BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR BETH CAUDILL

Although Beth Caudill grew up in West Virginia, she currently resides in North Carolina with her husband, two sons and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who makes an excellent lap warmer. Blending the analytical and creative sides of her brain, she delights in creating fantasy worlds for others. Catch her online most days, except when NCIS and Once Upon a Time air. Read more about her at her website. 

Creating Something Positive When Your Muse Deserts You

Author Nightmare – The Blank Screen of Doom

Writing a story is always an adventure. No matter how many books you’ve created, the process is full of wonder and frustration. Interesting things happen when the process no longer works.

I needed to take some time off last year after publishing Enchantress’ Destiny, the second novella in my Paranormals of Arilase series.  I was homeschooling both my sons and the oldest, who had started high school, was not adjusting well. We made it through summer, and he started a new private school with small classrooms.

My youngest is still at home and while he started middle school, I do have time to write.  I thought I’d be able to make good progress in the fall. Except my writing went nowhere.  My usual process wasn’t working, I couldn’t get a handle on my characters, and words didn’t magically appear on the page.

I can’t express how frustrating it was for me to know I finally had the time to write, but the stories that had always been in my life weren’t there when I sat down at the computer. I’d get glimpses of scenes while driving or in the shower, but when I was at the computer there was nothing. Just a black well of emptiness.

I needed to try something new. But staring at Character and Plot Worksheets gave me hives. Line upon line of information to fill out.  As a pantster, my muse shuts down every time I look at them.  (You can search on “Character Worksheet” and find tons of examples, anywhere from 3 pages to 20+ pages of information.) 

That’s why I’d developed my digital story bible.  I could fill in a limited amount of information and add to it as I wrote.  But now I needed to do something non-digital.  Something tactile to help my creative muse along.

In college I had to write notes, even when professors provided copies of lectures, in order to remember things. A recent study also discovered that students have a better understanding of material when they hand write their notes versus using a laptop.

I needed to create my own paper version of my digital process. Something fun to design yet still provides the information for my story. An area for brainstorming, characters, plot, world building, and research.  Pages for notes and sections for maps and character sketches.

Here is an example of one of the plot pages from the Mystery Writer’s Mini Story Bible for Bedside and Travel.

When I started, I thought it would be ten to fifteen pages. In reality, I ended up with fifty plus pages to capture everything necessary for one story. 

While I write mostly fantasy, I have friends who create science fiction, historical, and urban fantasy stories. We all need to collect similar information; only specific details may differ. With feedback from my friends Judy Teel and Sky Purington, I put together a collection of six print mini story bibles for writers to store their initial story ideas.

Best of all, I’ve been able to make progress on writing again.  I’m hard at work on the third novella in my Paranormals of Arilase series.

The Mystery Writer’s Mini Story Bible for Bedside and Travel

Imagine. Discover. Write.

The Mystery Writer’s Mini Story Bible for Bedside and Travel is your first stop along the path to writing. You set the pace for exploring the imaginary worlds and conflicts within your stories.

Each book section includes an area for you to brainstorm words associated with your idea, detail pages for up to five characters including picture and attire frames, diagram and notes for cataloging your plot points including the murder layout, space to sketch settings and scenes, lines for recording your research and more.

Keep your story details in one convenient journal that easily travels or resides next to your bed. Ideas come at all hours of the day, don’t lose your thoughts because you couldn’t find paper.

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR CATHY STRASSER

Cathy Strasser’s short stories have been published in several anthologies, and one of them, “Afterward,” was a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her debut novel, An Uncertain Grave, is a humorous hiking mystery set in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Learn more about Cathy and her writing at her website. 

Writing Process – Ideas for books

How does an author get an idea for a book? I think if you ask a dozen different authors you’d get a dozen different answers. I’ve heard people say they take ideas from their family histories, overheard conversations, newspaper headlines and even dreams. In my book, An Uncertain Grave, I started with just two words: colossal ineptitude.

I love words. I have fun playing with them in different combinations, playing with alliteration, putting together catchy phrases, basic writer type stuff. When I make a phrase I like, I write it down in a notebook and save it for the future, like a musician might save a series of notes that has the potential to grow into a song.

“Colossal ineptitude” was one of those phrases. I liked the way it sounded when I said it, and I liked the way it started to paint a picture in my mind. If I applied that phrase to a person, what would he/she be like? They’d be a bumbler, someone who never seemed to do anything right. It would be more than just clumsiness; they would have to perform poorly in most things they tried, but in order to be colossal they’d have to try many things. Therefore, they wouldn’t realize they were inept; they would have the illusion that they were acing an activity.

What would sustain that conviction? Equipment. Lots of shiny new gadgets. Heaps of high tech gear and the most advanced tools and tackle. Sport specific clothing and footwear that branded you as a participant. Now one of my main characters was taking shape. An inexperienced guy who felt he knew it all because he’d bought all the coolest stuff. He would be a hiker. Someone who felt buying the best paraphernalia would propel him up any mountain he wanted to climb.

So what was this guy going to do? He was going to prove he was more show than go, and then completely fall apart when faced with a real crisis – finding a body.

Now that I had my first character, I needed a counterweight. Someone with the opposite characteristics to provide conflict. Who better than a pair of experienced State Troopers? Excellent. I put them all on a mountain and let them interact. The first couple of chapters were fun, but I could see that just emphasizing the ineptitude wouldn’t be enough to sustain an entire book. I needed another main character.

I decided to add in a newspaper reporter, someone who also felt he knew it all, and in most cases, actually did. All these characters would be competing to discover the identity of the body found on the mountain, and would be guaranteed to get on each other’s nerves. Excellent, plenty of conflict and plenty of opportunity for snappy dialogue. I added a few ancillary characters for local color, and I had the ingredients for an engaging book. All from a simple phrase!

An Uncertain Grave

A stray hiker reports finding a partially decomposed body on Mt Lafayette in the “North Country” –  the top third of New Hampshire around the Franconia Notch –  where the rugged terrain and sparse population provides the space and isolation to keep any number of secrets. Cliff Codey and Mike Eldrich, New Hampshire State Troopers with the Investigative Services Bureau, set out to solve the case in spite of the weather, reticent locals, and a bored, nosy New York reporter and his ambitious girlfriend who compete with the troopers to discover the victim’s identity.  As the investigation widens, both teams contend with a variety of local residents who have secrets they don’t wish to share. A shadow from Cliff’s past soon intrudes on the current investigation, complicating matters further. All these threads combine as the killer prepares to take action to keep his secret and himself safe.

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