"Well, How Did I Get Here?" - Part 3 of 3

     My initial attempt at writing the novel was back in 2008, but I ran into several problems.  I actually got several thousand words into the story, but wasn’t satisfied with how things were coming together.  I was struggling while writing in third person and couldn't get the dialogue just right.  A couple of months after starting, my laptop crashed and everything was lost.  I was back to square one, but didn't view that as complete loss.  It would take me a few years before I felt I was ready to try again.

     The good news is that during that time I still went for my daily walks, which is when I came up with some of my best ideas.  Over the next few years, my plot line expanded.  My one book had grown to a six-book series.  In retrospect, I think it may have been good to delay starting the book; it allowed me time to expand the storyline and strengthen the characters.

     I tried starting all over again in early 2011.  Writing again in third person, I got several paragraphs into the prologue but was still unsatisfied.  I put the book on hold again and began exploring other options to third person narrative. 

     In February 2012, I was ready to try again.  Armed with the Manuscript app for iPad, I was prepared to put in serious time and effort.  I decided to do the bulk of the story in first person – it would be easier for me that way.  There were sections of the book, including the prologue, that needed to be written in third person.  I would tackle those after getting more experience by writing the first person segments.  The strategy worked; midway through the book I was able to write the third person segments as they occurred in the flow of the story rather than waiting until everything else was finished.  

     I finished the 103,000 word first draft in August 2013 and began revisions a few weeks later.  As I write this in March 2014, the book is down to 89,000 words and still under revision.  It is currently in the hands of various readers for input on plot construction and character development.  After making changes based on their input, I anticipate another round of reader evaluation (including readers in my target market of 12- to 18-year-olds) and follow-up revision, followed by an intensive proofreading and grammar check.  At that point I hope to be ready to start querying agents to represent me to publishers, though I am also preparing a Plan B of self-publishing if that fails.

     It's been a long journey, and I know it's not done yet.

"Well, How Did I Get Here?" - Part 2 of 3

     It was spring of 2007, and like thousands of Harry Potter fans I was anticipating the release of the Deathly Hallows that summer.  I checked fan sites a few times a week looking for clues about what would happen as the series concluded.  It struck me what an awesome feeling J.K. Rowling must have experienced, having so many people so absorbed by something she'd created.  That was the moment when I decided to write a novel.

     As a fan of young adult fiction, I decided I was going to write in that genre.  Still needing a character and plot, I put my imagination to work and came up with some ideas.  There were a few ideas I initially discarded because I didn’t think I could create an entire book around them.  I kept on working at it, looking for some kind of spark to get things rolling.

     Then one day on my morning walk, this song came up on my iPod.  I hadn’t heard it in nearly 15 years, and it brought back some strong images.

                         

     Twilight by Electric Light Orchestra was the first song on their Time album, released in the summer of 1981.  Ever since then, it was one of my favorite songs.  The lyrics made me think of a young boy led astray by a beautiful girl; he was lied to and taken from his comfortable existence to an unfamiliar place beyond time.  Inspired by the song, I started fleshing out the characters of the boy and girl.

     Over the next year, I added more to the story.  I recycled a few characters from the stories I’d rejected earlier, found roles for them in the new plot and created back stories around them.  I was beginning to get excited about what I was doing, but knew there was a long way to go.

     Somewhere along the line, I became aware of the concept of the 'hero's journey' developed by the scholar Joseph Campbell and based on his analysis of the adventures of various heroes from cultures around the world.  George Lucas based Star Wars on the hero's journey; the Harry Potter series is also constructed along the same lines.  I had already started building my plot using a similar framework, and when I became more knowledgeable about it I found ways to put my own twist on it.

     I felt like I was on the right track.  My imagination was working overtime putting all of my plot elements and characters in place.  Putting the actual words together on paper was still ahead of me though, and would prove to be a greater challenge than I imagined.

     To be concluded in Part 3.

"Well, How Did I Get Here?" - part 1 of 3

     The title of this post is a line from the early 80's song Once in a Lifetime by the Talking Heads.  I think it's an appropriate title since I'll be using this first series of blog posts to share how I came to write my first novel.          

          

     I’d never viewed myself as a potential writer.  Yes, I did a fair amount of writing as an undergrad in the School of Journalism at Mizzou – but I took a journalist’s approach to it.  We were taught that the best writing was short, simple and informative.  It wasn't the descriptive type of writing that some novelists use, and we never wrote dialogue.

     Before starting my novel, the longest writing project I’d ever completed was a study guide for a Principles of Marketing correspondence course offered by the Center for Independent Study at Mizzou.  I wrote it in the summer of 1985; I’m not sure how long it was used but I’m sure it's long out of print.

            One thing you may not know about me:  During graduate school, I was a teaching 
        assistant for Principles of Marketing for four semesters at the University of Missouri; 
                                                        Brad Pitt was one of my students. 

     Over the next couple of decades, I did a lot more reading than writing.  I read a lot of Stephen King and a ton of non-fiction – sports, biographies, and anything I could find about conspiracies and the paranormal.  When my children were old enough to start reading Harry Potter and other Young Adult fiction, my wife and I started reading those also.  We wanted to be aware of the kinds of material they were reading – it also didn’t hurt that many of the books were well written and had great characters and interesting plots.  The writing wasn't the flowery, overly descriptive language that I'd often imagined you'd have to use to write a novel.

     In 2005 I read a book titled No Opportunity Wasted, by Phil Keoghan of CBS’s The Amazing Race.  In the book, Keoghan encouraged readers to embrace adventure and step outside their comfort zones.  One of several ways he suggested doing this was to write a book.  I gave the idea some thought, but always figured if I did write a book it would be on a non-fiction topic – unless I came up with a good character and plot first.  That book had planted a seed, but it would take a while longer for it to grow.

     Thanks for sticking with me this far.  I'll be back with part 2 in a few days.