If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that while I tend to plot out my stories, the characters often have a mind of their own and take me in directions I’d never anticipated. I’ve learned over my years of writing to let this sort of thing happen and see where it takes me; often, the end result is far better than what I’d been planning, and feels much more realistic, too.
One weird side effect of this is that much like my characters, there are times when I don’t always know who the bad actor is until it becomes obvious; or, in the case of my latest, Requiem, I buy into the evidence I’m laying out and accidentally fall for the misdirection. I know you’re probably saying to yourself, But wait, he’s the author! How can he not know who did it?
Easy: I write my books the way I would like to read them.
Today was an interesting example — I’m at the part of Requiem when the little clues begin to add up into something bigger, but the pattern that was developing seemed off kilter to me. I’ve kept at it, but it wasn’t until I was in the shower today that the rest of the puzzle pieces fell into place, helping my brain connect all of the dots I’d been dropping throughout the story to that point. It’s not a perfect straight line — not yet — but that feeling I always get when I can see the entire story from start to finish appeared — along with an intense desire to get back to the keyboard.
It’s odd how many times a key piece to my novels comes to me while I’m putting in my daily 5K or going about my morning ablutions; my guess is that’s when my brain is focused on something else for a bit, allowing the creative part free reign to do what it needs to do. In my early days, I used to file them away with an eye toward using them later, only to find I’d forgotten the idea entirely by the time I’d returned to my computer. These days, with my trusty iPhone never far from my hands, I immediately pop open my note application and jot down the thoughts before they can drift away, never to be used. I’ve even made use of the voice memo feature a few times when I didn’t have the patience to stop and type out the flood of ideas.
I even found that elusive secondary meaning for the title of my latest book — I always try and choose something that seems obvious to the plot line, but also has a deeper, slightly hidden connection to the story. Those sorts of epiphanies are really cool when they come along, underscoring for me just how much fun this writing process can truly be.