The Mad Scientist story, silly as it is, went over fairly well.  At least, once folks recognized that it was not a serious treatise on transplant rejection therapies. :)

I spend some time brainstorming and outlining Smooth Vengeance as well.  So far it’s going a little rough. I may go back to the Snowflake method. I’ve already writing my one sentence description of the plot and expanded that out to a paragraph and a page. I may just keep going, writing the story of the book from each character’s POV. It worked pretty well with Angel Odyssey, at least as a starting point.  Donald Maass’ suggestions in ‘Writing the Breakout Novel’ helped me heighten the stakes there, I’m hoping it will work for me again.

I also need to do a readthrough of Smooth Running again before handing it off to an editor I’m planning to hire. The book is a first novel and heir to many of the flaws of first novels (I was still getting a handle on plot) but I like it and find it exciting and readable. So if I can clean up the typos and then have an editor make SURE that I’ve cleaned up the typos, I might be able to get this up for publication in April.  That would be nice. With a little luck (and a lot of hard work) I may have the sequel written, at least the rough draft of it.

I’m trying to get all this set up because I’m heading out for five days to the Rainforest Writer’s Retreat near Lake Quinault out on the Olympic Peninsula.  Five whole days (minus driving time) of pure writing in the company of professionals and serious aspiring authors like myself.  This should be bliss.  I’ll probably be a little lonely at first but I have high hopes that I’ll get lots of chapters written.  I should be able to get 40-50k words done.  I’ll update you next week and we’ll see how good I actually did.

This isn't a blog about politics and it's not going to turn into one.  That said, I'm mourning the death of Andrew Breitbart today. I didn't get the news until after I'd posted my triffling little book news yesterday, otherwise that post would have been more meaningful.

Just a short update today because work is going to be insane.

I started brainstorming and outlining the new Smooth Charles novel.  The tentative title is Smooth Vengeance, which rolls off the tongue well and suggests certain themes and conflicts.  I was planning on ‘saving’ that title for later but after thinking about it, it makes sense for it to come now.  Revenge is a driving force for Smooth, a duty he feels obligated to pursue, even if it costs him the love and respect of his new partner, even if it costs him his life.

I just started moving the pieces around last night, indeed, I’m still making the pieces.  So there’s a lot that could change even from that bare start of an idea.  Now I have to start thinking about the structure of the book*.  I’m re-reading Donald Maass’ “Writing the Breakout Novel”, the accompanying workbook as well as McKee’s “Story”.

One of the things I have to nail down in the next five days or so is how to begin the novel.  I have a scene or two in mind but I’m wondering if I shouldn’t do a prologue with the bad guys instead. It’s always nice to see the players behind the scenes in prologues, especially since they don’t appear in the narrative itself very much.  Robert Jordan did these kind of prologues well and I suppose that had an influence on me.

Same thing with the first chapter, my thought is to start off in the middle of an ‘errand’, maybe even showing the whole setup, the run, the place where to goes sideways.  Almost a short story at the start of a novel.  This approach to the first chapter will start things out with a bang and set the reader’s expectations about what kind of book this is going to be.  I can also start planting seeds for the overall plot, theme and a subplot or two. I like the idea but a novel is a novel, not a short story. I think everything needs to feel part of the whole and if I write this like a short story, I’m afraid it might stand apart too much.

Sigh. Beginnings are a very delicate time, to quote Princess Irulan**.   But I can always fix things later. The important thing is to get the story started.  Can’t wait. :)

*yes, damn it, I’ve been infected by all those damned books on writing. I’m actually thinking about how books are structured and me, an exploration writer at heart.

** Yes, I know the actual quote is “A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.” But I actually prefer the movie’s quote.