The next step is to write the story synopsis from each character's point of view, allowing a full page for each major character and a half page for each important character.
I've let Nick and Malcolm tell the story from their viewpoints thus far. There is, of course, more information I need to tease out of them, but here is what they've given me to date:
Nick Aceret – POV
There I was, working furiously to finish my novel, and BAM! The next thing I know, I wake up in a body that feels like it’s been put through the wringer and then crushed like a junked car. It took me a few moments to get my bearings, and then I heard a voice I’d only heard in my head before say, “I think the body fell over here, Sarge.” Oh my God – that’s Riley! I struggled to my feet, looked down at my body – the one I woke up in – and realized something with either very wrong or I’d been on this writing binge way too long! Note to self – 75 hours is the wall! Don’t hit the wall! I shook my head to clear the scene and refocus on the print of (insert name of painting) by (insert name of artist) hanging on the wall in front of my desk. Big mistake! The world went fuzzy, and I had to sit down before I fell down! Choking back the vomit rising in my throat, I realized – Nick, you’re not in Kansas anymore! – I was actually living Malcolm’s final moments – wait a minute, if I’m here, where is Malcolm? I heard Riley coming closer and looked for a place to hide, a way to escape. I knew his intent was to stop Malcolm, by deadly force if necessary (and for the purposes of my novel that’s exactly what was necessary – this was Malcolm’s last appearance in my work – he’d become too disturbing a character even for me, and it was time to move on). Ah, salvation! An entrance to the city’s sewer system. All I had to do was get in there without leaving too much of a trail for Riley to follow. Just got to power through this body’s injuries – come on grate! Ah, success! Ok, one foot below the other on the ladder, pull the grate back into place, gently. Good. Now down the ladder – close the eyes, one foot at a time, ah – the bottom. Breathe – ouch! – maybe some busted ribs there – focus – go down the darkest path – there, to the left – quietly – ah, a turn to the right – stop! Listen – nothing coming – find a dry spot to rest for a while. At least it was only a two story tumble – and Malcolm does – did – know how to land – injured ribs, slight concussion – major bruises, but no other damage to internal organs as far as I can tell – arms and legs still work. Should have thought to devise a schematic for the sewer system – oh well, with the way the city grew out, it’s probably a hodgepodge anyway – focus – where’d we land again? That’s right, off the highway bridge that goes over the big park near the river. Think – what would Riley be doing now? How close were we to the river? That’s too expected – Riley would have the entrances to the system near the river covered, as well as the ones in the park – damn! Hey wait – I went left, then right – if I keep going until I hit another left, I should be able to daylight in the city somewhere – got to keep moving. Ok, enough of the inch by inch stuff…I start hearing voices as I’m making my way through the system – wait – that’s a female voice – a familiar female voice – Marlena? But – I wrote you off the page and into the drink at the end of the third novel – how did you? Never mind – why are you here now?
You know, if I wasn’t living it, I’d still ignore the warnings about Malcolm – how could I have been so blind? And how in Hades do I get out of this mess?
Oh, right, you’re going to distract Malcolm long enough and strong enough for Agent Averdue and his team to do a reverse transfer? You know he grew tired of you, right? That’s why I/we threw you in the river at the end of the third novel. So what makes you think you can distract him without fear of recognition now? Ah, oh, okay – that’s a neat trick – too bad you can’t switch with Riley Brown, the lead detective now.
You think you can?
Oh, now you’re telling me to step back and let you do your job? Okay, okay – yes, I want my body and my reality back. Don’t hurt him too bad, I need him for my next book! Wow – identical! Ok, off I go – Pop!
Whoa – gingerly moves head and takes slow, deep breath – looks around writing room to see the print of (need name of painting) hanging on the wall in front of my desk. Looks down at the manuscript to find that Riley Brown has tracked the injured Malcolm Price through the sewer system with the help of the cadaver dogs.
“I’m sorry old chap.”
As Malcolm gathers and lunges at Riley Brown, a shot rings out and Malcolm falls to the filthy floor of the sewer tunnel. Dead for real this time.
Nick felt the tension go out of his body as he hears Marlena whisper in a smoky male voice, “Got him!”
