Truth Seeker and Story Teller
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.
I’ve always wanted to write a series and when the idea came for “Matt Kemp – U.S. Marshal” I knew I was onto something. The first book is how Kemp first joined the 
U.S. Marshal Service in the Old West. Known as a gunfighter, Matt brings his unique fighting and deductive skills to taming a lawless land.
I also thought it was important to introduce the Director who introduces Kemp to the Marshal’s badge and all that it stands for. These two men are like “peas-in-a-pod”, they both have an innate sense of right and wrong and will bring criminals to justice wherever they find them.
How many years have you put off writing a book? For me, it was 25 years and a lot of reasons why I couldn’t or shouldn’t…right now.
When you look at yourself in the mirror and see another wrinkle, when you blow out another candle on your birthday cake, when the kids move out from home…will you write? How many times have you said, “My family needs me,” or “I’m too busy with my career,” or “I’m not really a writer.”
What’s stopping you from writing…and when will you start?