Why do we want the reader of a mystery story to be able to “solve” the crime based on the clues given in the story?
What is it that makes a certain group of readers choose a mystery rather than a western or a romance? I don’t think it is because readers like to believe that [...]
Archive for April, 2008
What is it about mysteries?
April 28, 2008
Chapter 14 is completed
April 27, 2008
The words did not come easily, but I managed to finish Chapter 14 of Finnegans Afoot. My problem was twofold. First, it’s a climax chapter, and I wanted to get it exactly right. I don’t know if I did, but given the perspective of time and a complete read through of what has come before [...]
Afoot finished
April 26, 2008
Yahoo! as they say. I finished the first draft of Finnegans Afoot this morning. The last chapter comes in at just over two thousand words, which is a little lean for regular chapters but fine for a wrap up.
I had started out this moring intending to work on a short story that has been occupying [...]
Overheated (I guess)
April 21, 2008
I think I may have overheated the creative machine in my frenzied pace of writing in the last week. I’m probably within a thousand pages words of finishing the first draft of the novel, and I’ve taken the last two days off. I’ve not written a word. What’s more, I haven’t wanted to.
I guess I [...]
The fountain of (my) creativity
April 20, 2008
I don’t pay too much attention to where my writing ideas come from or the methods I use to link them into coherent story ideas. I think, for me at least, it is unhealthy to know too much about that kind of thing.
Are you familiar with Aesop’s fable of the goose that laid golden eggs? [...]
End of the trail — almost
April 18, 2008
I’m astonished at how much progress I have made this week on Finnegans Afoot. Two chapters just fell into place. I have only to finish up one chapter, and then on to the hard one: the last chapter. That’s going to be tough because it brings in an entirely new character — one who [...]
Do Your Own Thing
April 17, 2008
I like this quote from Kurt Vonnegut:
“Don’t trim your sails to every wind, just go ahead and write and see what happens. Don’t look at the market. Don’t look at the bestseller list to see what’s selling. That wouldn’t help anyway. You have to write what you write, or get out of the business.”
It’s a [...]
Here and there and everywhere
April 16, 2008
Normally, I’m very compulsive about writing in proper sequence. I don’t try to write a scene until I have written the scene before it (all of the scenes before it). I would never start a new novel until I had finished a current novel–or given it up as hopeless. (You may recall that I have [...]
I don’t write books.
April 14, 2008
I state that for the record, and I’ll state it again: I don’t write books.
I write novels. When they are printed on page and bound between covers they become books. And someone else takes care of that part of it. Publishers make books. Writers make novels.
The distinction may seem trivial, but for people who are [...]
