"The End" Doesn't Mean You're Done

What I'm reading: Kindred in Death, by J.D. Robb



I'll be one of about 20 authors signing books on Saturday. I know the majority of you aren't local, but this is our RWA chapter's annual event to raise money for the Adult Literacy League in Orlando. Twenty percent of the proceeds will be donated to the organization, thanks to Barnes & Noble. Literacy is near and dear to me, and I've been a volunteer for the Adult Literacy League for over a decade. I'm plugging the event here because I'd like you to think about donating something -- time, money, in-kind donations -- to a charitable organization you choose.

As I type this, I'm optimistic that I will have reached "The End" of my first draft of my mystery before this post hits the blog. Endings are harder for me than beginnings, and since it's a mystery and not a romance, I'm entering new territory. The bad guy is in custody. He's confessed. The hostage has been rescued. And the twist on the missing "secret" will hit the page.

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The issue, as I'd mentioned earlier this week, is that since I know all the facts, the writing gets tedious. How can I present it to the reader so they feel the tension? Because I don't share those feelings. It's more of an, "Okay, get on with it" feeling. I've known what's going to happen long enough that there's no thrill.

However, I'm optimistic that one way or another, even if it's a dull, dry info dump, it'll be on the page. And then I can start to fix it. Allison Brennan shared numerous versions of her first chapter on her blog at Murder She Writes on Thursday. Knowing that a prolific, best-selling author doesn't get it down in one--or two--drafts makes me feel better.

And the final word count will be longer than my target. However, cutting 10% is always step one in edits. I'll be a lot closer after that step. Some of those cuts will be scenes that aren't needed. Some will be threads that never went anywhere. (Although I know I'll have the urge to expand them and work them in!)


But before I get to edits, I'm going to hit "save" and close the document. The first thing I'll do is indulge in one of the chocolate truffles hubby brought home yesterday.

I'll be back on Monday to let you know how everything went.

Veggies or Dessert?

What I'm reading: The Professional, by Robert B. Parker

Like countless other children, I was encouraged—with the fear that children all over the world might starve otherwise—to finish whatever my mother put on my plate. Most of the time, I liked her fare, but like countless other children, there were some things I found less palatable than others. Veggies often fell into this category. Still, we were expected to eat them. Not understanding how not finishing Brussels sprouts could cause the death of children in China, but not wanting their demise on my conscience, I'd do my best to eat what was put in front of me. And there was no Food Network in those days; my mother's cooking wasn't all that creative until we were much older (Just watch, today will be the one day Mom decides to read my blog!)

My strategy was always to get the yuckiest stuff out of the way first, then move on to the good tastes.

When I was a young mom, the experts suggested not creating the "dessert as reward" mindset. Rather, they suggested that while youngsters were still being spoon fed, one alternate all the 'courses' so that strained peaches were no more important than strained peas. Once my twins were into solid food, I just stuck everything into those compartmentalized plates and let them at it.

I went the mixed vegetable route more often than not, and when one had picked out her favorites, I swapped plates and let them have the other's leftovers. One liked peas, one liked carrots. One picked out the corn. Okay, so I wasn't June Cleaver. My kids survived and were healthy enough.

Aside: I'm not getting into the basic reasons babies like sweets—that sweet things were 'safe' to eat and bitter things were often poisonous, so genetically, we're wired to like sweets, and not until we're older do we develop a taste for the more exotic flavors. That's a completely different topic, and I'm rambling enough already.

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What does this have to do with writing? Allow me to stretch the topic until it threatens to snap. When I write, I have to be linear. I go from appetizer to salad to entrée to dessert. The farthest I can deviate is to leave a scene not quite finished, knowing how it's supposed to end, but just not sure how to get that hook so the reader will turn the page. Or maybe there's a bit of research, and I'm waiting for an answer. I know where I'm going, so I skip ahead just a little and begin the next scene.

For the book I'm working on, there's a "secret" which happens to be a letter. We see it written in the prologue, but don't know what it says. Frankly, at that point, neither did I. But eventually, in order to make sure I had the right motivations for my characters, I had to write the letter. I did, then set it aside until my characters found it. But that's as out of sequence as I've ever been able to write. I fear that if I skip around, the characters won't be behaving the way they should at that point in the book, because they'll have changed by the time they get there.

What really triggered this post, however, is the way I read, not write. Although I love my cross stitch project, it's not really the way I normally live.

