BIRTH AND GROWTH OF A NOVEL

Earl Staggs, novelist and short story author, two-time Derringer award winner, and an all-around good guy, is my guest this week.

The idea came to me shortly after the tragedy of 9-11 when terrorists left a scar across the world that will never heal.  I was equally heartbroken and angry.  The angry part of me wanted to go out and find anyone planning to commit such a horrible, unspeakable act and exterminate them.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought, “What if a group of people did exactly that?”

What if a group tracked potential terrorists, and if they planned to take innocent lives, stop them before they committed their murderous act?  Yes, there are alphabet agencies with that responsibility. There’s the CIA, FBI, NSA and others, but they have restrictions.  They can only react after the fact and do not arrest and prosecute people for making threats.  They take action only after innocent people are killed.

The agency taking form in my mind would be secretive and operate under the radar of scrutiny without restrictions.  If they were absolutely certain a terrorist group would attack and kill, this agency would stop them first – permanently with great prejudice.  Most terrorists are committed to die for their cause.  If that is their wish, this agency would accommodate them. If they want to meet Allah and collect their virgins, the agency would put them in the Express Lane.

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I felt it was an incredible idea, but could I actually build a novel around it? Only one way to find out.  Try it and see what happens.  I worked on it for several years.

I created  a main character with experience in Special Forces and named him Tall Chambers.  When Tall retires from the Army at the age of 37, he joins the special agency.  The agency has eyes and ears all over the world, and other operatives with skills and backgrounds similar to Tall’s fill out the unit.  Tall accepts the agency’s mantra of “Kill one terrorist, save a hundred lives,” even though he doesn’t like killing under any circumstances.  He learns to concentrate on lives saved, not those taken.

But that’s when a strange thing happened.

Tall grew as I wrote until the primary focus of the story shifted from chasing terrorists and centered more to how the job affected him and those around him.  The agency became only a backdrop for Tall’s personal story. 

When Tall loses the person closest to him, his focus becomes entirely personal.  He uses the agency’s resources and contacts to find the person responsible for his loss and set things right.  This quest leads him to a decision between exacting personal revenge or preventing a corrupt power from moving into the most powerful office in the world – the Presidency of the United States.

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I was pleased with how this story turned out and feel it could be my best work to date. Now I look forward to seeing TALL CHAMBERS: JUSTIFIED ACTION in print. That should happen within a few short months, and I’m excited about it.

ABOUT EARL

Mystery author Earl Staggs recently received his second Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. His novel MEMORY OF A MURDER earned a long list of Five Star reviews. SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, a collection of 16 Mystery tales, is available in print and ebook. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine and as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. He is a contributing blog member of Murderous Musings and Make Mine Mystery and a frequent speaker at conferences, seminars, writers and readers groups. Email: earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net Website: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

Right, What You Know

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My guest this week is Matt Iden, author of three very good short-story collections that range from "straight crime action to chilling psychological conflicts to darkly humorous situations."

     "Write what you know." It's probably the most common opening line in writers' guides. The implication is that your personal experience is an untapped vein of precious tales, nuggets of story-telling just waiting to tumble into your greedy little paws, if you would just take the time to catch them. You can at least start a writing career from the things that have happened to you, they say. The rest you can make up.

     Problem is, I have a wealth of experiences, but they don't always fit neatly into a story. Friends ask why I haven't written a novel about my time as a seasonal postman or the trip I took to Antarctica. Any idiot, they seem to suggest, could publish a diary like mine, slap a title on it, and have a best-selling book out next week. "Well, yes," I say, squirming, unable to explain that my ideas don't spring forth fully-formed. The novels, stories, and poems all come from the same place, it's true, but experiences all go into a hopper where they stew, swish around, and pop out--sometimes unbidden--onto the page. Or don't.

     Here's one. It's been bothering me for years. One day I was at my local gym. I was done exercising and went to the locker room to clean up. It was the middle of the day, so the place was nearly empty (emphasis on nearly). I packed my gym clothes and turned the corner out of my locker room alcove into the main corridor. Walking ahead of me, with his back turned, was a young, thirty-something guy. He was quite...pink, which I had occasion to notice because he was buck naked.

     Now, this is distressingly common in locker rooms. I'm no prude, but I go to the gym to work out, not to put myself on display. Unfortunately, it's not that unusual to find one's locker room mates shaving at the sink, weighing themselves, or chatting about stocks and bonds with their neighbor, all 100% in the buff. When I find myself near one of these exhibitionists, I discourage conversation, finish my business as quickly as possible, and keep my eyes unfocused, yet fixed to a point about eight feet off the floor and slightly to the right.

     Alas, this day it was not to be. Blissfully unaware of his audience of one, the man proceeded to demonstrate as he walked down the hall what I can only describe as the most energetic and rhythmic hand jive--using every surface of his exposed body--I've ever had the pleasure to see or hear. It was impossible for me to look away. He wasn't obese, but the...fervor with which he slapped himself made his flesh wobble and turn from pink to scarlet. The wet smackings of palm meeting flesh--flickety flack-whack, skittery flack-swack--rang throughout the locker room, a staccato beat of pectoral muscles thumped, upper arms swatted, and buttocks spanked. The music didn't stop until the man--still oblivious to me--opened the door to the sauna, stepped inside, and ended the performance with the snick of the shutting latch.

