Crisis of Character

My Friday post at Crime Fiction Collective involves what I thought was a failing plot, but was actually an incomplete character.

I'm learning one step at a time… even when I trip.


It's all better with friends.

Cookin' My Book

The truth is, even if I had a recipe for writing, I probably wouldn't follow it. But wouldn't it be cool to have a choice?

I enjoy cooking. I enjoy trying new recipes and then quirking them up a bit.

Strike that.

I enjoy cooking and trying new recipes as long as I have the tools and ingredients. And time. Oh, and the audience. Picky, picky.

The tools for writing are up to us to discover and implement. Online courses, hands-on classes, books on writing, critique groups, reading, Google, reference librarians and good ol' bichoking. Nothing is handed to us. Some tools will work and some won't. But they're all part of the cooking process, and belong in my kitchen.

My writing recipe included some ingredients that didn't go well together. My good friend Joni pointed out the mismatched and flawed ingredients to me over lunch last Friday. She kindly referred to parts of my premise as "truthful fiction." Sheesh. Together, we came up with some options to revise my recipe.

Thankful that my manuscript isn't polished and ready for representation, I've squared my shoulders and made the decision to be a responsible chef and get the recipe right.

So, starting yesterday, I'm reading through from the beginning and tweaking to make the character of Chase Waters more plausible. It will probably force me to eliminate some scenes all together, but I'm hopeful to find some new little gems . . . er, ingredients.




Still reading Dead Famous. It's making me think about series vs. continued characters vs. stand-alones. . . .

It's all better with friends.

Character vs. Plot

I had dinner last night with a wonderful group of women, many of whom I hadn't seen in almost ten years.

Driving home, I got to thinking about relationships, and like everything else in my life, those thoughts got me thinking about writing.

Prevalent thought is that suspense is plot driven, and in general, characters are quite secondary to the story. I'm thinking that's a dangerous thought to subscribe to.

I want my characters to matter, because if they don't, how can I expect to have anyone care about the plot? The greatest, supsensiest plot in the world is irrelevant if the characters are flat and unconnected.

The plot does not always propel itself, but connected characters who I care about sure can.

I recently finished reading Silent Thunder, the terrific new book by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen. Definitely a well constructed suspense novel, the characters were just as three-dimensional as the plot—even a couple of the secondaries.

So, I played "What if?" about the illustrious group of women who sat around a table in a busy restaurant Monday night.

What if one of them was being stalked?

What if one of them was a stalker?

What if they were being used because of their careers and relationships to unknowingly help a terrorist group?

Relationships. Suspense. Yeah.



Currently reading: Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

It's all better with friends.