One thing Auntie M has learned is that there’s no one way to write. Each writer has to learn what works for him or her, and it’s as individual as snowflakes.
Please welcome fellow Sister in Crime, Ellis Vidler, who shares her writing process with readers.
The Way We Write
The writers I know work in all sorts of ways. Some outline in great detail, others just turn on the computer, start typing, and the story comes to them. Only one person of my acquaintance gets out his yellow legal pad and sharpens his pencil, but it works for him.
Me? I have to think about the characters for a good while, get to know them in my head first. Scenes come to me, and bits of the plot, such as a night fire (arson, of course), and then I wonder if anyone dies in it. If I let the story percolate in its own time, it will eventually take shape.
I do a LOT of reworking, which might be avoided with more planning, but so far that hasn’t worked. The eternal questions why and why not keep coming up. Why would she do that? Why wouldn’t she do that?
Maybe that’s plotting in a way, but the scenes are random, only connected through the characters. My characters are why I write. I love them. I have to or nothing else comes to me. I can imagine them in all kinds of situations, bad and good, as long as I care about them. My most recent characters, Madeleine Schier and Charlie Dance, are two of my favorites. I spent many nights dreaming about them.
I spend hours online searching for pictures of their faces, their homes, settings for scenes, anything that catches my eye. Most of my “finds” are never used, but I keep them for a long time, just in case.
Now that Pinterest has come to my attention, I have a great place to store the pictures, and they’re easier to see on a board than in my photo files. I keep these boards secret until the book is finished. Then I delete the things I don’t want, add excerpts from the book to some, and make the board public.
For my current book, another McGuire Women Psychics, I started out to write Shallow Grave. I have the character, Niamh, bits of the story, and even the cover. But much of it is based on Niamh’s past. Finally I decided I had to write her mother’s story first, or this one would be all backstory. So this story belongs to Aurelia, most powerful of the McGuire psychics.
It’s set in the North Carolina mountains in 1981 when she’s nineteen. I’ve been thinking about her for a couple of months. As usual, this won’t fit neatly into any genre. It’s about vengeance and murder, justice and injustice, and love. I think it will be suspenseful. I don’t know how long it will be—as long as it takes to tell the story, whatever that is.
What I do know is that I’m wrapped up in it, and it’s hard to come out for everyday life. The main male character is Finn Youngblood, a member of a rough, clannish family. Finn plays a mean guitar, and I’m working on a scene in a blues bar, so I’ve been listening to the old blues greats—Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker—while I imagine the scene. The music helps me find the mood and the atmosphere. This was when cigarettes were in, so I see swirls of smoke wafting through the blue light highlighting the band, breathe in the thick air, smell the sweat and perfume and beer. The crowd is caught up in the music. Aurelia, at table in a dark corner, feels it too, until she senses intense rage. She turns, searching for the source, . . .
I’m still in the euphoric stage, the first third or so where I’m filled with ideas and images and in love with all of it. It’s the middle third that’s a killer. I get depressed, doubt the story’s worth, and don’t know where to go next or what works. But for now, I’ll enjoy the high and keep writing. This is how my writing goes.
Ellis lives and writes in the South Carolina Piedmont with her husband and two wonderful dogs. All her stories have some degree of romance and a lot of suspense. Her first two books were traditionally published but now she self-publishes. Haunting Refrain and Time of Death are the two McGuire Women Psychic novels, and Cold Comfort and Prime Target are linked through Maleantes & More, a security firm. She co-wrote The Peeper, a police procedural/suspense novel, with Jim Christopher. Her collection of three short Southern stories, Tea in the Afternoon, is available on Kindle. There’s more about Ellis and her books at http://www.ellisvidler.com
Auntie M, thank you so much for having me and letting me expound on my disorganized process. How do you write? Do you plan? I love the English setting. Research must be wonderful.
It’s interesting to learn how others get from A to Z. The important thing is that we eventually get there, and the journey is intriguing.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
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For me, I always know the ending when I start and do a bit of plotting, then let the muddled middle, as I call it, fly away as the characters lead me, so I’m a bit of both. I adore doing research and besides my English friends, who are always so helpful, I have a folder for each new project in the wings even when I’m not ready to start writing. I keep interesting faces torn from magazines, articles, etc, in there. Sometimes a name will occur to me and I’ll write that down on a scrap of paper and think: Ah, yes, someone in The Golden Hour will have that name!
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I usually know the ending too, at least in a general way. There are many things I hear and think I’ll remember, but they’re gone by the time I need them. I should have a file for the backs of envelopes, napkins, and other scraps I scribble on. Good idea.
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Interesting that the middle third is the hardest part for you. I have a tough time with the first third–so hard to get things right to hang the rest of the book on. Then, when I’m moving along, writing up a storm, things get interesting! I’m also both plotter and pantser. I come up with an idea and do a rough timeline to keep things straight. Although it would probably help me write faster, a detailed outline would kill the fun for me.
Oh, and LOVE Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker 🙂
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DV, I wonder what makes the process so individual. I need to do, as Leslie said, more “shaping” before I start. Some told me she lists scenes, just one-liners, and then starts writing. Nothing’s absolute though–it can always change. The pacing in your stories is always fast and keeps you turning the pages. You must be doing it right for you.
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I’m already loving that blues bar scene. Wow.
I write in a new way. I’ve taken some classes recently that help me shape the story more before I actually hit the keyboard. I’m hoping it helps me write a bit faster. I love finding the character beats, then I add the scene specifics. Frankly, as a screenwriter, writing the scene’s ambiance is my favorite part, dialogue second. But knowing what I sketched about the book now makes things happen on the page earlier, so the reworking hopefully won’t be as intense.
Nice post, Ellis.
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Leslie, I should take the same classes! I’m so slow, it would surely help me to shape the story more before I write. I wrote 1500 words yesterday and think at least 1000 need to be deleted. It’s boring, and if it bores me, I know it will bore readers.
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Whatever your process, you always end up with a wonderful, page-turning book. I rather agree with your first third. That’s also the easiest for me. The middle isn’t bad, but the last third is torture. I want everything to come together and knock my socks off so that readers will feel the same way. Nice post, Ellis.
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Polly, I’ve read all your books, and they do have terrific endings. I know you’re a pantser, and it certainly works for you. I think I’m a flounderer. I do a lot of flip-flopping before I get where I want to be.
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Love you books, Ellis, so keep doing what you’re doing. As for me, I need a destination before I can get started. However, in the actual writing, the original destination gets lost as I get to know my characters better and follow them down new paths. Thanks for sharing your method and, thanks, Auntie M. for providing forum.
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Sandy, it’s interesting how we all do things differently. However you do it, you definitely get to the right place in the end. I love your books, which I call traditional mysteries.
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