     This life episode, as I think you'll agree, is worth writing about. I believe I've demonstrated that. But I'll be damned if I can find an appropriate place for it in one of my crime fiction stories. So, it languishes in my mental crock-pot, waiting to be used at the appropriate time. When I tell this story at parties, people laugh, then ask what book it'll be in.

     "I have no idea," I tell them. "But if you figure it out, will you let me know?"

Author Bio

Matthew Iden writes crime fiction, psychological drama, and dark humor. His short stories are available in several digital collections--Three Shorts, Three the Hard Way, Three on a Match, and Three of a Kind--as well as the master collection, one bad twelve. His medium-boiled P.I. novel featuring retired Washington DC homicide detective Marty Singer debuts soon in A Reason to Live. Connect with Matthew at his blog Life Sentence (http://matthew-iden.com/life-sentence/) or tweet him @CrimeRighter.

Sample or buy any of his short stories at http://matthew-iden.com/collections/.

Writing Short Stories

My guest today is E.B. Davis, short story author and blogger on Writers Who Kill. 

I’m always amazed when writers say that it’s harder for them to write a short story than it is to write a novel. To me, a short story plot is the basis for a novel, and learning to write a short story is the basis for learning to write a novel. Sounds logical—and it is.

A short story must contain only one plot. The plot is structured in three parts. The beginning presents the problem. The middle provides pivotal information that drives the plot to the end, in which the writer solves the problem—sometimes cleverly in a twist. The writer must accomplish this using a few, carefully chosen words. Once mastered, a short story can be expanded into a novel. But in its basic structure, there is no difference between the short story and the novel.

A novel must present a unique situation or problem in its beginning while introducing the main characters, the setting, perhaps suggesting a subplot and, nearing the end of the beginning, add an interesting complication. The middle must drive the plot, providing the start of the main character’s transformation, following complications and furthering subplots, which complement the main plot. Eliminating red herrings decreases the possible suspects, and the mysterious puzzle forms a logical path taking the main character to the conclusion while suspense builds. The ending solves the mystery while tying up the loose ends of the complications and the subplots, which are solved or are used to provide an avenue to the sequel. In different genres, the elements may vary, but the structure remains the same.

Just because a novel is longer doesn’t mean word choice need be any less critical. Every piece of prose and dialogue must snap off the page. Waxing poetic doesn’t cut it. Too many novels contain flabby writing. Learning to write a short story disciplines a writer to be concise. Word smithing is a wonderful art, but it must have aim and hit the target.

In short, short stories are the prototype of novels, which expand the parameters of the short story in breadth and depth. By word count necessity, short stories are limited, concise and singular.

I laugh at myself when reviewing my critiqued work. My partners point out that I jump from point A to D without showing the steps because I tend to write too condensed, but I contend, better to risk a non sequitur than write ad nausea without coming to the point. A novel is not a lengthy conversation, with a captive audience. If it bogs down, readers quit reading.

In a short story I wrote, “Lucky in Death,” about a murderous grandmother who goes back to work helping her family’s financial struggle, soon to be published in a SinC Chesapeake Chapter anthology titled, Chesapeake Crimes: This Job is Murder, a reviewer questioned the grandmother’s necessity of going back to work because of the insurance. What insurance? In the story, I made no mention of insurance, and because I hadn’t, it didn’t exist. The reviewer assumed there had to be insurance. Not always. Many people don’t have life insurance. Should I have addressed her comment? No. Insurance was outside of the story. I had no need to address an issue that didn’t exist. Don’t be persuaded to expand a short story where it need not go.

I challenge you to do a backward exercise. Write a short story using your novel’s main character and plot. See if you can find your novel’s essence by deconstruction. Formulate a finely honed short story based on your main plot. I bet you’ll learn more about your novel than your critique group’s feedback. Then go further—what is your log line?
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Beach author/bum E. B. Davis writes short stories and novels in the mystery genre. When she is not writing or blogging at http://writerwhokill.blogspot.com, she sleeps on the beach, the setting for many of her stories. She is a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, Sisters in Crime and its Guppy and Chesapeake subchapters. A Shaker of Margaritas: Hot Flash Mommas contains her short story, “Implicated by a Phrase.” “Daddy’s Little Girl,” can be found at:  http://voicesfromthegarage.com/story/daddys-little-girl. This short story provides the basis of her paranormal romantic novel in progress, TOASTING FEAR. A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl presents her romantic short, “Rock the Cradle.” In 2012, the SinC Chesapeake Chapter’s anthology titled, Chesapeake Crimes: This Job is Murder, will present “Lucky in Death” and Fishnets, a Guppy anthology will include “The Runaway.”