There’s a Difference When Crafting Novel Ideas
“How do you come up with all those ideas?” It’s a question I get quite a bit of the time from readers. For me, they’re stories I see like a movie in my head.
My first three novels were of the historical type. About 80 percent of those stories deal with actual historical facts. While I do not plan on abandoning that genre of World War II, I’m now embarked upon trying my hand at a mystery novel.
Writing a pure novel versus a historical one is like working on a high-wire without a net. Anything you put down on a page comes purely from my mind. Oh, sure, I’m setting my first story in Oceanside here in Southern California, so there’s a lot of what’s real and true. One of the first rules of writing is you stay with what you know. I know this area where I’ve lived for the past 38 years.
I have a confession, however. This isn’t my first attempt at writing a mystery. I jotted one out last year, but it’s pretty bad. I’m trying to fix it, but don’t know if it’s worth saving.
I admit that “Dark Angel; The Classified Murders” is sort of corny, but my writing friend, Jim Martin, an editor-extraordinaire in eastern North Carolina, says it’s got possibilities. He’s a great storyteller in his own right, so we’ll see what he comes up with. (Jim co-authored “The Beacon on Kill Devil Hill”). Right now, though, he’s suffering 100-plus degree summer temps in his hometown of Rocky Mount, so he’s not feeling all that creative.
This book I’m writing now is called “Haunted Bones.” It’s supposed to be a combination of a murder case and a ghost story. A couple of my friends, who have read the opening chapters (just to see if I’m hitting the mark), tell me I’m on to something. We’ll see.
I do feel more comfortable, however, writing with a solid background already painted on the canvas. I’m working on a new war story and I’m sticking with World War II when it comes to historical novels. That global conflict was the defining event of the 20th century for America and those who fought it — on all sides.
Think about it. America was pushed into becoming a world power as well as developing technology that otherwise might have been created by another country. We were vaulted ahead at least 20 years. And, Germany and Japan probably wouldn’t be the economic powerhouses they are today if we hadn’t given them the tools and the money to rebuild themselves into strong industrial democracies.
The new war story that’s reeling through my head deals with the Malmedy Massacre, which took place during the infamous “Battle of the Bulge” in December 1944. But, that’s on my back burner. Right now I’m trying to figure out how a body mummifies between walls in an old hotel without anyone noticing. Ideas, anyone?
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