Duke Noble 2 got its start Friday night. It's standing at 4441 words right now. I like the idea and I like where it's going.
For those of you who aren't aware, I never know what's going to happen in a story until I write it. It's my process. And for me, doing it this way keeps it fresh and it keeps me interested. The one time I mapped everything out in a story before I wrote it*, the writing bored the hell out of me. I knew what was going to happen. It comes out better if I don't know ahead of time.
Sure, this means I occasionally write myself into a corner and have no idea how to get out again. Generally, I cut a window and climb out. Sometimes I walk across the paint and start anew. Either way, I'm not bored. And if the writer is bored writing the story, the reader is going to be bored, too. None of us wants that.
So, I'm feeling my way through another Duke book. And like I said, I like where it's going. Right now, it picks up after Rumor Has It - with Duke arriving back at his office in the city where he gets a call that sends him racing out the door to solve another mystery. A dead body, a mistaken identity, a missing man... and that's all I've got right now. Should be fun finding out what happens, though.
I've started gathering things for the cover shoot. Right now, I'm thinking a drink and a cigar. Maybe an old revolver, if I can find one that won't break my budget.
In other news, I set up a sale. A Model Curse will have all its books on sale starting tomorrow. 99c each. I'll post something about that in the morning.
If you're a writer, do you know what's going to happen in your books before you write them? If you're a reader, what do you like better: mysteries you can solve or ones that keep you in the dark until the end?
*My second book - Nature of Fear (aka Caldera) - which probably won't ever see the light of readership. I'd read some stuff that suggested a writer needs to know where the story is going in order to write it. Man, was that ever bad advice for me. It might work for some, so I'm not trashing it for everyone. Just for me. Bad idea, B.E... and I haven't done it since.
Yay for Duke 2 words! I have a .357 stainless steel revolver that's over 40 years old. I'd loan it to you but...
ReplyDeleteProcess is what it is. I write snippets as they occur to me, usually from flash fiction prompts. My brain (and/or Iffy) knows stuff that I have no way of accessing until the story and/or characters dictate. As you know, I constructed, then destructed a very long chapter. It was worth the effort. I just hope the brain will engage today.
Oh, and lets not talk about early books, um-kay?
Cheers to a good writing week!
Hooray for progress on Duke 2!
ReplyDeleteI tend to plot my stories pretty heavily, but I still manage to write myself into a stainless-steel cell. Darn characters get ideas of their own! ;-)
Hmm. None of my characters have been talking to me for a loooong time. I'm still tied up in the dressmaking books. Sooner or later I'll hear them call, though.