Truth Seeker and Story Teller
A Bright New IdeaI’m working on a new novel outline and as I was working on the characters, and getting all these terrific ideas and scenes, it occurred to me to mind map as I developed the outline.
There’s always so much going on in your head when you’re outlining that it’s easy to forget some of these great ideas – and how characters relate to one another. Answer: Start a mind map and keep adding to it as your outline evolves.
Every writer has something unique to them that they must say. No one has your experiences, your view on life, and the words that you use like you do. That’s why writers are always read and followed…but only if you stay true to you.
You’re not Stephen King, John Grisham, or even Rick Jantz (that’s me). And you don’t want to be. It doesn’t make sense to copy that which you aren’t. But it does make sense to study them and follow their “how to write formulas” because they work (mine may still be debatable but give me time).
Writing is not a pastime, something to be done when you have the time or when it’s convenient. Writing is a “have to do” attitude that takes you off of your couch, away from your TV and to your private spot that releases the pent up passion and stories you have to tell.
Many authors struggle with how to deliver what their readers want to read. If we knew what they wanted we would write it. Right? After all, wouldn’t that be the way to a successful book? It would be like having the inside track on becoming a successful author.
But I don’t know that we always do that…I know I don’t. Sometimes we (I) write for ourselves with maybe some distant thought of keeping our readers in mind.
In previous posts I talked about research, using celebrity pictures, and creating an outline. Now I’m ready to write my book and put some words together to create a story. I proudly type, “Chapter One.” And smile in anticipation.
Oh crap, this isn’t right at all. I’ve struggled and come at it from all sorts of angles but I finally give up. It’s not the blank page or writer’s block…I haven’t found the right intro yet. The story needs to start somewhere else.
I know we each have our own style of creating book ideas, coming up with characters and settings, and some even do outlines…like me! But this second book in the Matt Kemp series doesn’t want to even get off the ground, and it’s all because of my outline.
I’m curious, how important is an outline to each of you?
I’ve read that many writers will actually use celebrity pictures to visualize their book characters. I had never done this before so I thought I would try it for my new Western, “A Witness To Murder.”
But first, let me explain something. This story would feature a young girl who would befriend the hardened U.S. Marshal, Matt Kemp. I wanted to explore what Kemp thought about kids and if he even liked them. Plus, the townspeople of Vail would not easily turn a child over to a murderer.
I was really intrigued with the idea of what Matt Kemp, the U.S.Marshal in “A Witness To Murder”, would do when he discovered that the people of a town had gone missing. But the first question I had to answer was: where did the people go?
If you’re like me then you have to have the perfect title for your book, right? And sometimes that title is the inspiration of your story and you keep it through all the drafts or sometimes you might use a working title, knowing that you need to come up with a final one later.
With my second book in the U.S. Marshal series I actually started with “Empty Town” but as I developed the outline I knew that the title needed to change.