I’m in big trouble.
As I work on my plot,
I sense the story feels flat.
This morning,
I realized I am in big trouble.
I can’t stand seeing my heros in pain,
as if I’ll be in pain as well.
But in the end,
if my heros don’t suffer,
I, as a writer, will.
As I was coming up with an idea for a story, I paired the lead female with a military man with a lost soul. But I didn’t want him to be the typical mentally unstable person, I wanted him to be someone who is aware enough to be on a search for the meaning of his existence.
The thought of a soldier with skills and characters brought me to the world of Special Forces. My knowledge about it came from TV and movies, obviously a crash course is needed.
Since I had no interest in anything war related (though I do admire people in the forces), I started with short romance stories about special ops fighters. I did enjoy the stories but those didn’t show me how these special soldier are made or what traits would get them selected and trained.
Then I found One Rough Man by Brad Taylor. The hero, Pike Logan, is a man with characters and brain.
He, too, like the lead male in my story, was lost for a while after he lost his wife and daughter. I see in Pike, someone who is physically agile and mentally flexible, coming up with ideas when all seems impossible. Though he usually has a plan to begin with. That tells me, he is smart, smart enough to never become arrogant.
As I was reading that, I picked up Inside Delta Force by Eric L. Haney. Being one of the first Delta Force members, he described through his own experience how an Delta operator is selected and train. He told his story with great skill of words, I learned that it also takes someone with wisdom and unusual presence of mind to become a Delta operator. I think I would have enjoyed Pike Logan’s story much more if I had finished this first.
One other thing. I realized I usually read books by female writers. Reading these books is helping me finding the voice of the hero in my story. Can’t have a special force guy sounding like a girl, can we?
The character is still taking shape in my mind but I’m sure he would be someone I can trust, love, and admire, whatever imperfections he might have.
You’ve been clicking away on the keyboard or leaving legible ink on paper but you keep hearing (from inside your head or from people around you) “writing is hard”, William Kenower says differently.
I had a chance to hear his talk on myths of writing, it was illuminating. As he spoke, I checked against my own experiences. Here is what I learned.
I’m most definitely a writer. I would write even if I won’t make money from doing it.
I was writing someone else’s book. Since last November, I’ve been trying to write a romance/sci-fi novel but I stopped completely in mid-January. At first, I thought that was because my heroine didn’t have a clear motive. Now I know I shouldn’t be writing romance since I will never love romance as much as mystery.
When I’m writing, I’m almost always writing. I seldom hear my inner critic when I write, especially during the first draft. I always know I’m in the zone when the world around me simply fades into the background. When I’m stuck usually it’s because the story feels wrong not that I feel wrong. Though I do get frustrated when English gets in my way.
At the end, William Kenower said not to be afraid of the publishers, they need good books to put out there, they want to love what we write.
He said things I’ve never heard from other writers or writing materials. I am glad to know someone out there also believes writing is not hard.
O, oh, I’m running out of ink.
The ink trail is fading fast.
Don’t die yet,
let me finish this heated conversation.
Ah, thank you for your service.
I’m so proud to have finished you off.
The end of you may not spell a bestselling book.
But, to me,
writing a pen out of it’s ink
is the best proof of my perseverance.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be taking it on with another pen.
I’ll not give up until I see the ink trail runs dry again.