Getting My protagonist out of the hospital

Recently, I traveled down the coast to Eureka. I had some banking business to take care of and I decided to do a little research for Smoked. In one scene, the protagonist and friends meet at a Crescent City, CA Starbucks. It has been a long time since I'd been there, I couldn't remember a lot of the details, so I took notes. It gave me a surge of energy to be doing something proactive in getting the fine points right. However, since this is my first draft, I know I'll have a lot of fine points to rewrite. But, that's what writing a book is all about. On the trip, I found out that I had gotten some geographical locations in the wrong county, so I definitely will have to redo those.

As Bill and I were traveling along the North Coast, I imagined my characters negotiating the terrain. Most importantly, how will Mary get back to Six Rivers County (SRC) from her hospital stay in Del Norte County? What would be going through her head as she is driven through the tunnels of redwood forests? What animals will she see? We saw a lot of elk. In fact, I was so worried about hitting an elk that I'm sure I was going slower than the other drivers would have liked. Mary is a writing instructor, so she will be observant. I also gave myself the task of creating new coastal terrain that Six Rivers Co. will have, wedged as it is between Del Norte and Humboldt Counties. In reality, Six Rivers Co. is a combination of the two, as I remember them.

The people in my book are composites of people I met while I lived there. My attempts at making them real stem from all the hours of observation and interaction with the wonderful people of the North Coast. Will this make my work regional? I hope so.

The region of SRC is coming together as I write. The history is leading us back to the events and social structures that populate Smoked.

Stay tuned for more of Stanislau and his lovely Ellen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to handle gore

My latest dilemma comes from trying to be realistic about a shooting scene and not gross my readers out. It was hard. I finally did it, though. I told it from the point of view of Sam, who had been wounded on the side of his face. He was in shock and therefore he did his best to deny and block out all that was going on around him.         Now, Sam will have a great scar on his right cheekbone and a hardly noticeable nick in his hairline above his ear. What do you think? Will he be sexier that way?
Read more

Starting Over

The great thing about writing as well as life is that you can start all over again. Besieged by various life events, illness and depression, the last year has been challenging. Certainly, not life-changing as it has for some of my family and friends, but hard for me to get through. So, here goes. Me starting over. My first as-yet-unborn mystery novel actually grew. I have just finished the last chapter in the second draft. Sam and Mary have discovered a new dimension in their relationship and the over-arching plot of the series is laid down. And I’ve learned a few things on the way to this point. First, having a critique group every week keeps me working. I have a deadline. I need deadlines. That way, I keep writing, even if I don’t always like what I’ve written. I just keep writing. Second, scenes and chapters I’ve written usually go over better with others than they do with me. Of course, I have not shown them to my husband. He’s too close
Read more

The Long Haul

In my last post, I reviewed a great book. It is number 5 in a series, and I have read all of them. Each one stands on its own, but as a series, they sing. What makes a good series so compelling? A couple of things. First, you get to know the characters in much more depth than you would in just one book. Second, you have that over-arching mystery or conflict that continues to develop through all the books. In each book, then, the author reveals a little more, sometimes coming very close to solving the main character's conflict—that conflict that put them on the path that brought them to the mysteries they solve in each book. My mission in writing Smoked is to give it a prolonged story arc that will follow the main characters throughout a series. The continuing conflict involves a writing professor at Six Rivers University, who must match wits with a syndicate king-pin. The mob boss masquerades as an upright citizen, pretending to be against drugs of any kind, supporting th
Read more