The first quart down

I am an investigator employed begrudgingly by an agency that acts as the closest thing to law and order in a society I helped to collapse. My mother died for nothing and my father likely did the same for something, so we all end up at the same station. It’s complicated, but I sort of have a brother, and he only appears to me to make my lowest moments lower. I fought in a war with no winners and now, no longer misguided by cause or beliefs, I go where the next pay check is.

But I am liable to get distracted.



Teardrops in an Ocean is currently a quarter complete (first draft of a quarter) A lot of time has been spent refining and redefining plot and the bulk of the literal writing has occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Inspired by the great Raymond Chandler, it is a homage to the hard-boiled private detective stories, but in a very different setting than that classically expected.

It has been a rather liberating experience writing in this style, having done nothing but screenwriting for the last couple of years. The most satisfying element has been the speed with which my writing voice has revealed itself.

The writing voice comes with increasing ease, as long as you read and write. Unfortunately everyone, everywhere will say the same thing on this subject. It really is just a case of practice. I've been writing and writing and writing. Writing scenes and chapters that will never see the light of day, just to practice the best route to portrayal.

This is combined with another step which is plotting. At first I always write my stories from the beginning, with no structure or plan (except in the most general sense). this allows ideas, characters and story strands to organically present themselves. Not all of these will make it into the final story, but once you have enough to bind together into something interesting, it is time to plot and add structure.

There are many great books on how to structure a story. Whilst I am in the progress of writing a novel, I find my mountain of screenwriting text books no less useful. Amongst the most important are "Save The Cat" (Blake Snyder), "My Story Can Beat Up Your Story" (Jeffrey Alan Schecter) and anything by Syd Field. Once you have used these resources to help you develop your plot points the rest writes itself. However, this initial planning phase (which should largely just be in your head - you need to know your story's structure) should not be rushed.

Time spent plotting and developing your writer's voice, is time saved writing the actual novel. The characters react as they should based on who they are and this triggers the events that shape the story.

At least that's how it works for me...