Eddie Whitlock's Blog: Reader and Writer - Posts Tagged "plotting"
Buy My Book
Do you have a book in you? I mean that question figuratively and not literally. If you literally have a book in you, please turn off your computer and seek medical help.
No, I am asking if you have within you the desire to write a book.
I did. I always have. Well, at least since I realized that the only job that really combined my love of lying with making an income was that of being a writer.
I worked on several books over the years.
One, called "Hell," was going to be about a race war in the United States. Yeah. I never had a central character. It was just vignettes about the horrors of a new Civil War. It was inspired by the riots after the Rodney King verdict and hearing Mike Bowers mention the riots in a speech he gave to the Griffin Kiwanis Club.
I worked on "Hell" for several years.
One day I had the epiphany-after hearing a news report-that the US was no longer divided between African-Americans and Caucasions. It was also divided between Asians, Hispanics and others. It was divided by sex, by gender and by sexual preference, by age and by generation.
After "Hell," I worked on a book about Franklin Roosevelt. I could never get the purpose of the novel straight. Was it alternate history? Was it horror? I struggled with it for years. Someday I may work on it again.
Last year I decided to try National Novel Writing Month. Basically, I set aside everything I had been working on and started a new story.
The inciting incident was based on something my grandfather had told me. Poppa Mack, Maxie McCullough, said that his father had taken him to see the last public hanging in Spalding County.
That incident became the starting point for a story that I called "Hanging" and that became "Evil is Always Human."
I was pleased with the final product. Here's why: the characters.
I have read about authors who plot out their stories with elaborate outlines. I cannot do that, apparently. I wrote my book as if I were following real people and merely telling what happened to them. They seemed real. When they would sometimes do something that did not seem real, I would let the character tell me the right action to put in.
The characters, particularly the mother, are paradoxes. They don't always do what I would expect them to do, but they do what people do. Sometimes, that is unexpected. Sometimes they are strong; sometimes they are weak, evil, lazy and even inattentive.
"Evil is Always Human" is a story that I am happy with as it stands. Some of the folks who have read it have specifically asked for a sequel. It is a story that I already know. It's not a pretty story. The characters who survived the first book don't become better people who recognize the errors of their ways. They just keep going like people do.
I humbly ask that you buy my book. Read it. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
No, I am asking if you have within you the desire to write a book.
I did. I always have. Well, at least since I realized that the only job that really combined my love of lying with making an income was that of being a writer.
I worked on several books over the years.
One, called "Hell," was going to be about a race war in the United States. Yeah. I never had a central character. It was just vignettes about the horrors of a new Civil War. It was inspired by the riots after the Rodney King verdict and hearing Mike Bowers mention the riots in a speech he gave to the Griffin Kiwanis Club.
I worked on "Hell" for several years.
One day I had the epiphany-after hearing a news report-that the US was no longer divided between African-Americans and Caucasions. It was also divided between Asians, Hispanics and others. It was divided by sex, by gender and by sexual preference, by age and by generation.
After "Hell," I worked on a book about Franklin Roosevelt. I could never get the purpose of the novel straight. Was it alternate history? Was it horror? I struggled with it for years. Someday I may work on it again.
Last year I decided to try National Novel Writing Month. Basically, I set aside everything I had been working on and started a new story.
The inciting incident was based on something my grandfather had told me. Poppa Mack, Maxie McCullough, said that his father had taken him to see the last public hanging in Spalding County.
That incident became the starting point for a story that I called "Hanging" and that became "Evil is Always Human."
I was pleased with the final product. Here's why: the characters.
I have read about authors who plot out their stories with elaborate outlines. I cannot do that, apparently. I wrote my book as if I were following real people and merely telling what happened to them. They seemed real. When they would sometimes do something that did not seem real, I would let the character tell me the right action to put in.
The characters, particularly the mother, are paradoxes. They don't always do what I would expect them to do, but they do what people do. Sometimes, that is unexpected. Sometimes they are strong; sometimes they are weak, evil, lazy and even inattentive.
"Evil is Always Human" is a story that I am happy with as it stands. Some of the folks who have read it have specifically asked for a sequel. It is a story that I already know. It's not a pretty story. The characters who survived the first book don't become better people who recognize the errors of their ways. They just keep going like people do.
I humbly ask that you buy my book. Read it. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
Cars - Evil Evil Cars
I am currently fiddling around with the sequel to EVIL IS ALWAYS HUMAN. It will begin (current plan! subject to change!) around the year 1925.
The nature of the story doesn't require a lot of research. It is fiction, after all, and the characters involved don't get involved in any historic events.
Still, I have to weave in some historical fact: automobiles, roadways, available consumer goods, etc. I want to be accurate, in general at least.
One facet of this story has my main character working as an automobile mechanic. I am considering having him travel at one point.
I think the best part of my story is the interaction between characters. I don't want to get bogged down, therefore, with details that are not really important to the core of the story.
I was pleased yesterday to have a fellow who had just read my book tell me how accurate he thought the car descriptions were. This fellow owns a Model T; that's what had prompted our discussion.
He thought that my characters had believable reactions to the sound of cars. (The first novel is set in 1912 to 1925.)
Then he told me his family Model T story. His grandfather had owned many cars, but there were no Model Ts. Why not? he had asked his father.
It turned out that grandfather's brother had driven another family member's new Model T. The brother had driven said car into a barn and was killed immediately.
A dislike of the Model T was the outcome.
That story prompted a discussion of the danger of American cars in the old days.
All that has me thinking more about the role that cars will play in the story.
We'll see.
The nature of the story doesn't require a lot of research. It is fiction, after all, and the characters involved don't get involved in any historic events.
Still, I have to weave in some historical fact: automobiles, roadways, available consumer goods, etc. I want to be accurate, in general at least.
One facet of this story has my main character working as an automobile mechanic. I am considering having him travel at one point.
I think the best part of my story is the interaction between characters. I don't want to get bogged down, therefore, with details that are not really important to the core of the story.
I was pleased yesterday to have a fellow who had just read my book tell me how accurate he thought the car descriptions were. This fellow owns a Model T; that's what had prompted our discussion.
He thought that my characters had believable reactions to the sound of cars. (The first novel is set in 1912 to 1925.)
Then he told me his family Model T story. His grandfather had owned many cars, but there were no Model Ts. Why not? he had asked his father.
It turned out that grandfather's brother had driven another family member's new Model T. The brother had driven said car into a barn and was killed immediately.
A dislike of the Model T was the outcome.
That story prompted a discussion of the danger of American cars in the old days.
All that has me thinking more about the role that cars will play in the story.
We'll see.
Reader and Writer
I began to write because it seemed to be a realm in which one could exercise omnipotence. It's not.
My characters demand to make their own decisions and often the outcomes are wildly different from wha ...more
My characters demand to make their own decisions and often the outcomes are wildly different from wha ...more
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