E.A. Briginshaw's Blog, page 6

The Back Nine

I just completed the first draft of my new novel titled "The Back Nine" and it's in the hands of my first beta reader. If this one is like my other novels, it will require six complete cycles of reviews & rewrites until it's ready. I'm hoping that it will be released in April or May.

What's it about?

I'm sure the title gives you a clue that it's about golf, but it's really a novel about life after fifty.

Getting old is not for the squeamish. That's what the members of the Riverview Golf Community are discovering as they prepare for the "Challenge Cup" against a rival golf club.

Ian "Cheech" Martin is going through a mid-life crisis. He's split up with his wife and lost his job. As many of you know, finding a new job after fifty years of age is damn near impossible.

Ray Ferguson is newly retired and looking forward to the golden years with his wife, except he continually feels like he's getting in her way around the house. To further complicate things, their daughter, who they thought was successfully launched out into the world, keeps returning back home with her two kids when her marriage starts hitting the rocks.

Bruce and Anita Thompson's kids are also now out in the real world. The only problem is that Josh, the oldest son, is a member at the rival club, and both father and son are so competitive that they'd each rather pass a kidney stone than lose to one another.

Max Wakelam, the head pro at the club, is learning how to deal with his aging parents, particularly his father who has always felt disappointed that his son is just a club pro and not on the PGA Tour.

And then there's Jerry, the starter at the club. He loves working at the club because it relieves the loneliness of being at home.

I hope you'll enjoy the story of all of these people as they enter the back nine - of their lives.

Writing Influences

At the start of our monthly meetings of the London Writers Society, we normally go around the room with everyone introducing themselves and describing their current work. Quite a few of these writers also include the names of other authors who have influenced their writing, which prompted me to think about my own.

At last night's meeting, one person who had recently read both Goliath and The Second Shooter said I "definitely had my own style". Since he said he really enjoyed both books, I'm assuming this is a good thing.

I know one author who influenced me was Arthur Hailey. For those of you too young to know who he was, he wrote classics such as "Hotel", "Airport" and "The MoneyChangers". When I read his novels, I liked the fact that while I was enjoying the story, I was also learning a lot about the particular industry that he was featuring in his book. He also used multi-strand plot lines which come together in the book, something which I also like to do.

For example, in "Goliath", one of the main characters is bipolar, so that is an element that I explore in the novel. All of the main characters in the book are dealing with their own issues, but the plot lines merge as we get closer and closer to the climax of the book.

In "The Second Shooter", the story continues with the main plot line about the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, but again, there are other plot lines complicating the lives of each of the main characters.

One reader said she thought "Goliath" reminded her of the Evanovich Plum series. Although I'm not really conscious of that influence, it doesn't really surprise me as I've read and enjoyed several of Janet Evanovich's novels.

One book that I know influenced me was "Story Trumps Structure" by Steven James. He describes a style of writing called "Organic Writing" which I think describes my own style.

Other authors that I enjoy and thus, probably affect my writing style are J.D. Robb, John Grisham and David Baldacci.

More directly, I must also give credit to my critique group within the London Writers Society. They continually remind me to simplify my writing, particularly by suggesting that I make the dialogue in my books less formal. Their assistance, along with all of my beta readers, have greatly influenced my writing.

Competing Against The Old Man

Since I'm currently struggling getting out of the starting gate on my new book, I wrote a little blurb about "Competing Against The Old Man" which is appearing on the Golf Canada website.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Sometimes, writing is hard.

Sometimes, writing is hard.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Tell me something I don’t already know.”

But for me, this is not the norm. For those of you who read my previous blog about "How long does it take to write a novel?", you’ll see that the first drafts of my novels tend to come quite quickly. Then comes the many, many more hours involved in rewriting and editing. That’s the painful and time consuming part.

I’m currently trying to write my fourth novel and it has been quite a struggle so far. I’ve been trying to figure out why this one is proving to be such a challenge and I’ve come up with several theories. (Excuses?)

First, my latest novel "The Second Shooter" was just released on February 24th. Surely, there should be some downtime to be expected after that. I’ve been spending more time promoting it than I did on my previous novels. I did a presentation to the "London Writers Society" which resulted in a few sales and some positive feedback. I also did a presentation to the “Kiwanis Writers Group” on what’s involved in publishing a book. That was a lot of fun and was my most successful sales event so far (some people bought all three of my books). But those events were several weeks ago now. Time to get back to work.

