Jun 10 2008
Beginning the New Novel
After almost a week’s break, I have now truly begun work on my next novel. I read through the 16 or so chapters I had written of it (back when I lived in Kansas), and I realized most of those chapters will disappear in the new version. I did far too much “telling,” and not enough “showing,” a classic writer’s mistake.
Yesterday I finished the 4-page outline for the general movement of the book. I prefer to have an outline (with an ending) complete before I start working hard on a novel. I do the same even with a ten-minute play, for I like to know where a work is going before I begin. However, I just broke that rule with my last book, a modern-day Noah’s Ark story set in rural Oklahoma. All I knew about the end is that the flood would be over…nothing beyond that. And it turns out that the Ark novel is already itching for a sequel. Unfortunately for that novel, it has yet to be revised, and I always give it about a month to rest before I go back to it. I might wait longer, for now this new novel is eating at me. So the Ark sequel has a long time to wait, I fear.
This new one is set in Seattle. Funny, too, that I set it here before I even moved to the area, before I even knew I was going to move here. It’s a sort of mystery-meets-paranormal novel, with an eight-year-old ghost haunting the house of the protagonist. I like the way it ends, even if it seems a bit commercial at this point. I hope it isn’t see-through. I detest plots that are so predictable that readers pretty much know what’s going to happen half-way in (or earlier). It sort of has a romantic element in it, but since I’ve never thought finding romance was the end of one’s existence, I don’t think I could ever write a true romance. I prefer to examine characters developing, to help us understand their psychology, and see them change as they discover their hidden strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps that’s why I rarely read romances and tend to be dissatisfied with romantic comedies. “Getting the girl in the end” is really not that important to me. It’s what people do and think that I find infinitely more fascinating.
