Music

All of my main characters are baby boomers. My heroine is my age. Coincidence? Of course not. Music is a running theme in the novel. She listens to it in her car. Her best friend is a D.J. The thing is, I realize I'm lost now in the two thousands. By the way, have we come up with a good name for this decade yet? Anyway, I of course grew up with The Beatles, The Stones, Motown, ahhhhh what a great time for music. That carried us into the 70s and we rocked right along with Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and Queen. In the 80s we were still dancing to U2, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and lots of heavy metal that I'm sure was swell but that I didn't listen to. We were still mostly in the game in the 90s with Pearl Jam and Aerosmith and Nirvana. But now, we don't watch the Grammys anymore because we don't know anyone nominated, unless it's for the lifetime achievment award. I ride in the car with my kids and they have to tell my what the singer is singing about. Birthday Sex was number one. You wouldn't think a song with a title like that could lose with me, but it did. He sounded like he was actually whining about having sex on his birthday. I like some of the songs now, the ones that sound like the songs I used to listen to. Thank God, U2 is still making albums and I like Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay is my style.I'm sure there is a lot of good stuff out there, but I don't feel like torturing myself through the crap to find it. As for the novel, I guess my heroine is gonna have to tune into an oldies station.

Damned Coppers

I have never seen a single episode of Law and Order. I'm pretty sure that makes me about as unique as a lady suma wrestler. It occurred to me, when trying to write the police bits in my book, that I don't watch nearly enough crime dramas on TV. I think the last police show I watched was Dragnet. If I have one of my officers say, "just the facts ma'am" will that be somehow dated? I do like courtroom dramas. My favorite books of all time are To Kill a Mockingbird and Inherit the Wind. But if I have my courtroom spectators cooling themselves with one of those "cardboard on a stick" fans with the name of the local funeral parlor on it, it might make my story a teensy bit less believable. Fortunately, I have a friend of a friend I can consult with on police matters. She is a cop who has worked with gangs and now is in charge of the "property room". I can't wait to hear what kind of cool stuff gets locked up in there. But I digress. Perhaps a little more TV watching wouldn't have hurt me in the background for this book, but I'm hoping my cop acquaintance will let me hold her gun. No way I could get that from Sgt Joe Friday.
Next, I will go and sit in a courtroom and watch a proceeding or two.I'm sure they'll be no Atticus Finch or Henry Drummond type lawyers sweating away in a steamy courthouse; but I'm gonna stick a fan in my purse just in case.

Thrills, Sex, Adventure

If you can create those on page, can you not create them in your life? Do you have to in order to write about them? Of course not. The saying "those who can, do and those who can't, teach" can also be; "those who only wish they could, write about it". I kinda think that John Grisham probably never had some large corporation out to kill him to hide some ugly truth, but I'm sure he thought it would be exciting if they had. Stephen King never owned a killer Plymouth Fury, but I'll bet he wished he would have, even for a day. You just know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fancied himself a great detective and H.G. Wells really did want to go to the moon It is not only in the fertile imagination of the writer that all things become possible; it is also in their deep desire to live an alternate existence that makes them create on paper. The author, I'm guessing, really wants to interact in the world they create. But then, can you actually take pieces of what you've written and try to live them out yourself? Let's face it. My characters are having way more than I am, and I resent it. And I don't have to build a rocket and try to fly it to the moon. I only have to get out there and create a real life adventure for myself. My one dimensional characters are an inspiration to me. I don't really want murder and mayhem to ensue, (or do I?), just a little more of getting out there and living. Let's face it; life may be short, but it's wide.

oh no, not a sex scene

The mood is set...they've had a couple of drinks...they're attracted to each other...they're both single...they're both more than of age...I'm ready to write the first sex scene.
Wait, maybe I'll have a drink first..yeah, that's it...I need to set the mood for myself..maybe play a little Johnny Mathis...light some candles...
Actually, this book is a comedy so it would stand to reason the sex scenes be comical as well. Which is fortunate for me because, as they say, write what you know.
Hey, anyone got a cigarette?