I was reading an anthology, which I got because I love one of the 4 contributing authors. I'd never heard of the other 3. And that favorite author's story was the first in the book. I read about 15 pages, then stopped, because it was dessert. It was a story I wanted to savor. I knew the characters, and I wanted to be able to know that when I finished that story, I'd be left with a good taste in my mouth. After a quick check to confirm the other 3 stories were definitely independent, with only the tiniest thread connecting one to another, I moved on and read the other three first (but in order). Then, I went back and had my dessert.

I tend to read dessert books at home, usually when I know I have a reasonable amount of uninterrupted reading time. These are not the books I take to the doctor's office. Even a long wait is still full of distractions. Or on errands, where there are a few minutes here, a few minutes there. Or at the hair salon, which is a noisy place, and the 'wait here while your color processes' chair is not comfortable. I like quiet, cozy surroundings with my dessert reads.

Day before yesterday, I got a meat and potatoes book from the library. This morning, I got a dessert read. Eager as I am to dive in, I'm going to finish my entrée before indulging in dessert.

What about you? Do you have different reading styles? Preferences?

Wednesday Wanderings

What I'm reading: Suite 606 by J.D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan & Mary Kay McComas.

Thanks to Darlyn for being my guest yesterday. Judging from the comments, her post hit home with so many of us. We need to step back and re-evaluate our priorities once in a while. If you haven't read it, you should. You know the drill. Scroll down. And, I'm also at Jeff Markowitz's blog today. You might remember his post about the Jersey Devil last week. I'm sharing my "job interview" with Frankie Castor for When Danger Calls. I'll be here when you get back.

I've now reached the point in my mystery WIP where writing becomes a job. I'm close to the end. I had the revelation about where the "secret" that's been the focus of the book really is. I ran it past hubby over drinks, and he gave it a positive "that's good" as opposed to a grunted, "could work." So now I just have to wrap things up. The plotting is behind me. I've brought out the storyboards to see if I have anything left on my idea board that belongs in the book, but I think it's now a matter of writing the final couple of chapters.



I think that's why I don't like outlines. Once I know that I'm at Point A and need to get to Point B, and I know what Point B is, it becomes a matter of finding the right words to get there. No more discovery. No more character reveals. Trying to keep the zing in the writing (after all, it is the climax of the book) creates more worry and anxiety than joy. This is why I could never write from an outline. Couple that with knowing I'm coming in at least 10K words long so watching the word count rise is not a happy thing.

But I'm determined to get through to "The End" by the end of the week, which is why this is a short post today. Besides, I'm already in two places at once. Hope you've visited me at Jeff Markowitz's blog. If not, get over there already!

The Scribbler Speaks

Today I'm pleased to have Darlyn Finch as my guest at Terry's Place. She was one of my first writing partners, when I was a member of a local group that ended up being called the Pregnant Pigs. She's an amazing writer, who once spent six months as writer in residence at the Jack Kerouac House, and was kind enough to invite me to read at her party representing the culmination of her project there. Welcome, Darlyn.

I know a lot of writers. As a published poet, memoirist, short-story writer, and now fledgling novelist, I’ve been working at the craft for quite a while. I’ve started and been a long-standing member of several writing groups. I earned my MFA. I even edit an e-newsletter for and about writers. They email and call me on the phone.

So what do we end up talking about, more often than not? Who’s writing. Who’s not. How busy we all are. How we wish we had more time. How we wish we had more discipline. Bottom line? Nobody seems to think they’re doing enough.

We whine because we got started too late in life. We whine because we have to work in other fields to support ourselves. We whine because we spend too much time alone, writing. We whine because we don’t spend enough time alone, writing. We whine because we write better than so-and-so, who just got an amazing book deal. Did I mention we whine?

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Recently I stood in a room full of writers, right hand raised in the Girl Scout salute, and pledged to spend at least an hour a day, every day, butt in chair, working on my novel, nomatterwhat.

And I did. Right up until the phone call from my home town. Come today. He’s not going to live through the night.

Funny how everything can change in an instant. (Funny strange, not funny ha-ha.) I went. He died. We buried him. I came home.

I realized something I’d forgotten. Life comes in 24-hour segments for everybody. It’s the one truly democratic system I can think of. We get to choose what we do with that time. We can whine and say that others choose for us, but honestly, that’s only because we let them.

Here’s another secret: One day those 24-hour segments will stop for you and me. The one we’re living in right now is the only one we’ve really got to work with. Choose wisely, but then don’t second-guess your choices.

Some days I fall into the keyboard, reveling in the world I’m creating in my novel – a world so real that the characters inhabit both my sleeping and my waking dreams. Some days, I walk past the computer, out the door, into the sunshine, and go for a walk, a bike ride, a swim. Sometimes I wake up at 3 a.m., pulled from sleep by an urgent need to spill hot tears and a bad poem.

