Remedy for going stir crazy
I have been a little stir crazy these past weeks because I’ve had nothing to write. I finished “To Beat The Devil” and it’s an eBook and trade paperback, wrote a short story, “Hemingway’s Typewriter,” that I sent to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and am waiting to hear back. As any writer can tell you, waiting is part of the process, so get used to it.
My wife doesn’t believe my walking around under the house (it’s a stilt house, I can walk under it) and maybe smoke a cigar or lay in the hammock has anything to do with writing. Well, just in case she reads this let me explain.
I’m in between book projects, but my mind is working and I have an idea. I start to work it out in my head – new characters, good guys/bad guys or gals. Forged art, drug dealer, Murphy’s cousin sells forged art. Murphy tries to find him. What are the obstacles? Write them down. Have to go from KW to LA to NJ to Ireland, back to KW. What are the obstacles at each place, how dangerous? How do I get Norm involved?
Open up with the murder of a Cuban artist in KW. How does that lead to Ireland?
You see why I work it out in my head first? As an idea takes shape and seems plausible, I start writing notes in a notebook (I guess that’s how it got its name). I draw little boxes with points or names or happenings in them and then lines to other boxes with names, happenings etc. that are related to or because of.
When, in my head, I have a beginning, middle and end, I begin the writing. Of course, the characters usually take over somewhere in the process and my middle and end don’t end up as I had planned, but that’s the fun of being god in my universe, I am constantly surprised by what my characters do to each other and to my plans.
So, I have my beginning, middle and end, but no title. I have four chapters done and three have gone through my critique group. They are totally confused, but interested.
“To Beat the Devil” is no longer on the top 100 mystery/thriller list on Kindle, but it remains selling well. Ads I’ve taken out on the eBook websites began appearing this week for both that book and its predecessor, “Stairway to the Bottom.” I’ve seen a small spike in Stairway sales. Maybe the ads are working.
Two questions for the three people that read my blog posts, 1) if you write, what’s your process? 2) do eBook site ads get your attention? Are readers really paying attention to them? Let me know, please?
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