POV – Malcolm Price
It was the perfect plan – switch spots with Nick and I’d be home free – after Riley finished me, I mean him, off, of course.
Nick should have died when he went into the body he’d run off the bridge anyway, as bruised and broken as it was – how was I to know that his caffeinating ways would restart everything?
I paused to take a glance around my new abode and the sucker finds his way into the sewer system, slithering away as fast as he can before Riley Brown – the detective type he thought would be able to finish me off – Please! Riley’s not that wily! – got to the spot where the body landed!
So, Riley spent some time poking through the sewer system on the (name of river) River side before deducing that Nick was heading towards the (name of another river) River – makes sense – Nick’s actions, not Riley’s – I would have done the same. Then I caught this familiar flavor in the story, like….Marlena was back – but she couldn’t be – I mean, we dumped her in the river at the end of the third novel – and even I with caffeinated Nick’s help couldn’t have survived That Fall! I shook it off – turns out I should have paid attention that time – as I was enjoying a sumptuous meal of veal with a nice chianti and some fava beans, Riley allowed himself to be knocked out cold, and then somehow Marlena took his identity - the base flavor was still there, but muskier, stronger, now – then I felt a bit light-headed – figured it was the wine, until I heard Von Schutzel’s voice – just as annoying as when he was trying to convince Nick I was dangerous – should have listened to him, Nick, old boy! – Hey, I’m slipping – nooo! Damn! They figured out my plan – come on Riley, you’re not really going to kill off your Moriarity, are you? Wait! You’re not Riley! You’re, you’re – Marlena!
Pop! World fades to black.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Book Proposal using the Snowflake Method
And here is what expanding the summary paragraph into a proposal ended up like:
Book Proposal - Untitled as Yet
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character that had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. After failing to gain Nick’s attention about the situation with Malcolm, Mr. Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue confer, deciding to bring Marlena in to work the case. Agent Averdue knows Marlena was created and then discarded by Nick; however, she is the best chance they have to stop Malcolm in his tracks. What neither of them considered was Marlena’s reaction to having to face her past and how it might affect her being able to complete the mission at hand.
Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission. Being created to go from kidnapping victim to lover and accomplice, Marlena was already well versed in changing roles by the time Nick wrote her off the page at the end of the third novel in his crime series. Marlena took that talent to the next level by becoming an androgynous character, able to be female in one scene and male in the next. This ability was quite useful in dealing with Millicent Marianna Freedman, the only other character to attempt what Malcolm was plotting. Being away from Malcolm and Nick and finding her niche as a field agent for the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Marlena was able to ignore her past. Now she must face it and, with Agent Averdue’s help, realize that it was Malcolm, not Nick, who had tossed her aside when she became too much of an equal in the series. By facing the truth of the matter, Marlena finds the key to returning Malcolm to the page to face his fate and get Nick back to his own reality.
Book Proposal - Untitled as Yet
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character that had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. After failing to gain Nick’s attention about the situation with Malcolm, Mr. Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue confer, deciding to bring Marlena in to work the case. Agent Averdue knows Marlena was created and then discarded by Nick; however, she is the best chance they have to stop Malcolm in his tracks. What neither of them considered was Marlena’s reaction to having to face her past and how it might affect her being able to complete the mission at hand.
Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission. Being created to go from kidnapping victim to lover and accomplice, Marlena was already well versed in changing roles by the time Nick wrote her off the page at the end of the third novel in his crime series. Marlena took that talent to the next level by becoming an androgynous character, able to be female in one scene and male in the next. This ability was quite useful in dealing with Millicent Marianna Freedman, the only other character to attempt what Malcolm was plotting. Being away from Malcolm and Nick and finding her niche as a field agent for the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Marlena was able to ignore her past. Now she must face it and, with Agent Averdue’s help, realize that it was Malcolm, not Nick, who had tossed her aside when she became too much of an equal in the series. By facing the truth of the matter, Marlena finds the key to returning Malcolm to the page to face his fate and get Nick back to his own reality.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Snowflake Method of Writing
As you can see from my Twitter feeds, I'm working my next novel/story via the Snowflake Method.
To date, I've worked through the following steps:
A one-sentence summary of the story: A gender-switching character comes back to the page to save the author who wrote her off.
