On the Writing Process

I recently heard from Peter Schwartz, an old classmate/friend who's an avid and astute reader. His insightful, probing comments about my first book, Hunter Huntress (here he is, reading it somewhere in France, I believe), were unsparing and dead-on. A writer himself, he was curious about about my process, frustrated with his own, and had some real thought-provoking questions that forced me to think hard about my personal approach to my writing: how I get ideas for a book and how I massage those initial glimpses of plot into a final manuscript. Thought I'd take a break from my usual type of post to share what I sent him in response. Hope you find it interesting!  Feel free to send me your thoughts and/or questions via my website: http://www.darcyscott.net/.

     Firstly, Pete, for me a story usually starts with a situation--something that happened in my own life or that of someone I know. Some writers cull newspapers for inspiration. I sit with my bit of an idea for a while, letting it resonate. Then I turn to this huge file of notes I have--things that have occurred over the years, bits of dialog I've overheard, things I decided not to use in another book for whatever reason, etc.--and cull through to see if any of it might fit to move that initial idea along.          
     Sometimes characters are part of that initial idea, sometimes not. I try not to force this early phase of things; based on your comments, I sense this might be where you're getting in trouble. And because I'm a visual person, once I have an idea for a character, I have to find a photo (LLBean catalogs, Time Magazine--they've both worked for me). That makes all kinds of things "come." You never know what will push things along. Sometimes coming up with a title helps. I'm currently editing Island Mystery #2, for instance, but also working on plot elements for #3 and have been stymied. Then my husband came up with the book's title and things began to fall into place. No idea why it works this way, but it does--at least for me.

     In the beginning I, too, had trouble being "mean" to my characters. An early reader of a draft of one of my first books complained that the people I was hurting/killing off weren't any that he cared about. Made me realize the only way to really engage the reader is to lure him emotionally, make him care about the very people you're gonna kill off. Trust me, as a writer you become inured to it after a while.

     Your questions about subplots and layers and believability had me digging deep. The mythology sub-plot in HH, for instance, only occurred to me when I was about a quarter way through an early draft and after I'd had a series of dreams much like the episodes in the book where Jamie's dreaming about the figure running through the woods. Again this part of the process has to do with patience. You have to embrace the fact that things will come in spurts, sometimes requiring you to rewrite everything to date. It takes me anywhere from two to eight years to finish a draft of a book. Probably not what you want to hear, but it is what it is.

    I think a lot of your writerly discomfort stems from the somewhat misguided belief that the writer is in control of the process. I find things go more smoothly if I simply trust my characters and get out of their way. Writing fiction is a very intuitive thing. Just wait and listen, and it will happen.

Babies and Books

This past weekend my on-board writing room (a.k.a., the aft cabin) was taken over by two little boys—14-months and and 3 years old, to be exact—grandchildren of happy demeanor and angelic smiles who conspired to keep me from the writing I was supposed to be doing. So I settled for reading. Not the current book that I, myself, am addicted to (Gillian Flynn's wonderful new release, Gone Girl), but the classics. As in Good Night Moon, The Tawny Scrawny Lion, Harold and the Purple Crayon. Children's literature teaches succinctness and brevity. These, apparently, were meant as my lessons for the day. The universe is an amazing thing!


Apropos to the writing life, over the same two days I received several great "fan" emails and a number of web orders for the softcover edition of Matinicus. Unfortunately, the grandsons weren't impressed and pushed for a return to the reading.

Despite these adorable distractions, I'm now back at work and have managed some of the easy bits of the Reese's Leap editing along with a slew of marketing around the release of Matinicus.

This coming Saturday (June 30), and after a four-hour reading/signing stint at the South Berwick Library's Summer Book Bash, we'll be dropping the mooring and sailing off to Cape Porpoise, Maine—a five-hour run that will leave plenty of time for some serious editing while underway.

Anchors away!

Back in Business

So, I've just finished transferring the bits of my writing room from home to the aft (rear) cabin of our boat. And this is what it looks like. Kinda small, but I'll get used to it. After all, most of my first book, Margel's Madness, was written in here.

I'm starting with the easiest of the line edits, collating the bits and pieces from my various readers and plan to have that part done by this weekend. Then it's on to the real work!

I've decided to throw the occasional book review into this blog and in my last post,  promised one of Jen Blood's All the Blue-Eyed Angels. I’m a sucker for this type of mystery: a smart, wounded, tough-as-nails yet emotionally vulnerable protagonist, dead-on dialogue, terrific sexual tension, and a man-I-never-saw-that-one-coming ending that leaves me thinking about the book for days.

The protagonist in All the Blue-Eyed Angels is the plucky, thirty-something female journalist, Erin Solomon, who’s come home after many years to the small, coastal town of Littlehope, Maine in hopes of uncovering the real story behind a fire that killed an entire religious cult living on a local island when she was a child—the same island where her father later committed suicide.

