10.26.08
A new book, a new family
I’ve started writing a new book. As I’m a “pantser”, a seat of my pants writer (as opposed to a plotter), I have no outline. I haven’t spent two months detailing my characters’ every move. To do so would, to me, be the same as writing the book. It would also restrict me in case my characters should decide to take a different turn. Think of all the time I’d waste trying to pull them back into line with The Plot. So, no, I give myself a set of circumstances, put a couple of people in need of a happy ending in them, and dive head first into reaching my destination, said happy ending.
But to start a new book is to start a new family. Here are people I’ve thought about, but not fully met. I know the color of her hair (honey blonde), the twinkle in his eye (he hasn’t a clue). I know my third person point of view, the one who wants to see that everyone learns a lesson along the way to their happiness (his mother). I know the setting (small town Texas), the industries involved (a used book store, a public library, a smoked turkey concern). I know who’s rich (him), who’s not-so-rich (her), who’s resentful (her family), who’s greedy (but greedy for what?). I know there are secrets. Lots of secrets. Secrets kept from him (he doesn’t recognize her), secrets kept from her (why her mother really hates his), and secrets kept from the reader (what caused all this ill-will). And then there’s a mystery: who kept a diary in the margins of the tattered book entitled The Perfect Groom?
Truth be told (or written), I don’t even know all the answers. That’s why it’s exciting to start a new book, to plunge into the pages and find out what these wonderful characters have to tell me. To sit down at the computer and find someone else has just knocked on the heroine’s door–and neither of us saw him coming.