What I'm Working On

All,

It's been a little while since I've talked about what it is I'm actually working on, so I thought I'd mention my two major WIPs. Pardon if these summaries sound a bit like pitches. They sort of are, I suppose.

Real Stakes is a novel of psychological suspense in which an outlandish web of conspiracy ensnares an over-confident con-artist of a businessman and a legalistic investigator who holds the Law as the only ethics and morality of any meaning. The conspiracy itself is equal parts outlandish and terrifying, falling somewhere between Ludlum at his most intrigue and Koontz at his strangest. The tone and intimate portrayal of human fragility are both brutal and compassionate, in the veins of Fight Club or Candlemoth. In an abandoned pickle warehouse on the outskirts of Denver, a high stakes poker game becomes the opening foray of a battle between Smith and Jones -- a battle that the woman known to her colleagues only as The Detangler will do anything to stop. For those orchestrating the battle, it a struggle between God, the Devil, and Man. In the end, will anyone come away winning?

Ennui and Malaise is a novel of psychological suspense in which a painfully bored man who has turned to day dreams, wistful prayers to gods in which he doesn't believe, and the power of an adventurous imagination finds himself accused of murder -- the murder of a man whose death he had daydreamed. As in Faulkner or O'Connor, the contemporary work of RJ Ellory, or the cinematic work of M. Night Shyamalan, much of the real violence is psychological. His sense of self and his understanding of the world come crashing down on him, and all he has left to cling to is his own original wish that life present him with something interesting. Interesting, he now has, but perhaps at the cost of everything else.

Not truly pitches, don't worry, just done that way to try and help you get a sense of what I'm working on and where it's coming from. Each novel is is at ~ 30K words. Real Stakes will probably end up around 120K, since it follows something of a suspense thriller format. Ennui and Malaise is more like to be 80 -- 95K when all is said and done.

Rose and I are working out a system for her to act as sort of my draft manager, giving me goals and deadlines, because I really do work better when I have an external expectation to meet. We haven't gotten to specifics yet, but I am really aiming to one of the two WIP's "done" by Christmas. (Ready to look for representation.)

.Nevets.

Where I Am

All---

Sorry if I've been too quiet this week, folks. After my last epiphany, if that's what it was, I started fiddling around with a kernel of an idea for a novel and I'm on a 16K+ word tear that's taking all my writing energy at the moment. I'll be back and more active again soon!

.Nevets.

How To Ruin Good Cooking

All---

I don't know how many of you cook, and by cook I mean prepare meals from scratch of your recipe and design. I do cook, and I've learned something very important about cooking. You can have a great meal in mind, and have all the right ingredients, but it you start with the wrong part, the dish can turn out to be crap.

For instance, when stir-frying Asian-style, you need to follow this basic order:

1) Oil with many of your spices.
2) Onions that you want to carmelize.
3) Meat.
4) Veggies that you want to pick up the flavor of the dish.
5) Veggies that you want perfectly crisp and fresh.

If you put the onions that you want to carmelize in too late, they're going to not carmelize, or everything else is going to get burned. If you put the crisp, fresh veggies in too early, they will soften and pick up the flavor of the dish. You have to start in the right place.

And that's what I've blown on Real Stakes. I think I have a pretty good story, and I am convinced that I have some awesome characters. But I started at the wrong point.

If you've been reading the blog, you know my WIP started with a piece of flashy fiction. It was not a character-driven piece at all. It was pretty much 85% intrigue, 10% plot, 5% character. A neat little snippet that showed promise for bigger things.

So when I decided to expand it into a novel, I began crafting the characters who would get caught up in the story.

See what happened there?

One of the key differences between traditional suspense and psychological suspense, is that traditional suspense starts with the story, but psychological suspense starts with the people. And that's not what I did. And that's why I'm unsatisfied with my first 15K words, even though they're pretty good words.

Fortunately, unlike a meal, a piece of fiction can be retooled. I need to spend some time thinking exclusively about my characters, and then I need to figure out how to bring them to the table and then throw the story at them, laying out the plot and then throwing some characters into it. It's a subtle distinction, but it can make all the difference in the world.

Everybody's style is different, and every genre is different. Hopefully, fellow writers, you can learn from my bad example and take the time at the very outset of your work to make sure that you're starting it where you want to, and not jumping ahead on your crisp, fresh veggies.

.Nevets.

More about Real Stakes

All---

I wanted to tell you some more about Real Stakes, and Jennifer White started a WiP Meme yesterday that I thought would make a good vehicle for doing so.

1. When did you start writing your current WiP?

Roughly December 1st as a novel. I spent a couple days on part of it last spring, trying it out as a short story concept. It's also inspired by a piece of flash I wrote for Flashy Fiction on 9 May 2009.

2. Where does your WiP take place?

All over the United States. A lot of the early action takes place in Denver, Laramie, and Iowa City. The later action... You'll have to read the book to find out.

