidence?" And then offering solutions. It's really very gratifying, unless you get stuck with a lousy editor. But that's another blog...

HALLIE EPHRON: My favorite part of writing is *having written*. First draft is definitely the toughest. Excruciating. But once I've got something down there, no matter how bad it smells, I'm a happy camper. Revision--I'm with Lucy and Jenn--it's the best part. Page proofs? I need to read it aloud to keep myself focused, but I'd rather be doing them any day over first draft. And I'm blessed with a terrific editor. I may not want to hear her say "But but but..." but she's always right.

RHYS BOWEN:  My favorite part is toying the that tiny germ of story long before I write anything down. Venice. A small legacy. A secret life. Where would she have lived? What would she have done? Gradually filling in the jigsaw pieces in my mind before I write a word. Then I start to write and every book is exactly the same. The first fifty pages are pure panic, sure it will be a disaster, a failure, a story I won't be able to complete. And then by page 100 I see a glimmer of light ahead. By 200 I'm skipping merrily along to the end, knowing where I'm going (almost). I enjoy revisions and final polish. I usually dislike copy edits because most copy editors do not confine themselves to commas and repeated words but suggest to me how sentences should be written. Stet is often used.  

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I love the idea of a book, when you can feel the characters and the setting moving in the shadows, and the book could still be the most brilliant and perfect thing I've ever written. I like the first third or half, too, the set up, discovering the characters I hadn't known would come along. The last half is hard. A slog, and against the clock, not sure I can tie everything together and make it work. Revisions with my editor are fun. She has great suggestions and I always know the book will be the better for it. Copy edits are a pain, but necessary. Page proofs, just shoot me. None of which really answers your question, Jenn. It's all up and down, and often blind panic.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Blind panic is a good description, love that, and am glad it's not just me. I love having that moment of realizing- OH! What a good idea! And the first three chapters or so bloom like gorgeous weeds. Then, the looming wall. Now what?  Working without an outline I go hand over hand, word by stinkin word, knowing that if I just persevere, I will find the story. It's simple addition, right? Just keep writing.  
When I am through the horrible endless middle, and then get the first ending, and then the second, and then I think, okay, there's a terrific  book in there somewhere! And then, hideous but beloved first draft finished, I have to find it.   They key is--for me--not to be afraid. It has worked 11 times, and it will work again. 
Then my darling brilliant editor gets it, and reads it, and then and tells me...things. And I think--yes!  Why didn't  I think of that stuff? And I plow into revisions with the joy of the re-energized. So, short version:  I love the revisions. LOVE. Because as a result of my editor, I create things I would never have thought possible. That the final book is SO different from the first draft is my life preserver. Don't worry, I tell myself. Trust the process.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I am not a fan of revisions. One of the reasons I'm a slow writer is that I tend to craft my sentences, paragraphs and chapters to be pretty much exactly the way I want. Of course, for HID FROM OUR EYES, written over five years, I needed so many revisions, I've lost track of the number of times my editor and I bounced the manuscript back and forth. Every time it was like the Kubler-Ross stages of dying; denial ("There's nothing wrong with this scene!") Anger ("Dammit, why is he picking on me?") Bargaining ("Okay, I'll do one scene, but I won't add a whole new chapter." Depression ("I'll never be done with this book and my life is over." and finally acceptance (Actually, these suggestions really do make the story much stronger.")

My favorite part is what I'm doing now for the Untitled Clare and Russ No. 10,  what I call the pen on paper stage. I noodle out ideas, themes, sketch out possible characters, list who wants what and what is the worst thing I can do to this character. I'm doing the starting research, getting just enough to inspire parts of the story, not having to fill in every detail as I will toward the end of the book. It's the Platonic Ideal stage of the book, all bright possibility untrammeled by the actual, you know, writing down words part.

What about you, Readers? Does anything surprise you in this post? Any writers out there want to chime in? Tell us your favorite part of the process!

And here are our weekly RED HOT DEALS!

DEBS: GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS is still available as an e-book for $1.99! 

Click here to read a FREE excerpt from Kincaid/James #18, A BITTER FEAST,  coming October 8th! 

Signed copies of A BITTER FEAST are available for pre-order from The Poisoned Pen and Barnes and Noble. 

JULIA: The second Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery, A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD, is on sale for only $2.99 the entire month of September! Here's where you can buy:

Kindle      iBooks      Nook      Kobo

Prefer a trade paper copy? Enter the Goodreads Giveaway for one of 25 copies!  

