The Time has Come

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

The Youghiogheny River

By george, I think I've got it.

If you've been following me on Facebook or Twitter, you know that I've had random, episodic scenes coming to me for, oh, the last month or so. The story has, I think, finally come to together.

It is time to move Jim Duncan and Sally Castle from the world of short fiction to the novel. My main project for October will be plotting and writing the synopsis/summary for the first Laurel Highlands Mysteries novel, tentatively titled Every Other Monday is Murder.

I've been reading a lot of Don Maass as the lead-in to this project. Honestly, I feel a little intimidated. Who am I to think I can actually pull this off? But when you wake up with scenes for a story running through your head, well, it's a story begging to be written, right? And I get the feeling that this one is bigger than a short story.

So, here I go. Wish me luck. And check in at the end of October to ask if I'm done (if nothing else, knowing people will be checking up on me will keep me honest).

Slow and Steady

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

So, here I am. Been a week of unemployment and a week into Rewrite #2 of the novel. I think I came up with a title I don't completely hate - Out of the Blue. See, without giving too much away it speaks not only to one of the details in the story, but the idea of this woman breaking out into her own as an investigator.

Okay, cut me some slack. I'm working on it.

Speaking of working on it, I'm up to what is now Chapter 12 (yeah, those keep changing on me). I've trimmed about 5,000 words from where I started, but I'm sure I'm going to add them back. The manuscript feels "tighter," at least to me. My body is there when the story starts, but I've dropped the idea of murder in chapter 3, instead of chapter 7, and I hope I've introduced what has been described to me as the "hole in the heart" - basically, why you care about this character. A bit of a damaged past for her to work through as a person.

I really hope it works.

The thing about this rewrite is that it's a weird mash-up of tweaking and rewriting. Some of what I have a really like. Some of it, well, "dreck" is probably too strong of a word, but based on what I've learned in the last two months it's not quite as good as I thought it was when I wrote it.

I'm sure my author friends can relate.

My husband is disappointed that my original beginning, which was approximately 25 pages of backstory (you did get a good glimpse of the characters and the world, but it was slow), is gone. That leads me to a question: As a reader, how fast do you like to be thrown into the action? Gentle lead up or right from page one?

Baby Steps

So, the big news of today, I'm guest blogging for Writer Wednesday over at "The Blotter," a blog from my friend and Sisters in Crime sib Joyce Tremel. Check it out if you are so inclined, and read an excerpt from my first Jim Duncan short story.

Other than that, I've jumped into Rewrite #2 for the as-yet untitled novel. (I really must remedy that lack of a title thing.) I'm feeling pretty good about it. In Rewrite #1, I switched to third-person POV because I thought it was necessary. Then I took a great workshop in March and learned that wasn't necessarily true - so Rewrite #2 moves me back to first-person POV with limited third-person scenes.

Of more importance is introducing another character and added depth for the protagonist. Why should you care about her? Why does she care about this murder? Those kinds of questions. I've heard this referred to as "the hole in the heart" - essentially, the reason you are rooting for her.

When I first let someone read my draft, the main comment was, "Your character is too damn happy." Hopefully this second rewrite addresses that. I mean, I don't want her to be absolutely miserable, but I don't want Pollyanna either.

The body is dropped in chapter 1, but previously the idea of murder didn't happen until chapter 7. A bit late, so that concept has moved up to chapter 3.

Anyway, I feel like I'm on the right track. Progress by word count is tricky (since the words are really already written and I'm just adjusting), but I've worked through the first six existing chapters.

I added the equivalent of 12 chapters in the last rewrite. Wonder what I'll add/subtract this time?