My second theory/excuse is that spring has finally arrived and there’s so much more to do. It’s time to get out on the golf course. The NHL playoffs have started, which is taking up most of my evenings (Go Habs Go!). My social calendar is usually pretty empty, but April has been a busy month with a “Tragically Hip” concert, a trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake with my wife to see “Sweet Charity”, and a blues concert by “Buddy Guy”.

My third theory/excuse is that my new novel will be in a slightly different genre than my previous ones. My previous books have all been mystery/suspense novels. The new one is titled “The Back Nine” and is about life after fifty. There will still be some mystery elements in it, but it will be much more introspective (at least, I think it will be).

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t have a lot of ideas for the book. The problem is that whenever I write something, I decide that it’s crap and delete it the next day and start over. I’ve never spent more time leaning on the delete key.

So, what do I do now? Do I force myself to continue writing in the hope that an interesting story will appear? Like they say, you can edit crap but you can’t edit a blank page. Or do I take a break and wait for the story to come to me when it is ready?

Answer: I have no idea.

The Second Shooter

Do you remember where you were when you heard about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy?

If you're an older person like myself, I'm sure the answer is yes. Although I was only eight years old at the time, I remember it very well. I was in the car with my father when we heard about it on the radio. My father immediately told me to be quiet as he turned up the volume. I didn't really know what was going on, but I could tell from my father's reaction that it was quite serious. When we got home, both my parents immediately turned on the TV to get the latest updates. Everything stopped.

For the younger generation, I suspect it's similar to how you felt when you heard about the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Ever since the assassination, there has been speculation that there was a second shooter. But it has been hard to prove because so much evidence was altered or destroyed. The JFK Records Act requires that all records related to the assassination be released to the public by October 26, 2017.

In my research for my novel "The Second Shooter, I looked at a lot of material. The most famous record of what happened that day is the Zapruder film. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq1Pb...). Some people have suggested that the film was altered, and new evidence indicates they were correct.

I also found an interesting interview with Dr. Robert McClelland who was one of the surgeons who operated on Kennedy when he was taken to the hospital. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVZnP...)

There is another interview of Dr. Charles Crenshaw, who was also present on that day. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXZ87...)

My novel "The Second Shooter" is a fictional story about what happens when some of the previously classified evidence is accidently released. (Link: http://www.amazon.com/Second-Shooter-...)

I hope you enjoy the book.

How long does it take to write a novel?

For the last few months, I have been asked numerous times when my next novel will be coming out. Why is it taking so long? How long does it really take to write it?

Tough question. It’s like asking “how long is a piece of string?”

I know some writers spend years and years writing a novel. Others seem to produce them quite quickly. But it got me to thinking – how long does it actually take me?

Fortunately, I create a new version number at each of my writing sessions, so I thought I’d look back and do the math. Every writer is different, but I tend to write in the morning (after I get my medium double-double at Tim Horton’s), and each session is usually between two and three hours. Any longer than that and the quality goes down exponentially.

For “Goliath”, my first book, I estimate that it took me 123 man-hours to produce the first draft of the book. Those hours were spread over about three months. (The story had been kicking around in my head for over five years before I wrote a single word.) Then I sent it out to my beta readers, which in my case are my two sons. At this stage, I’m mostly interested in hearing whether they liked the story. What parts did they like? What parts should be changed or cut out altogether? What parts were confusing? And worst of all, what parts were boring?

Then comes the editing and re-writing. When I edit, I like to start at the beginning again and go through the entire book from start to finish, creating a brand new draft . Then I send out the new draft to different beta readers. Since I write mysteries, I think it’s important to use different people to review each draft because I want people to be surprised by each twist and turn in the plot.

For “Goliath”, there were six separate drafts which took an additional 134 hours of editing. That doesn’t include the hours I spent in the “Fiction Writers Workshop” offered by the University of Western Ontario reading snippets of my book to the class. It also doesn’t include time spent staring at the ceiling trying to figure out how I was going to fix holes in the plot - just hours sitting at the keyboard.

Between each draft, I like to take at least a week away from the book altogether to reset. It also allows time for my beta readers to give me their feedback.

For my second book, “The Legacy”, I completed the first draft in about 70 man-hours, surprisingly short. For some reason, that book seemed to come quite easily. But it still took me four more drafts and 126 hours in editing and re-writing.

My current book, “The Second Shooter”, is a sequel to “Goliath” and it took me about 175 man-hours to write the first draft. This doesn’t include the many hours I spent researching the JFK assassination. I discovered that writing a sequel is hard. I wanted to make it so that readers who hadn’t read the first book would enjoy it, but also that people who did read “Goliath” would feel the first book flowed nicely into the sequel.