A paragraph summary of the story: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission.
Character summaries for the major characters (as follows):
Name: Nick Aceret
One-sentence Storyline: Author Nick Aceret finds himself looking at his characters in a new light after one takes over his body and tries to write him off the page.
Motivation: to stay alive
Goal: to regain his reality
Conflict: Malcolm has his body and he has to find a way to get it back with the help of Marlena.
Epiphany: He realizes words truly do have power
One-paragraph Summary: Nick Aceret finds himself looking at the characters he creates in a new way when Malcolm Price, the antagonist in his crime series, switches bodies with him. Nick momentarily blacks out when he is writing the scene where Malcolm is being dealt his death blow. When Nick comes to, he discovers he is now in Malcolm’s body and has to move quickly to stay ahead of the novel’s protagonist who is trying to kill him. He also has to work with Marlena Kevan, a character he had previously written off the page, to find his way back to his own reality. During the course of their efforts to stay one step ahead of the protagonist and figure out how to get Nick back to his own reality and Malcolm back on the page, Nick discovers that Marlena is much more than he created her to be. He faces up to his callous treatment of his characters and the effects it has on them.
Name: Marlena Kevan
One-sentence Storyline: Marlena has to face her feelings toward the author she is sent to save and the character she must put back on the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Peace
Goal: To save Nick Aceret and put Malcolm Price back on the page to face his fate.
Conflict: Her feelings towards both men and herself.
Epiphany: Marlena realizes she is more than what others think of her.
One-paragraph Summary: Marlena Kevan’s assignment is to help Nick Aceret, the author who created her and then wrote her off the page during the course of the first three novels of his series, regain his body and his reality from Malcolm Price, first her kidnapper and then her lover in the series. In order to do so, Marlena must face her past, conquer her fears, and deal with her feelings towards both men, all the while using her talents, including changing genders, to outwit both the protagonist in the novel and Malcolm in order to return Nick to his reality and put Malcolm back on the page to face his fate. During the course of these events, Marlena realizes she has much more to offer than anyone ever gave her credit for, including herself.
Name: Malcolm Price.
One-sentence Storyline: Malcolm Price discovers how to step off the page into reality only to have the woman he tossed aside return him to the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Survival
Goal: To take over Nick Aceret’s body by killing Nick off.
Conflict: His plot is discovered and Marlena is sent in to thwart it.
Epiphany: Karma does get you in the end.
One-paragraph summary: Malcolm Price figures out how to switch realities (and bodies) with his creator, author Nick Aceret. However, Malcolm failed to take into account Nick’s caffeine habit and the effect that would have on a supposedly newly-dead body. He also didn’t think the folks at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters were aware of his activities, or that they would send in Marlena Kevan, the character he’d kidnapped, made his lover and his pawn and then tossed aside, to stop him. When Marlin Karvala came on the scene, Malcolm knew he was in trouble, and realized his actions caught up with him in the end.
Now, I'm working on taking each sentence in the paragraph summary of the story and making each one a paragraph.
Here's what I've got so far...
Paragraph #1: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
Paragraph #2: While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character who had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
Paragraph #3: When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
I've still got two paragraphs to go here, but I already see some tweaking and straightening out of plot I need to do. Now, the creator of the Snowflake Method, Randy Ingermanson, does point out that you are likely to revise things as you go along, as your characters teach you things about your story - and I can definitely see some revision in my future already!
To date, I've worked through the following steps:
A one-sentence summary of the story: A gender-switching character comes back to the page to save the author who wrote her off.
A paragraph summary of the story: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission.
Character summaries for the major characters (as follows):
Name: Nick Aceret
One-sentence Storyline: Author Nick Aceret finds himself looking at his characters in a new light after one takes over his body and tries to write him off the page.
Motivation: to stay alive
Goal: to regain his reality
Conflict: Malcolm has his body and he has to find a way to get it back with the help of Marlena.