Maybe this interlude of profound awareness of the passage of time and the sacredness of each moment’s choices will dull, the way I know from experience that my pain and grief will lessen. For now, what I want to tell each writer, each artist, each human being I encounter is: It’s okay. Really. Be nice to yourself. What you’re doing is enough. You’re enough. And I love you all.

Darlyn Finch is the author of the poetry collections Red Wax Rose and Three Houses. A graduate of Spalding University's MFA program, she is working on her first novel, Sewing Holes. She was a former Kerouac House Project Writer-in-Residence. Find out more at www.darlynfinch.com

Monday Mailbag

What I'm reading: Guardian Angel, by Lise Fuller

I hope everyone is recovered from a surfeit of sugar, and remembered to switch clocks (or, if you're not where you switch your own clocks, that you remember that those who do are now an hour off.) It's November. We're looking forward to having Thanksgiving dinner with one of our daughters and her husband's family. They've got a time share not far from us, and have invited us to join them. Should be interesting to share someone else's traditions—although I've been ordered to bring my special stuffing.

Normally, early mornings are spent with a cup of coffee reading email and blog crawling. From recent email offerings:

According to the headers, the sender was a review site, and the subject dealt with exchanging links. Curious, because exposure is all part of the marketing game, I opened the message and found the following:

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Hi,

I came across your blog and was wondering if you would consider a link exchange with me. In return for just one link from you I am willing to place a link to your site on my site here: (URL redacted). I can put your link on my home page. I can manually set your link to make sure it always appears on that page and it will never drop off.

I understand that you probably get 100s of spam emails everyday asking the same thing, but I am a real person and not a spam bot.

If this is of interest to you simply reply to this email and I will put your link live first. (Please send me your link details along with a short description of your site)

Seemed interesting, so I decided to check out the site to see what sorts of reviews they did. Some sites feature paranormal, or erotica, or historical, none of which would suit my writing. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the site reviewed CARPORTS. Yep, structures one puts cars in.


So, here's this real person who thinks he's going to target customers from MY blog? Or that anyone who reads his reviews is looking for some romantic suspense? Still scratching my head over that one.



My anti-social networking friend supplied me with another cartoon from Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller. At least this one was relevant. (If you click on the picture, it should open a bigger, more legible, version.





Tomorrow, my guest is Darlyn Finch, who was a member of the first writing group I belonged to – the Pregnant Pigs. Her insistence that I get my work off my hard drive and out to the real world ("Don't make me come get you.") is responsible for making me look at the business side of writing. You won't want to miss what she has to say.

Fall Backward

What I'm reading: The Perfect Couple, by Brenda Novak.



Reminder: Don't forget -- you should have set your clocks back if you're in a 'Fall Backward' place.

Family Carvings 2009

Courtesy of Daughter #1

And, on the home front, this year's jack o'lantern, setting a carving speed record, is brought to you by the shape: Triangle.

Happy Halloween

First, thanks to those who follow this blog. I hit a 100 milestone yesterday. I remember when Google first offered the "follow" option, and I had one person sign up--my daughter. Knowing there's some interest in my meanderings is extremely gratifying.

Tomorrow is Halloween here in the states (and Canada, I'm assuming from the picture I took in Quebec City). Although we don't do much anymore, what with the kids being on their own (I leave the massive celebrations to daughter #2, who throws a major bash every year), Halloween was a favorite holiday in our household for years. As a matter of fact, hubby was late coming to pick me up from the hospital after I was released when our twins were born because he and big brother had to make a stop at the pumpkin patch to pick out one large and two tiny pumpkins.

This year, he bought a pumpkin. I'm not sure if he plans to carve it, though. In this part of the country, you don't carve pumpkins before October 30th or they'll rot. That's something my neighbor learned the hard way when she moved here from Chicago and set about half a dozen carved jack o'lanterns outside her house in early October.


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Hubby was the carving supervisor. I roasted the pumpkin seeds (and ate most of them, because nobody else really liked them. It's good to be the Mom.) The kids designed and drew the faces; he carved. With the advent of those nifty little pumpkin carving kits with the short serrated carvers, they were on their own.

They still carve 'non-traditional' jack o'lanterns, but they were doing it long before it was trendy. My son did this one when he was in high school.


Costumes were fun too. My kids went to a special center for elementary school, and their big bash was Halloween, and costumes were supposed to be kid-made. They came up with some very clever costumes. One year daughter #2 and her best friend went as squeeze bottles of mustard and ketchup. Alas, that was long before digital cameras, and all my photo albums are packed up and in a POD somewhere.

