Writing process: a new novella

How do you approach your writing? Do you get the germ of an idea and let it grow in your head until it can be written in its entirety? Or do you start by staring at a page, adding a word at a time until you are certain of your way forward?

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A good friend of mine, Chuck Bowie, who writes the compelling Donovan: Thief for Hire series, says that writers proceed in one of two ways:

1. as a ‘planner’ – every character, setting, and nuance of story and plot are set out in a detailed plan that guides the writing of that first draft, or

2. as a ‘pantzer’ – writing by the seat of your pants, letting the story unfold in directions not previously planned or known.

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I am a ‘planner’ with respect to characters and setting; I usually have imagined these in some detail before I start the story. The story and plot, however, I write as a ‘pantzer.’ I believe that once the characters are well understood, they will behave in predictable ways in a particular setting.

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Sometimes, I nurture a plant or story line in my head for days, even years. This was the case for my Kaye Eliot Mystery – How Her Garden Grew. My son says I was writing that story all his life until I finally had it published ( https://www.amazon.ca/Garden-Grew-Jane-Spavold-Tims/dp/1987781732 ).

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Last winter, I finished and published five Urban Mysteries, set in cities in the Maritime provinces:

Office Green: a woman in Halifax, Nova Scotia waters office plants for a living and sees something she was not meant to see (https://www.amazon.ca/Office-Green-Alexandra-Tims/dp/B0DQTQ9H7N )

City Grotesque: an artist in Saint John, New Brunswick helps the city find sixteen look-alikes for a unique set of carvings on an Uptown building and finds a look-alike who doesn’t want his face in the news ( https://www.amazon.ca/City-Grotesque-Alexandra-Tims/dp/B0DQV7937Q )

Hollow Hotel: three friends undertake a climb of the outside of the old hospital in Saint John and have a terrible accident (https://www.amazon.ca/Hollow-Hotel-Alexandra-Tims/dp/1069375322 )

Roundabout: an artist in Fredericton, New Brunswick decides to capture the spirit of the city by drawing vehicles and other users of a traffic circle, and, by mistake, identifies some criminal activity in the city (https://www.amazon.ca/Roundabout-Alexandra-Jane-Tims/dp/B0DQY1KDXJ )

Dancing with Trees: an artist n Fredericton, New Brunswick is drawing the beautiful trees in the city and discovers an old urban mystery and sees a strange woman dancing with the trees (https://www.amazon.ca/Dancing-Trees-Alexandra-Tims/dp/1069375314 )

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This year, I want to publish five novellas as Rural Mysteries. Starting out, I had very few ideas, but lots of experience in the rural environment.

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I now have the first drafts of four of the Rural Mysteries done:

The Garden – a woman discovers her unknown family as she explores a mysterious garden

The Woodlot – a woman finds a small graveyard abandoned in a woodland

The Road – a woman inherits a vintage car from her aunt and sets off on a journey to unravel a mystery associated with a map found in the glove compartment

The Trail – a woman searches for a friend who she thinks is lost in the forest on the hill behind her new house

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For the most recent book, I started with a single word: trail. I have travelled many trails in the province of New Brunswick. The one that came to mind first is the Eagle Rock Trail in southern New Brunswick. In 1978 and for the years following, I followed the trail regularly to collect lichen samples for my work in air quality (lichens get most of their nutrients from the air and so are good indicators of some air pollutants like trace metals).

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It was a beautiful location to visit, because of the lichen wonderland that occurs In the forest on the way to the Eagle Rock lookout. The woods there are full of various types of reindeer and other fruticose lichens (lichens that have a branched structure). They are white or off-white in colour and are so plentiful they make the woods look like a snow storm has passed through.

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I thought about what it would be like to live near to that location and with that thought, I had the character for my book. I began to write about her first day living at the base of the hill and the story began to unfold when a friend drives into the yard and yells “Stacy is missing!”

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From there, the questions who, what, when, where, and why let the story and plot unfold. I typed almost non-stop until the problem in the story was resolved and all the W5 questions were answered.

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The resulting novella and story, tentatively titled The Trail, will be available in December!

All my best!

Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra) Tims