Epiphany: He realizes words truly do have power
One-paragraph Summary: Nick Aceret finds himself looking at the characters he creates in a new way when Malcolm Price, the antagonist in his crime series, switches bodies with him. Nick momentarily blacks out when he is writing the scene where Malcolm is being dealt his death blow. When Nick comes to, he discovers he is now in Malcolm’s body and has to move quickly to stay ahead of the novel’s protagonist who is trying to kill him. He also has to work with Marlena Kevan, a character he had previously written off the page, to find his way back to his own reality. During the course of their efforts to stay one step ahead of the protagonist and figure out how to get Nick back to his own reality and Malcolm back on the page, Nick discovers that Marlena is much more than he created her to be. He faces up to his callous treatment of his characters and the effects it has on them.
Name: Marlena Kevan
One-sentence Storyline: Marlena has to face her feelings toward the author she is sent to save and the character she must put back on the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Peace
Goal: To save Nick Aceret and put Malcolm Price back on the page to face his fate.
Conflict: Her feelings towards both men and herself.
Epiphany: Marlena realizes she is more than what others think of her.
One-paragraph Summary: Marlena Kevan’s assignment is to help Nick Aceret, the author who created her and then wrote her off the page during the course of the first three novels of his series, regain his body and his reality from Malcolm Price, first her kidnapper and then her lover in the series. In order to do so, Marlena must face her past, conquer her fears, and deal with her feelings towards both men, all the while using her talents, including changing genders, to outwit both the protagonist in the novel and Malcolm in order to return Nick to his reality and put Malcolm back on the page to face his fate. During the course of these events, Marlena realizes she has much more to offer than anyone ever gave her credit for, including herself.
Name: Malcolm Price.
One-sentence Storyline: Malcolm Price discovers how to step off the page into reality only to have the woman he tossed aside return him to the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Survival
Goal: To take over Nick Aceret’s body by killing Nick off.
Conflict: His plot is discovered and Marlena is sent in to thwart it.
Epiphany: Karma does get you in the end.
One-paragraph summary: Malcolm Price figures out how to switch realities (and bodies) with his creator, author Nick Aceret. However, Malcolm failed to take into account Nick’s caffeine habit and the effect that would have on a supposedly newly-dead body. He also didn’t think the folks at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters were aware of his activities, or that they would send in Marlena Kevan, the character he’d kidnapped, made his lover and his pawn and then tossed aside, to stop him. When Marlin Karvala came on the scene, Malcolm knew he was in trouble, and realized his actions caught up with him in the end.
Now, I'm working on taking each sentence in the paragraph summary of the story and making each one a paragraph.
Here's what I've got so far...
Paragraph #1: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
Paragraph #2: While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character who had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
Paragraph #3: When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
I've still got two paragraphs to go here, but I already see some tweaking and straightening out of plot I need to do. Now, the creator of the Snowflake Method, Randy Ingermanson, does point out that you are likely to revise things as you go along, as your characters teach you things about your story - and I can definitely see some revision in my future already!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Writing, Contests and Conferences
Well, I signed up for another conference yesterday. This one will be in Santa Rosa the last weekend of October. Here's the website: http://redwoodwriters.org/conference.html. I also entered three poems in their poetry contest for that conference. We'll see what comes of that!
I've also started organizing my writing files so that I know what I have to start with and then I can find things/track things easier. I mean to make this gig my next career, one I hope to have for the next, oh, 50 years, so I really need to keep things easy to find!
I'm on Twitter as bethane13, but haven't been able to post the last few times I've tried. Very frustrating! I follow Laurell K. Hamilton, Lance Armstrong, Leif Sorbye from Tempest, and a freelance writer from South Africa who is also on one of the Yahoo writing groups I belong to. Laurell K. Hamilton also blogs, and had a great one on writer's block cures and preventatives last week.
I've also started organizing my writing files so that I know what I have to start with and then I can find things/track things easier. I mean to make this gig my next career, one I hope to have for the next, oh, 50 years, so I really need to keep things easy to find!
I'm on Twitter as bethane13, but haven't been able to post the last few times I've tried. Very frustrating! I follow Laurell K. Hamilton, Lance Armstrong, Leif Sorbye from Tempest, and a freelance writer from South Africa who is also on one of the Yahoo writing groups I belong to. Laurell K. Hamilton also blogs, and had a great one on writer's block cures and preventatives last week.
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