HANK:   Want to hear THE MURDER LIST? Here's a link to a clip of a FREE excerpt from the first Audiobook chapter  https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/the-murder-list-by-hank-phillippi-ryan-audiobook-excerpt/s-iJCwg  
 The clip can also be found on the book's landing page here: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-murder-list-audiobook/
(which includes all the current outlets for ordering!) 

 

Creative Ignition

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  See? Here’s the thing. I just read Roger Johns’ new book, and it’s terrific. And then, I read this blog on how he wrote it. And it’s either hilarious—or...well, it's hilarious. Because a reader would never know, not ever, all the crazy nights and frantic days and unlikely wishes we all make when we are writing—trying to write—a book.

Roger is a debut novelist. Who among us is going to tell him that it never gets easier? Certainly not me. But it does get more fun and more rewarding—and we are thrilled to bring him to the Jungle today to introduce him to his new community.

About the moment the book-magic happened?  He has much to teach us.

 Namely:

THERE IS NO MAGIC IN THE NIGHTTIME!

   By Roger Johns

My debut novel DARK RIVER RISING is out this Tuesday, August 29, and its upcoming release has put me in a contemplative mood.

As the day draws closer, I’ve been thinking a lot about the process I went through to convert the original story idea into a book. Bottom line: it was messy and, at times, a bit comical.

Somewhere I read that one began with an outline. My first few were done in the grade-school style of Roman numerals and capital letters. What was I thinking? Unable to bear the humiliation that would ensue if they became public, these outlines have been destroyed.

Then came the Era of ‘Less-Structured’ Outlines. A book on how to write novels recommended some mental exercises for tapping into my inner something-or-other. I became so focused on the exercises that my original goal foundered on the rapids of my fast flowing something-or-other. As with the formal outlines, written evidence of this experience no longer exists.

After that: The Age of Scene Lists. Endless hand-written pages of scenes. This was actually quite helpful but the ideas wouldn’t behave properly. They were never in the mood to obey the rules by lining up according to the dictates of the three-act structure. I still have some of these pages, but they will never again see the light of day.

Next, I entered the Epoch of Scenes Described on Stacks of Index Cards. These, I lovingly push-pinned onto a big cardboard project board firm in my conviction that by seeing all the ideas in one giant eyeful, the pattern of the story would emerge. Sort of like those pictures where, if you stare long enough the hidden image suddenly pops into sharp focus. Or just maybe, during the night, the scenes would magically rearrange themselves into the proper configuration. There was no magic in the nighttime. I still have some of those index cards.

As I continued my endless walkabout, I learned a lot about writing and about myself. After years of either studying, practicing, teaching, or writing about the law I discovered that the highly structured thinking that makes the legal world go round isn’t necessarily the best place to begin the creative process. Creative ignition, at least for me, lay elsewhere.

This realization came to me by degrees, at about the same time it dawned on me that what I really wanted was to write a story about people. The original idea for the story had fooled me into thinking I was writing about something. Eventually, I came to understand that I wanted to write about someone.

Once these thoughts took root, the original story idea got demoted from ‘the whole point’ to just a vehicle for telling the story of Wallace Hartman, a homicide detective who is in the midst of questioning the foundational assumptions of her life. Up to that point, I had been using characters as tools to write about a plot idea, instead of using a plot idea to tell a story about my characters. I can no longer remember what made me see that I had been thinking about things backwards, but I thank my lucky stars it happened. 

After I cleared one more conceptual hurdle––I changed Wallace from male to female––the magic finally happened.

HANK: We’ve been talking a lot about the writing process this week—but none of it was planned. I love when that happens. Maybe that’s how writing a book works.  SO—changing a male character into a female…that’s fascinating!  I did that in my Sherlock Holmes pastiche story The Adventure of the Dancing Women—which featured detective Annabelle Holmes.

What other male characters might interestingly morph into women?   Hmmm. Jack Reacher would be easy. (Maybe she’d be Lady Brienne?) What is she were Ms. Darcy? Heathcliffe-Sue? You can think of better ones…

(And come see me and Roger—with Megan Miranda!—at the AJC Decatur Book Festival in Atlanta this coming Saturday!)

About Roger Johns

Roger grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana. He has law degrees from LSU and Boston University. After a brief career as a corporate lawyer, he spent almost twenty years as a college professor, teaching business law and employment law and international business transactions. At other times, he worked as a ranch hand, drapery hanger, shoe salesman, tuxedo rental clerk, bookseller, and party photographer–– among other things. He and his wife now live in Georgia. Dark River Rising, from St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, is his first novel.