But I did find these the year I turned them into scarecrows.


Also note: Color film HAD been invented, but I was a hobbyist photographer and shot black and white. I'd often hand color bits and pieces of the photos.

Getting It Right

A question frequently asked of authors is how they do their research for their books. Answers are as varied as the books they write. Some might spend months doing research. Some have budgets that permit travel to research exotic locales. While I take advantage of any travel I do, I've yet to reach the point where I can write it off as a legitimate business expense, since I'm pretty sure the IRS expects you to have a contract, or at least expressed interest, for the book in question.

I don't plot very far in advance, so for me, research is an ongoing project. I want the details to be right. At the very least, I want to be the one deciding if I can stretch the truth for the sake of the story.

Sources? I tend to start with Google if it's a topic about which I know nothing, or very little. Their map feature helps me verify things like terrain, routes to and from locations, and local landmarks.


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Using a site such as the Farmer's Almanac, I can check sunrise, sunset, and phases of the moon for the time of year in my book. Even what stars will be visible to my characters as they stand on the porch and gaze heavenward.

I also rely on people I know, whether for their professional expertise or because they live where I've set my books. My sister-in-law will attest to countless emails from me with questions like, "What street trees are blooming in Salem in May?" My daughters provide the music my characters listen to, since they're closer in age than I am.

Since many of my books involve law enforcement officers, I've cultivated sources to make sure the information is accurate. (No, CSI is NOT a reference – more on that later)

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I belong to several Yahoo groups made up of professionals who will answer questions. A favorite is Crimescenewriters. Another invaluable site is "The Graveyard Shift" hosted by retired detective Lee Lofland. When my agencies are fictional, I still try to adhere to proper procedure for that state/county. When writing Nowhere to Hide, my hero was an Orange County deputy. I felt obligated to be as accurate as possible, because these were facts that could be checked. Things like uniform color, and the different uniforms worn by patrol officers versus the motorcycle cops. The fact that nametags show both first and last names. That the department issued weapon is a Glock. And I know that one does NOT thumb a safety off a Glock.

Most agencies have a Public Information Officer who will answer questions. Sometimes whoever answers the phone is intrigued when you introduce yourself as an author, and they'll direct you to someone who can help. I also enrolled in the Civilian Police Academy and made some wonderful contacts there (including Detective Hussey, whom you've probably met on this blog).

I went to a firing range and had hands-on experience firing a variety of weapons. I did a ride-along with a patrol officer (note: I deliberately picked a relatively quiet sector and shift, hoping I'd have time to ask lots of questions. Which I did.)

Details keep the reader on the page. Even the little ones. I read a book not long ago where the character was on the South Beach diet. A scene showed him going to the vending machine for a packet of almonds and then counting out fifteen of them. Seems like a minor detail, but if it had been a different number, anyone familiar with the diet would have been pulled out of the story.

Sometimes you can't help the 'mistakes.' I set a scene in a local restaurant, but by the time the book was accepted, the restaurant had gone defunct. Or, sometimes your publisher's legal department doesn't want you to use real places or people to avoid possible litigation. You've got no control over that. (Other than finding another publisher.)

Sometimes you stretch the truth because it is, in the end, fiction. And nobody should be using fiction as a research source. Which brings me back to CSI and The Graveyard Shift. There's a very real phenomenon, the "CSI Effect" that creates all sorts of problems in the judicial system. People see what the actors do on television and assume it's that way in real life. Lee Lofland has been having fun analyzing the hit television show, "Castle" for police accuracy. He will review each week's show, but his commentary is strictly about the police work and forensics. It has nothing to do with whether or not he likes the show (he does). He provides these insights so authors won't take something they see on the show and assume it's how things work and include it in their books, thus perpetuating the error.

Sometimes the hardest part of research is knowing what to look up. In Finding Sarah, I wanted to make it impossible for her to escape, even though she eluded her captor. Fine. She's found his car keys. But he drives a stick shift, and she doesn't know how to use a manual transmission. To make sure, I had the vehicle parked facing a tree, so she'd also have to back up to get it moving. Reality: you can't start a modern manual transmission vehicle unless you depress the clutch. She wouldn't know this, so the car wouldn't start at all. BUT. I had no clue that the make and model of the car I'd chosen didn't come with a manual transmission. Lucky for me, a crit partner pointed this out, so I was able to save that embarrassing error from appearing on the page.