Unfortunately, very few of Littlehope’s residents are happy to see her—understandable considering she’s hell bent on writing a book about a past they seem determined to keep under wraps. The notable exceptions to this less than enthusiastic reception are her sexy ex-lover and his equally sexy roomie—an FBI agent with a steamy libido and his own mysterious agenda.  As for the rest of Littlehope, someone is permanently hushing up any resident Erin suspects has a promising lead, this as her list of suspects continues to grow—a list that comes to include her estranged mother who’s carrying far too many secrets of her own, and who may or may not be at the center of a longstanding cover up.

In All the Blue-Eyed Angels, Blood has given us a powerful, emotionally complex story peopled with fully-realized characters and terrific, well-honed prose.  Thankfully, this is but the first in the Erin Solomon mystery series.  I’m very much looking forward to the others!

See, Now This Is What I Love About Writing...

So picture this. You're making your way through your manuscript, tweaking here and there, feeling like you know pretty much the whole story and how it unfolds, when you stop cold--realize something's missing. The paragraph you just read for the hundredth time leads logically and interestingly enough into the next, yet there's something missing. You feel it in your gut. You try and suss it out, but intellectual thought isn't any help at this stage. So you take a walk, make some tea, lie down for a 20-minute power nap.

Going back to the computer, you suddenly realize if you add a line just here it touches on two or three structural elements you were never really sure you needed but somehow couldn't let go of, or bits of character or dialogue you really love but weren't quite sure where to use or even if they belonged in the book at all. Pulls all of it together to become something larger--a plot twist, maybe, or an insight that adds deeper meaning to one or more of the plot lines. Raises the stakes, in other words.

Little miracles, these--precious gifts from the writing gods--and like all such serendipity the key is letting go of the plan and letting yourself be led by instinct. Keeping an open mind as you read your work and seeing it with fresh eyes every time.

This shot is of my "character wall" for Reese's Leap, which keeps me visually oriented to the characters and their storyline.

Keep On Keepin' On

Yes, I'm still here, nose to the grindstone and all that. Slowly making my way through the Reese's Leap ms and hope to be ready with a first draft by spring. Then off it goes to my readers. Meanwhile I have a fresh nibble on Matinicus (its prequel), so keep your fingers crossed.

Took my show on the road with a visit to a book group in Kennebunk, Maine this past Friday evening and it was a blast! Terrific food, great wine and very spirited discussion. This for Hunter Huntress, the book that came out in June. I absolutely love book clubs. If you have one, consider having me "in" for discussion. I'm happy to travel if you're relatively close by; I can also Skype in!

Next Wednesday, Oct. 27, I'm at the Barrington Public Library beginning at 7:00 (another Hunter Huntress event). Come on by for one of my Double Chocolate Chunk cookies!

Now Starts the Hard Part

By that I mean the real nuts and bolts editing work--going through each section of the ms, deciding which parts to keep and which to toss or expand on, and then polishing the work to where I can send this first draft out to my readers. It's here I really get to know my characters and they often surprise me! I figure this will take me into the New Year. I'll keep you posted.

Busy working on lining up book clubs and library readings and have a few coming up including Oct. 27 at the Barrington Public Library (http://home.metrocast.net/~blibrary/ ) beginning at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see some of you there!

Just finished reading The Help'" which I found incredibly moving and very well written--the voices of each of the disparate characters unique and consistent. Other recent reads include a few of Michael Kimball's well plotted mystery/thrillers: Undone and Mouth to Mouth.

Here's another shot from the island on which Reese's Leap is based, this one the inspiration for Adria's cabin, "The Birches."

I Killed Someone Today...

Her name was Nancy and she was pretty important at first. As the plot developed, she became extraneous. Hard as it was, she had to go.

Talking about one of my characters, of course, and she was central to the plot of Reese's Leap as it was first conceived. But much time and many chapters later, I realized she was just bogging things down. Sometimes it's like that. But plowing through 300 pages of copy in order to get rid of her was no easy task. Took days and days. A lot like surgery. Some of her lines--those I wanted to keep--and the plot elements she was involved with handed off to someone else. Some of the others now had to do double duty. They're not happy with me, I can tell you that. Now on to yet more tweaking to get the first draft ready for readers!

This shot was taken on one of the island trails that are part of the setting for the book on the fictional Mistake Island--in reality a lovely place off Brunswick, Maine.

Cheek by jowl with Richard Russo

Lots of excitement here. Besides all the fun of getting ready for next week's Book Launch and Reading party in Portsmouth (NH), I dropped off a second batch of books to RiverRun, our local indie bookstore. So exciting to see my beautiful cover on the table beside so many fine writers, and right next to Richard Russo! With all the excitement it's been hard to keep my morning focus on the writing of new work, but last week's decision to shift of part of the ms from the middle closer to the end feels oh-so-right now I've gotten going on it. Makes for a better dramatic arc and keeps the surprises coming till the end, lending the final few chapters more heft. Looking forward to finishing up the first draft of this one and getting it off to readers (okay, maybe not till the end of the summer, but at least the end's in sight)!

Heading to Manchester Saturday morning for a writing seminar on "Creativity and Silence" by novelist Ann Le Clair. Can't wait!