DARK RIVER RISING

Baton Rouge homicide detective Wallace Hartman realizes she’s losing faith in the path she has chosen for her life. A gruesome murder intensifies both her doubts and her determination to vindicate her choices. In the company of a DEA agent with his own interest in her investigation, Wallace is thrust squarely into the cross-hairs of a neophyte killer who repeatedly shatters her world as he pursues an agenda no one could have anticipated.

LINKS

Web:  www.rogerjohnsbooks.com

Blog:  www.murder-books.com

Goodreads Giveaway: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/241401-dark-river-rising

ON AUDIENCE

“When I write I aim in my mind not toward New York but a little east of Kansas.”
John Updike
“I don’t write for my friends or myself…I write for it for the pleasure of it.”
Eudora Welty
“I’ve always tried out material on my dogs first.”
John Steinbeck



HALLIE:
When I first started writing, I had no idea if what I was writing was any good at all. My sister Delia, whom I trust completely because she never sacrifices honesty for nice-ness, was the first person who asked me that awful question when I gave her an early essay: “And what exactly is the point you’re trying to make?” To which I said, uh, ah, well… because I didn’t really know. She was also the first person to say, “You’ve got talent.” Her saying it made me believe in myself. Is that pathetic or what?

So, who do you write for? Whom do you trust to read your work in progress?

RO:
Good questions. This is probably a little scary (especially if you're my editor) but I wrote Pushing Up Daisies for myself. The only platforms I thought about were in a shoebox in my closet. I thought I had a pretty good story to tell and wanted to see if I could tell it. And I did. And eventually two other people thought it was pretty good. So now I guess I'm writing for the three of us. Nobody reads my work in progress. After a third or fourth draft, I'll let my pal Kathy read it, and trust her to tell me if I've lost my mind. Are you volunteering?

HANK:
I'll read it! I'll read it! I can't believe you haven't let me read it yet, as a matter of fact.

When I was writing Prime Time, I would bring in my daily pages and make my husband (a lawyer) read them. He would dutifully read, dutifully laugh. Then then, after a few weeks, about chapter 5 or five, he said, Honey, is something going to happen soon? Yeah, I knew that was a problem. So he still reads, but I fear it's as much for reassurance that I'm not terrible or making some embarrassing legal mistake.

Still, now working on the revisions of book 2 and the proposal synopsis for book 3--at every page, at every word, I picture someone else reading what I wrote. Over my shoulder. Shrugging. Commenting the whole way. Huh, so what's original about that, one hovering 'reader' will say. Oh, that's kind of funny. Yeah, okay I like it. Whoa, unlikely, says another. Predictable. Hilarious. Tangential. The voices are constant. It's like writing with an imaginary but pushy critique group.

If I please the ghost readers, I'll try it on real people. But only when I'm completely finished. No one else reads it along the way.

JAN:
I think in the first draft, for the most part, I'm writing just to make it all work, to make it surprising, and to reveal the characters -- especially the brand new ones -- to myself. I have to figure out who everybody is, what they are after, and how they are going to collide.

On the second draft, I'm thinking a lot more about the reader and I'm looking for ways to make the writing sharper and richer, and the characters deeper. I've got a picture in my mind of the tired, fatigued eyes, reading my book in bed at the end of a long day, and I'm trying like hell to make them jump on to the next chapter -- despite the late hour.

As for who I trust to read my in progress? That's you Hallie. Barbara and Floyd, too. My writers group helps keep me from taking too many wrong turns, along the way. At the very end, I give it to a few trusted volunteers with fresh eyes, usually my cousin Laurie and my friend and fellow writer, Naomi Rand to read the novel as a whole. If I have time, I give it to Robin Kall, a Rhode Island buddy, to catch the Rhode Island mistakes.

HALLIE:
Yes, thank goodness for the writing group. But sometimes I wish I was the kind of writer who was so sure of herself that I could just write without showing it to anyone. That thing about writing being a solitary endeavour isn't really what it's like for many of us. I suppose if I didn't have them there would be little voices in my head, and then you never know where that takes you.

ON REWARDS

BLUME: Is writing easy for you?
ANGIER: No. Mostly it's a question of trying to quiet the dybbuks--all the voices that tell you you're no good, you can't do it, every kind of criticism you can come up with. You're just trying to shut them up and let yourself go.
*******Natalie Angier interviewed by Harvey Blume in The Boston Globe about her newest book "The Canon"

HANK:
(Forgive me for this before I start, okay? It's somewhat sappy and about my own book.)

