I mentioned in my last post that I’ve not regularly talked about my personal writing process. There are a few reasons for that, not the least among them my fear that knowing how the proverbial sausage is made might diminish the appeal of my work to readers. Then again, as a fan myself of peeking behind the curtain any chance I get, I thought maybe I would dribble out a bit of my particular brand of authoring in the hope that you might find it somewhat interesting. (Let me know either way in the comments.)
Let’s take another look at that photo I teased in my last post:
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I use a product called Scrivener to write the initial drafts for each of my novels; that wasn’t always the case, though. Blindsided, Outsider and Pariah were all crafted using a traditional word processor (Google Documents and then Microsoft Word), an environment that I am extremely comfortable with. However, the further I got into both series, the more I realized I needed more than just a way to write; keeping track of the people, places and things in each plot requires a lot of separate notes, and some way of keeping track of them. Scrivener creates a space to do just that, although the learning curve was a bit steeper than I would have liked.
Even with Scrivener, though, I still tend to scribble down important notes when I’m writing, such as the one in the photo above; I also make liberal use of the Notes app on my iPhone to capture spur of the moment inspirations which come to me at the damndest times. Both of these sorts of scraps ultimately get transcribed back into Scrivener during the start of my next writing session, but some — like the timeline sketch featured in the photo — remain on my desk, just a few inches from my keyboard. Those serve to keep me on point, much like you might use a 3×5 card during a speech.
So how would I translate that set of notes? In the context of Belie, I have some very time-critical plot points that have to align properly in order for the narrative to work as I wish it to. There’s very obviously a note about a death taking place — for a poor soul named Leslie — but the eagle-eyed among you might have already noted that the next entry says shots were a week later (on a Monday). The box around the second entry is, essentially, denoting the entry point for the story; in other words, Sean’s first words begin at that specific date and time (a week after Leslie is dead).
I see you arching an eyebrow. And yes, it’s important. But, of course, I can’t tell you exactly why without completely spoiling things for you.
The third entry seems ominous — there is a reference to Bangor General, which is the major hospital closest to my fictional Windeport. Why is Sean going there? Is he hurt? Is he checking on a victim? Both of those could be good answers.
Wednesday’s entry shows that Sean is on the road again, first to Portland, then to Boston. That usually means he’s on the hunt, tracking down answers or tracing movements for a suspect. Or a victim. Or both. As to which of those apply this time around, I’ll let your imagination run wild.
Thursday shows jail on the itinerary. Not an unusual place for a law enforcement professional to find themselves, for sure, but if you didn’t catch the two letters in front of the note — “N.H.” — I’ll let you in on a little secret: Sean works in Maine, not New Hampshire. Intriguing, eh?
Friday’s note is the beginning of the climax for the book, although in this particular case (no pun intended) it will take through the end of the weekend for Sean to put all of the pieces together with his usual panache.
And what those pieces are! I rarely write a plot with multiple overlapping mysteries, so (naturally) I decided to do just that with Belie. That could also be a contributing factor for why it’s taking so much longer, but I think the end result will be worth it. I’ll be teasing more out of this novel in the coming weeks, so stay tuned…