3. Who is/are the main character/s of your WiP?

The main characters are two gamblers and an investigator known as The Detangler.

4. Describe your main character(s) in one word.

Gambler #1: Private
Gambler #2: Obsessed
The Detangler: Lawful

5. Open up your WiP to a random place and copy the first sentence you see.

He didn't know what the speaker was up to, but the man's breath smelled too much of French onion dip to be taken seriously.

6. If you were going to have lunch with one of your WiP's secondary characters, who would it be and why?

I'd probably want to have lunch with Allie, the Detangler's daughter. I'd love to find out what it would be like to grow up with such a legalistic rule-monkey for a father. That's partly because, as anybody form whom I have been dungeon or game master can attest, I'm a bit of a rule monkey myself. Be good to find out what my kids are going to be in for.

7. What do you consider your WiP's theme song and why?

In a way, every thing I write has, “Mad World,” as its theme song. When I first heard the original Tears for Fears version, I really clicked with it, and I have over half a dozen different covers in my library now. Most of my stuff boils down, in some way, to the disconnect between what people think the world is, what they discover it really is, and how we all end up running in circles because we don't really know what else to do.

8. What do you consider your main character's theme song?

Gambler #1's theme is probably “Wake Up Time” by Tom Petty. If I got into why, I'd be revealing too much about his back story. Just take the mood from it and go with that.

Gambler #2's theme has to be “Guns and Cigarettes” by Atmosphere, because he's all about obsession and drive. You'll know that as soon as you meet him if I did my job right, so I'm not giving away any secrets there.

The Detangler's theme is probably “Gabriel's Oboe” from the soundtrack of The Mission. I hadn't really thought about it until now, but there's a bit of Father Gabriel in The Detangler's devotion to doing the right thing by the Law.

9. What's your favorite thing about your WiP?

I think it sort of redefines heroism, and not in any of the cliché ways that everybody redefines heroism these days. It's not about unexpected heroes or the dark side of good people, or the secret nobility inside of evil people. But I do think it's a pretty honest picture of what real heroes are like, and what constitutes true heroism.

10. If you're WiP were to be made into a movie, who would you pick to play your main character? Your villain?

My key villains are always among my main characters. I'm an equal opportunity author that way. Either that or the lines are just sorta clurry. But here's what I might cast:

Gambler #1 – Maybe Alan Cumming
Gambler #2 – Zachary Quinto
The Detangler – Wil Wheaton

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more information later!

.Nevets.

WIP Announcement and Solitude Update

All---

Great news on two fronts. First, I wanted to let you know that I have figured out the best way to reboot the Solitude twitter-fiction. Except an announcement of the new prologue start date before next Monday.

Second, last night I hit about 6K works of rough work on a suspense novel I've started very recently. At that point (one or two chapters in) I decided to give it over to Rose for feedback. It's less than a first draft, more a proof of concept. The concept, apparently, works! That means I'm now officially 6,000/~120,000 into my solo WIP. Tomorrow I will talk a little more about the project and firm up the word count goal. Tonight I plan on doing my chapter run outline and that'll give me a better feel for that.

It's going to be a fun one to write, and I'm looking forward to talking more about it soon.

In the mean time, in case you never saw it, or forgot about it, here's the original trailer for Solitude:




.Nevets.

Writing Projects Update

All---

So whew I've had a lot going on writing-wise for a guy that still can't kick these allergies and can barely think straight. At least my sore throat is finally easing up. Now hopefully the rest will follow my throat's example.

What have I been working on?

First, I've got a suspenseful short story about a guy and his grandfather's houseboat. Sounds dramatic right? It's about 4800 words long and it's one of the most ruthlessly violent stories I've written. Despite the impression many of you might have, most of what I have written up to this point in my life has maybe been a little dark, but not necessarily violent. This story is pretty brutal. I don't think it's gratuitous at all, and it's not especially gory, but there's definitely a lot of physical action that results in pain. Odd thing is, I don't have a title yet. Usually I pride myself on snappy titles but so far I have yet to get this one past, "the houseboat suspense story." Lame!

Heads up, I will be asking for readers on this story because I do a lot of temporal shenanigans and I want to make sure that the reader can follow the story.

Second, I got a good jump last night on a short story inspire by this Flashy Fiction. Different characters, different setting, but same "universe," for lack of a better word. It's sort of a more arbitrary take on the conspiracy theory. There are people carving up the world, and apparently because it's just a game. Neat!

Third, Rose and I spent a lot of time today hammering through one of our WIP's, and we managed to not only give it direction but to sketch out a rough chapter outline. A Gift From the Fallen One, taking place in a world sustained by deified ancestors and governed by their human descendants, is the story of a small group of people who are brought together by one six year-old girl, cursed from birth, whose ritual death may be required to save the world. Woohoo!

Okay, now to go disengage my brain for a while.

.Nevets.