I had a once in a lifetime experience this week. Really. A box, actually, two boxes, were on my front porch as I arrived home. They were too big to be my new shoes. And they were too small to be my stuff from Saks.

I know they had to be the advance author copies of PRIME TIME. I ripped the tape of the cartons, and with my (Jungle Red) manicure in jeopardy and putting myself at grave risk for papercuts, I ripped open the flaps. One. Two. And there they were, in all their sleek glory. Forty-eight gorgeous books.

(Stay with me here, I promise this has a point.)

I checked the front, great. I checked the back, great. I checked all the little extra stuff that goes in: bio, thank you page, letter to the reader. All great.
But that's not the end of the once in a lifetime.

I could not go to sleep, I was so thrilled to see the results of my two years of writing and revision, years of worry and delight and of stepping out of the TV world of facts and into the writing world of fiction. And I wondered, would anyone like it?

(Point approaching.)

So I stayed up, almost all night, reading the whole book. Pretending to be someone else, someone else who hadn't done the revisions and changes and who didn't know what I took out and someone who didn't know whether the characters turned out to be good or nefarious and who didn't know whodunnit. Someone who had never met my heroine, Charlie McNally. (I also had to be someone who presumably doesn't need any sleep, which turned out to be a mistake.)

Anyway, I loved it. I laughed. I was interested. I forgot I wrote it, sometimes. And I found things, clues, that I hadn't realized were there. I mean, "were there"--things were only "there" because I put them there, right? So how did they get there without me knowing about it?

So as Natalie (above, you've probably forgotten the quote by now) says, "it's a question of trying to quiet the dybbuks."

Thinking back. There were days, writing PT, where I admit I thought things were going along nicely. But there were certainly days I thought, you know, this ain't gonna work. Now, I see you just have to quiet the dybbuks and if they hush and you just go on, you may power through and wind up with the feeling I just did. My first book. It's real.

HALLIE:
Well, that sent me to the dictionary--dubbuk: In Jewish folklore, the wandering soul of a dead person that enters the body of a living person and controls his or her behavior.

Who knew?

Yes, Hank, it is REAL! And it is wondrous to behold and to be holding that brand new baby book. There's nothing like the first one. Not that it gets old; it just gets, well, tarnished. I'm not going there. But anyone who's interested in why no one has figured how to make money in the book business should have a look at the article in the May 13 NY Times, cover of the Sunday Business Section: "The Greatest Mystery: Making a Best Seller." Apparently book marketing is more about voo-doo than research. ("Most in the industry seem to see consumer taste as a mystery that is inevitable and even appealing, akin to the uncontrollable highs and lows of falling in love or gambling.")

I'm predicting Hank's Prime Time is going to break out because it's got such great heart, it's hilarious, and its smart-smart-smart. And because I have sprinkled good juju upon it.good juju: good energy

(HANK: Oh, Hallie. Thank you. Good ju ju is the sort of thing that comes right back to you.)

JAN:
So a dubbuk is sort of a Jewish vampire, eh? I guess every ethnic group needs its evil spirits.

I've known it as the POS syndrome. (piece of shxx - you get the picture). It's when you've been writing, agonizing, rewriting, mispelling, correcting and getting blurry eyes, and you read whatever you've just written and you say to yourself. Ye GODS! whatever made me think I could be a writer?

This is the WORST drivel I've ever read.

But later, the magic starts to happen. And especially when your book is bound, with a smart, flashy cover and looks like... well hey... this is actually a real book. Then all that drivel disappears and you can see that you weren't kidding yourself. You can write. Tell stories, and even transport readers to a suspenseful, climactic even, scene.

It's wonderful stuff! And Hank, I can't wait to read Prime Time! Enjoy the magic!

RO:
Well, the earth hasn't moved for me just yet. Somehow the uncorrected bound manuscripts I'm squinting at (is that really 5pt type??) haven't had that same effect on me, but I'll take your word for it.Is it easy? Nope. The hardest part for me is getting all the other crap out of my head and sticking with my story. I have been known to be distracted by a good looking bird outside my window. But once it's down on paper I enjoy rewriting...again...and again...and again..

HANK:
Oh, Ro. It's going to be so much fun when Pushing Up Daisies comes out and you're all glowy and bubbly (yes, even you) and we can tease you about how cynical you used to be in your uncorrected maunscript days. (Jan--your Yesterday's Fatal is just new to the stores...is it pushy to point readers to check it out? That's what friends are for, right? And it doesn't happen that often..)

I guess my point--yay! she got there!--is that sometimes we surprise ourselves.

(RO: Hank, you are just like human sunshine.)