The review and editing of this novel was significantly easier because I’m now a member of a critique group with the London Writers Society. It is so much more efficient when you can read a chapter to five or six other writers and get their immediate feedback. I also received very valuable feedback on five or six key chapters of the book from Gary Barwin, the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Western Ontario and the London Public Library.

After an additional 75 (and counting) hours of editing and re-writing, I just requested a proof copy of the fourth draft. This doesn't include the hours meeting with Gary Barwin or the critique group, just hours at the keyboard. No matter how many times I edit it online, I always seem to discover flaws when reviewing the paperback proof copy. I expect the same this time. This is also the version that is reviewed by my most important critic, my wife. She doesn’t get to see the book until just before it goes to production. I’m sure she’ll find something that everyone else missed. She always does.

At some point, you have to bite the bullet and send it out into the world. Otherwise, you’ll spend the rest of your life tweaking every word. I love writing, but the editing part starts to feel like work after a while. Besides, my mind is already working on my next book.

So, how long does it take to write a novel?

Answer: It depends.

First Draft of "The Second Shooter" Released to Beta Readers

Today I finished the first draft of my next novel titled "The Second Shooter".

The following is the draft synopsis of the new book:

The JFK Records Act of 1992 requires that all records related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy be released to the public by October 26, 2017, unless the President deems their release would cause grave harm to the nation. For years, the FBI, CIA and Secret Service have been hiding the existence of critical evidence as to what really happened on that fateful day in Dallas. But when some of these documents are accidently released, forces within the government attempt to recover them using whatever means necessary, including the elimination of anyone who may have seen them.
In the sequel to “Goliath”, David and Robert Shaw head off to university and find themselves drawn into the world of shadow governments and secret societies. Despite the work of an investigative journalist to uncover the truth, and the efforts of their father to protect them, it appears they are clearly in the gun-sight of “The Second Shooter”.

It is probably still a few months until the book is released. In my first two novels, I went through six drafts before I was satisfied, so I expect this one will require about the same number of revisions.

Organic Writing

While participating in WordsFest (www.wordsfest.ca) here in London a few weeks ago, I was approached by several people asking how I write. How do I come up with the stories and the characters?

I know there's a lot of books out there that say a good author should create a comprehensive outline of their story before they write a single word. It should describe all of the plots and sub-plots in the story and contain all of the details about the characters. And that made perfect sense to me. Coming from an IT background, I have been trained to gather and carefully document requirements and design the system before writing a single line of code. Plan-the-work and then work-the-plan.

I guess I'll never be a good author because I don't write that way at all. I normally know how my book will begin and how it will end, but everything in between just seems to happen. In many cases, I don't know what's going to happen next either. I'm along for the ride, just as I hope my readers will be when they read it.

Pat Brown, (www.pabrown.com), who is a member of our local critique group and a very accomplished author, suggested that I take a look at a book called "Story Trumps Structure" by Steven James.

Thanks Pat, because it opened my eyes to something called Organic Writing. Now I don't feel like such an odd duck after all. I highly recommend the book to those, like myself, just beginning their creative writing careers. And it might even help those who have been writing for years.

Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Story-Trumps-St...

Setting for "The Second Shooter"

I have now started writing "The Second Shooter", the sequel to my first novel, "Goliath".

In the first novel, David was in high school. In the sequel, David heads off to Wilfrid Laurier University and rooms with his older brother Robert, who is enrolled at the University of Waterloo (my alma mater).

Last week I visited Waterloo to re-familiarize myself with the campus and the changes are staggering. I was particularly interested in the Quantum-Nano Centre and the work they are doing. It confirmed my initial thinking that Waterloo, and in particular, the universities, would make a great setting for the book.

The book is still several months from completion, but having a somewhat familiar setting will make it a lot easier to write.

FYI, in real life, my youngest son just started the MBA program at Wilfrid Laurier so there are probably many more trips back there to come.

Fiction or Prediction?

My latest novel "The Legacy" is basically a kidnapping story told against the backdrop of the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. However, it also gave me the opportunity to introduce some interesting content regarding golf being added as an Olympic sport again.

For example, did you know that Canada is the defending Olympic champion in golf? George Lyon won the gold medal for Canada back in 1904, the last time golf was an Olympic sport.

It also gave me the opportunity to add a side-story where a certain bearded golfer from Saskatchewan wins a medal in the 2016 Olympic games.

Fiction or Prediction? Time will tell.

Check out "The Legacy" by E.A. Briginshaw on Amazon.com if you're interested in reading it.