chess board

I've had to leave my story on simmer for a bit while I did some moving around of my own. Since doing so, I've decided my characters would move with me. That way I could write about the locale I was living in. Having to do that has changed my story around too. I shall now have to discard large portions of already written material and rethink plot lines.
I realize that this is what I have done in my own life. I move to a new place, new job, always taking my children along with me, of course. Doing so, I not only changed the "plot" in my own life, but in theirs as well.
Of course my children were not one dimensional characters in an outline, but young people trying to decide who they were and what they would grow to be and how they fit into life.
As it turns out, they became fabulous adults. Maybe because of the moving around or in spite of it. I think maybe a mixture of both.
I can move my characters around like pieces on a chess board and there they will be, just as they are now, forever. When I moved my children around, they made the experience uniquely their own. They were able to make where they were, secondary to who they were.
This book, it turns out, is teaching me much more about real life than the fictional one I am creating.

Experts

I need some advice. Not just on the technicalities of writing, I've got my son Charlie for that. It's that I don't want to write about anything until I consult with the experts in the field. I imagine a reader, (please God, let me have readers) turning to page, say, 107 and saying, "She doesn't know what the hell she's talking about! There are only 7 continents, not 12!" Or something like that.
I can write about hurricanes because I've lived through lots of those. I can write about being 52 because I've been 52. I can continue to write about things I already know about, but that would bore me.
I want to learn new things and write about them.
For some, I consult friends. As a matter of fact, I've chosen some characters based on the fact that I already know people like that. They can then feed me their histories that I can ascribe to my characters. My friend Steve, for instance, has a lifelong career as radio DJ. I also worked in radio for a short time. Voila! I write a character who is a DJ and use that to help the plot along. That may be a bit of the tail wagging the dog, but it's working for me. I'm finding ways to make people and events I'm already familiar with to use as plot devices.
Since I don't have that many friends, I'm going to have to go out and pick the brains of total strangers. I'm very extroverted and therefore don't mind at all doing that. In fact, I think I may be oblivious, most times, to my lack of social restraint. But there are many writers, I would imagine, who are not as comfortable blindsiding innocent bystanders with questions. I'm always in awe of those who will overcome what is personally difficult and challenging to advance their art.
So now, off I go to track down a bungling murderer to get some advice.
Anyone know of any?

When the Kat's Away

I didn't get to write yesterday. I left my characters without supervision. Are they lonely when I'm gone? Do they not know what to do? I am their brain, controlling their actions after all. I imagine them all confused, bumping into walls, not knowing where to go or what to do next. Yes, I am anthropomorphizing my characters because to me, they have become real. What does that mean? Do all authors feel that way about their characters? I hope it means I will write them well and not that I'm just a little crazy.

Mr. Meanie

I'm writing a character who is foul mouthed and crude. I'm having no trouble at all writing this character. Anyone who knows me would think that a character like that would be difficult to write, but nope, it was easy. The vulgarities and crudities came racing off my keyboard faster than I could type them.
If you know me personally, then you know this is a complete one- eighty from my personality. I swear when I'm in traffic sometimes, or if someone has really got me riled up, but I'm pretty tame in the swearing department and completely MIA in the racial, ethnic, social slur department.
So why can I do it here? Where is it coming from?
I'm thinking perhaps it works like this. I hear these things in the "real world" and I don't think I'm absorbing it. It seems it's just going in one ear and out the other. But apparently not. There must be a part of my brain that it all went into. Maybe I just finally opened the door and it all came spilling out like junk in an overstuffed closet.
If that's the case, I advise everyone to sit and write dialogue for a really creepy person and let the junk coming spilling out of your brain closet. It's fun and pretty cathartic.

1st person mix it up

I'm writing this in the first person but with some chapters being 3rd person omniscient. Isn't that a great term? I first heard it used by Heather, my soon to be (I hope) daughter in law. I knew the format but not that uber groovy term for it. Anyway, I'm going to be inserting these 3rd person omniscient chapters and according to Charlie I can. Why? Because it's my book!
I cannot believe how much I'm learning in this process. Not just about writing but so many other things along the way.
With each phrase or name or place, I do a Google look up. Ask me who invented the talking doll. What is a Breezy Rider? How long would it take to circumnavigate our galaxy? Well, actually I don't know the answer to that last one, that's a book I'm not writing....yet.

