Just Start

When I started getting serious about writing a book, it began with a fun question over a beer with a buddy. Both of us were fans of science fiction, and we’d been friends long enough to know what we each enjoyed in the genre.

‘What if…’ was how it started. And this is a good exercise for any writer on a new path. My question was ‘What if all of the mythology and folklore surrounding vampires in our culture began with three alien astronauts stranded on Earth 2,000 years before Christ?’

From there, it was a conscious decision to sit down in front of a computer and start. Just start.

But where?

I don’t know if any of you have seen the movie Get Shorty or its sequel Be Cool, but you should. Elmore Leonard wrote the books these movies were taken from, and just paying attention to the dialogue of his characters is a tutorial all its own. You can learn pacing, character development, situational aspects, et al, from watching movies or shows with good writing.

In the movie Too Cool, John Travolta’s character Chili Palmer is explaining how a screenplay is written. His comments are boiled down to ‘You get to know your characters, and they tell you their stories.’

Weirdly, that resonated with me big time, and so I wrote down names of my characters as thought of them. After that, what would they need in order to be those characters in a story? Where’d they get experience? Family background? What’s their history? Once I started setting my characters in front of me, I got to know Captain Ignacio Rodriguez, commanding officer of a starship, leading its crew through a fight for their survival. A brilliant young analyst named Paul Harker told me his story, from his family losses and illness to some amazing events well beyond this first book. I met a badass cop who is a Confederation Ranger and I went with him on a hunt for a very bad guy.

And the story flowed, with some of the characters interacting with others, weaving a pattern in and out of incredible events that will shape our species’ history. It became a fun roller coaster ride, and there are so many times that the story took a loop or a twist I didn’t foresee… I can’t even tell you how many times that happened. I just let them take me on a ride.

Then, when it seemed as though I was almost done, I hit a wall. There were a couple of situations in the storyline that I couldn’t find a resolution to in my apparently paralyzed brain. And the book languished.

Ever have those fits and starts when you’re trying to write something? It happens to us all, so don’t be angry or frustrated. What I ultimately did was confide in a dear friend who kept encouraging my writing. That friend helped me understand something about the writing process that I now hold dear simply because it’s so obvious and critical that I’d like to make sure all of you who are interested in writing take to heart as well.

I wonder if you know what this simple truth is. Let me know your thoughts on it, and I’ll tell you all about it next blog entry.

Remember… get to know your characters. They can be whatever and whoever you want them to be!