Been Blued, writing the novel

Been Blued was a fun novel to write.  I do start with the parameters of the story idea, a rough list of what I think the story will be about and how it will unfold.  After that, unlike some authors, I find it easier to just put down what’s inspired at the moment, rather than doing a chapter outline and then trying to fit the story and characters into it.  I think this gives the storyline a dynamic it wouldn’t have otherwise.  You might think that makes keeping the storyline ‘straight’ a bit difficult, but it works well for me.  I try to assign each chapter a multiple of five, in relation to where it should eventually fit.  Instead of one, two, three, I use one, five, ten, fifteen, etc.  If the section appears to go somewhere in the middle, I might assign it a twenty or thirty.  This allows me to ‘insert’ chapters in between.  Chapter numbers are always changeable, right up until I do the final edit.

The first section written for Been Blued  was the part where Jerod and Kelly meet in chapter four.  (The Fall)  The whole storyline just sort of took off from there, with the cover story Jerod was using, which led me to ‘create’ Jerod in the first place.

It was especially interesting writing the ‘Shot in the Dark’ chapter.  It gave me a chance to connect the storyline with a darker part of the real world, where violence can strike anyone at random.  Okay, it also gave me a chance to mess with several of the characters, which is always fun.  I’ll admit, several of my own characters have surprised me, but then I look at their behavior and realize anything else would have been out of character.

By the time I was ready to write the ending, I didn’t realize how close it already was.  I keep writing as the ideas come, so when the last few words were there on the mini computer screen, I stopped typing.  Literally.  I looked at it, and realized that was the end.  No more until the sequel.  Cool.