And at the moment, I'm awaiting an answer to my current plot question about what my cop should do when one of his officers thinks "something isn't quite right" when she checks a local residence. Is the bad guy inside? Does he have hostages? Or did the residents simply not answer the door because they were asleep? Does he go in guns blazing? Knock on the door? Wait for enough backup to surround the house? I don't want a reader to say, "No cop on earth would ever do that" when they read my books. I don't mind, "Well, not the BEST choice, but I can buy it."

Where's "The End?"

What I'm reading: Watch Me, by Brenda Novak

Thanks to Jeff for his fascinating tale of the Jersey Devil. Not something I care to meet up with on a dark night. Or even in broad daylight.

The boring, real-life stuff: Communication. Why is it so hard? I'm STILL going round and round with the dryer repair people, who can't seem to communicate with each other, much less me. I call, they check, they need more information. "We'll call you right back." Yeah, right.

Hasn't happened yet. We've gone back to square one with the company that administers our extended warranty. They agree the best way to proceed is to file a brand new claim, specifying that another company handle the repair job. I won't mention how the first person took all my information, read it back to me and said she'd transfer me to Customer Service. "All they have to do is copy and paste my report and confirm your address. It'll only take a minute." Yeah, right. "Oh, but you've been transferred from a different department. We have to fill out the forms the right way." So I repeat my story. We conclude with, "Someone will call you to set up an appointment within 3 business days." Yeah, right, I repeat.

For the record, my first call to the warranty people was on July 27th. The biggest problem seems to be that the dryer in question is so good that nobody ever needs a repair job, so nobody knows how to deal with the manufacturer. Next time, maybe I should buy a clunker. At least the repair folks will have had lots of experience fixing them.

Back to writing:

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With my final edits turned in (and only one new typo found after I hit "send", but my editor said she'd alert the copyeditor) it was time to get back to my mystery.

As I opened the document and looked at where I'd left off, my first reaction was, "Who ARE these people?" I had to back up and read the last few chapters I'd written to remember what was going on. And, as always when I get near to where the end should be, I find I still have more to say.


I'd been watching word count on this novel, trying to meet publishing guidelines of 70-90,000 words. Normally, I'm happy at a bit over 100,000 for a first draft, but when I hit the 70K mark in this manuscript, I realized I couldn't possibly wrap it up in 10,000 more words. Maybe I could squeeze it in under 90.

Not going to happen. I'm almost there already, and I haven't caught the bad guy, although we know who he is. As a matter of fact, he's captured four of my major characters and is holding them hostage. I haven't revealed his motive for being a bad guy (and it's still a bit shaky – needs a bit more depth), nor have I dealt with the resolution of either of the relationships that have been growing. Not to mention, the whole book has revolved around finding a secret, and that hasn't been revealed yet either.

I've decided (again) that I have to write the book until everything is covered. Then I can go back and see if I've had too much 'fun' and put in brilliant writing that doesn't advance the plot. But I'm afraid if I try to rush the ending, the book will fall flat. And if I try to cut now, I might be deleting critical details. Time to get back to the storyboard and review all my plot points and reveals.

I have Gordon, my police chief. He's got his duties to perform, and solving the case I threw at him is only one of them. Plus, the case has more than one victim, and he's got to put everything together. Then, I have my elderly couple, Rose and Sam, who are at the crux of the mystery. Megan is their ward, and Justin is their grandson. They've all got their own priorities at the beginning of the book, and they've been moving closer together as the book progresses.

Looking at what I had, I realized that to move forward I was going to have to break with the structure I'd been following with scene length, chapter length, and POV shifts. It's about the STORY, stupid. Trying to balance five important characters, even if only three are POV characters has been my challenge. They're not together all the time. And this isn't a romantic suspense where you throw the hero and heroine together on page 3 and they're in each other's pocket for the duration of the book. It's a mystery (actually, all my books are mysteries, and there's only one where hero and heroine are together almost all the way through the book).

As I struggled to bring things to a close, I figured out that there was no "rule" that said I couldn't extend one of Gordon's scenes a few pages longer in order to cover some critical plot points. Or just because I'd been writing chapters with a Gordon POV scene alternating with a Megan or Justin POV scene, that wasn't a "rule" either. IT'S THE STORY, STUPID!

So, now I'm left with deciding if I can capture the bad guy and still have another two chapters to wrap up the mystery behind it. Have I left too much for exposition, or does logic dictate that a lot of the finer points wouldn't be revealed until they have the bad guy in custody? As a reader, I don't like abrupt endings. Give me a little time to ease out of the story, to feel comfortable that things have been wrapped up, and give me another peek at the characters and how they adjust to what they've been through.

Any thoughts?