Compost

Composting?

 - from Susan

 I feel like a panelist for one of those clever word game shows, being challenged to riff about something on the spot. What to say that includes writing, murder mysteries, and re-cycling…and that Michael hasn’t already said? (Coming after a serious writer like Michael in the queue is not easy, folks.)

In addition, I just returned from three glorious weeks on the northern tip of Kauai, where I gazed from the ocean to the mountains, from blue waters to lush green foliage and flowering trees and generally lost myself in the natural splendor.

 

I also wrote, and that’s where, perhaps, a little composting happened. I was adding good scenes, danger for my protagonist, puzzling behaviors by others, and a few he-said-what? moments. But it wasn’t going anywhere. Ups and downs in the action and tension, but kind of circular.

Wondering where to aim my plot, I got out the original one-page outline for this book, the ‘what happens to whom and why’ that had excited me in the first place, and realized I had let my characters pull me off the path. It’s fine to see where characters will lead you to a certain extent, but in conversation last night at one of Janet Rudolph’s delightful author evenings, Craig Johnson confirmed what I had realized on the lanai in Hanalei: you can’t let your characters off the leash for too long. I had gotten lazy and was simply following mine around.

So, sitting there one afternoon as warm, torrential rains fell, I did the kind of cutting and pasting a computer allows you to do, re-shaping what I had that fit into my outline, and setting other parts aside to break down into smaller parts I could use, or to become part of the background landscape of my series, maybe never to find their way into print, but nourishing a richer understanding of how Dani, Dickie, Charlie “Green Eyes,” Suzy, and Fever the cat operate in their world.

In a word, what I did was to compost some of my manuscript!

 

Comments

[Camille Minichino]

A very familiar part of the process, Susan—reigning in those wanderings into our characters' lives. There are parts that we have to know, but not necessarily put into the novel.

[Michael A. Black]

Wow, Susan, I envy you having the discipline to even think about writing in a place like that. I'd be following more than just my characters around. Great blog.

[Susan C Shea]

Camille, you're so right, even though it's hard to prune at times. Michael, I credit Kauai's famous rainfall and the too-hot sun of midday for those times spent on the lanai working. Other times, I swam with turtles and followed parrotfish around!

[Mysti]

Oh, I think we stayed at the same place you did, only in December that bay is CHURNING! Did you drive over bridges to get there (west of Princeville)? love north shore of Kauai...

Craig Johnson is a hoot, he was at LCC and impressed the whole room with the breadth of his knowledge as well as the makes-it-look-easy writing style.

My characters don't lead me around so much as play hide-n-seek. Hoping that's something that goes away in 3rd, 4th, or 5th novel :)

Thanks for a lovely Tuesday post!!!!

[Susan C Shea]

Mysti - Yes, Hanalei and the trade winds make it calm in summer. Craig is as great a raconteur as he is writer, and now his Longmire series is set to become a TV series if the pilot gets picked up. He's flying high and loving it!

[Ann]

Oh, what a lovely photo! We just got back from checking out college down in Southern California. I must admit, UC Santa Barbara looks pretty good, but your beach shot is downright gorgeous...

[Priscilla]

Excellent points! I am just starting a book and now it is time to drag those characters back. Thanks for the help!