Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "pantser-writing"
The joys of traveling by satellite
Currently I am about two-thirds of the way through book 6 set in Dallas, Texas. It’s different from my previous five books in that I’ve visited Dallas for four days and El Paso, Texas for two days. Other than those two trips, I’ve not stepped foot in the state of Texas except to change planes. Nearly a year ago when visited my niece and her husband in that state I did with a mindset that I would be setting a future book in the city. In my other books, I’ve had more extensive knowledge of the story’s setting.
I visited major tourist sites and the most expensive mall trying to absorb a flavor for the city and the region with a mind toward murder. The story was complicated by the fact that I had promised a friend I would write her into the story. And of course the icing on top is that I am a pantser. I never know where my writing takes me or who the bad person is going to be. I’ve changed the murderer twice in this story as I’ve gone on. What I’ve also learned with this book is it didn’t make sense for the story to stay in Dallas so my scanty knowledge of Texas was further in trouble by the story moving to a city I have never been to west of Texas.
For authors that can outline their story, it must be strange and unnerving to hear a pantser talk about how they write. How could I not know at the start of the story that it would have to move to another city? The answer is somewhat in that as an American I associate Texas with the petroleum industry. What I found in working on this story is that there is a lot of the petroleum industry that happens outside the city of Dallas. In fact much of it does. It has led me to study those cities and the industry obsessively so I can get my descriptions right.
I’ve found some areas of Texas that will never be on my bucket list to visit in my study of the state. But someday, I would love to motor down the Rio Grande River that separates the United States from Mexico. It looks beautiful from the satellite view. What I can’t discern is the current of the river or the hardships of the people trying to cross it seeking a better life in the United States. It looks very wide in some places and I am amazed at the lack of houses enjoying that view. In the end I decided it was likely a little too desolate. There would be expenses related to getting food and other resources to the isolated location and there might be danger if the drug cartel decided that your piece of that scenic river was the new narcotics route for them.
Someday I’ll travel to that part of the world and learn more about the land and people than I can view by simply ‘beaming down to the area’. Meanwhile, my next book is set in the UK, a place I have visited five to seven times. I’ll still due loads of research, but I think I’ll have a better feel for the land and its people.
I visited major tourist sites and the most expensive mall trying to absorb a flavor for the city and the region with a mind toward murder. The story was complicated by the fact that I had promised a friend I would write her into the story. And of course the icing on top is that I am a pantser. I never know where my writing takes me or who the bad person is going to be. I’ve changed the murderer twice in this story as I’ve gone on. What I’ve also learned with this book is it didn’t make sense for the story to stay in Dallas so my scanty knowledge of Texas was further in trouble by the story moving to a city I have never been to west of Texas.
For authors that can outline their story, it must be strange and unnerving to hear a pantser talk about how they write. How could I not know at the start of the story that it would have to move to another city? The answer is somewhat in that as an American I associate Texas with the petroleum industry. What I found in working on this story is that there is a lot of the petroleum industry that happens outside the city of Dallas. In fact much of it does. It has led me to study those cities and the industry obsessively so I can get my descriptions right.
I’ve found some areas of Texas that will never be on my bucket list to visit in my study of the state. But someday, I would love to motor down the Rio Grande River that separates the United States from Mexico. It looks beautiful from the satellite view. What I can’t discern is the current of the river or the hardships of the people trying to cross it seeking a better life in the United States. It looks very wide in some places and I am amazed at the lack of houses enjoying that view. In the end I decided it was likely a little too desolate. There would be expenses related to getting food and other resources to the isolated location and there might be danger if the drug cartel decided that your piece of that scenic river was the new narcotics route for them.
Someday I’ll travel to that part of the world and learn more about the land and people than I can view by simply ‘beaming down to the area’. Meanwhile, my next book is set in the UK, a place I have visited five to seven times. I’ll still due loads of research, but I think I’ll have a better feel for the land and its people.