Characters

I find I'm basing almost all of the characters in my book on people I know. I tinker with the details, but find I like most of them the way they are.
We always think of characters in books or movies as somehow different from the rest of us. They're not. The writer took people he or she already knew and just tinkered with them a bit. Then put them in situations of the author's choosing.
It's easier if you can think of someone you already know and predict how they will act in a given situation.
I wonder if I ever ended up as a character in a novel? Maybe some writer met me briefly and wondered what I would do if I were, say, confronted by an alien, or a sinking ship, or the Queen.
So, to all you people I know out there, just wait until you see what I have in store for you!

Can't help myself

Must stop editing....must stop editing. Charlie tells me that this is the trap lots of new wirters fall in to. I keep going over and over and changing and changing each new passage. I think they are good changes but it is definately slowing me down. That might not be a problem if I were younger, but hey, I'd like to maybe write a second one. It's like Charlie advised, I'm going to go back and change a lot anyway. I'll probably throw out large chunks in their entirety, so just write and worry about the edits later. See? All that makes perfect sense here. But you know what I'm going to do when I've finished this? You guessed it. I'm going to go back and re-read what I've already written and probably makes some edits. Hey, I never claimed to be a fast learner. Just an anal retentive one.

Killing People Over Cocktails

I sat with my son Charlie and his girlfriend Heather at La Siesta yesterday discussing the book. Specifically, we discussed funny ways to kill old people. The fact that both Heather and I were sipping margaritas helped a lot. We also discussed old people killing other people and how they should do it.
I'm certain I could never actually kill a real person, but I'm having the best time dreaming up ways to kill my fictional people. The fact that I'm having fun with the killing parts and am dreading writing the sex parts is probably something I shouldn't discuss on any future dates I may go on. Just between you and me though, it's exciting.

Nuns

While in the shower washing my new short haircut, it came to me that I needed some nuns.
Is this how all writers work? Do different ideas pop into their head at random times?
I wonder how many of these random ideas eventually end up in the story and how many just end up on a Post It Note or spiral binder.
I think I'll go shopping for one of the little pocket tape recorders. One of those "note to self" kind. I have a feeling the nuns are not the only thing to pop into my head at odd times. Maybe I should look for a waterproof recorder.
Meantime, let's see if the nuns make it into the story. Maybe they'll be murderers? Probably not

The Outline

Now I know what my characters are going to do, for the most part. I have the scam, the crime (murder of course, a couple of them), sex scandal and several secondary plots. I should probably put some sex scenes in there but may need someone else to write them. We'll see how well my long term memory works :-)
In coming up with the idea for a scam I did some research and what I found was fairly shocking. The things individuals do to screw over old people is nothing compared to what the government does. Reading the Medicare rules and benefits etc. made me madder with each paragraph. We should let our old people just chill. Sit back, try to enjoy your years, you've earned them. We've got your back on doctors and hospitals for you.
Anyway, the book is not a downer and don't mean for this to be, just passing it along in case you want to write a congressman or senator or letter to the editor.

Now, on to writing my first scene. The protagonist is in the middle of a hurricane. Hold on to your hats!

research for book

Fun research...famous sex scandals
Boring research...Medicare

Writing my first novel

I read that to begin, tell everyone you are a writer. So here goes. "I'm a writer"
I have begun by creating my characters. That is so much fun. It's like playing God. I can create them, how they look, where they live what will happen to them, even how they'll die if I choose that for them. It's very invigorating to play a deity.
I already know I want this to be upbeat, humorous and a quick read. I'm not sure how the bad guys are going to pull off their bad guy deeds, but I'm formulating an idea. It takes place in SW Florida, because no one ever takes SW Florida seriously so that will be new. All the main characters will be baby boomers with all the accompanying histories, issues, grown kids, aging parents, divorce and dating again. They'll have the aches and pains of getting older, but they're still very much in the game. They just will not be nearly as glamorous as the usual 30 somethings, but not Murder She Wrote either. They'll still be looking for money, sex, pot, a place to live or a new career, just in their own baby boomer ways.
The advice I've read is "just do it". Don't worry if you think it sucks, you can always rewrite it or start a new one, but you'll at least have the experience of having done it once. So, sucky or not, here I go.