Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Not Starting

A new year, a new story. Last year, I wrote two books, and published three, but none were novels. This year, I intend to write at least one novel. I found a story in the Bible that I would like to retell in a modern setting. It’s a great story, but I’ve been having trouble figuring out where to begin. The basic outline is there, but I’ve been having trouble figuring out where the main character is coming from. I know what has to happen, but why? The Bible account is a little vague on that point. It states the facts of the situation, but it doesn’t tell us anything about what is going through people’s heads at the time.

Besides that, the Bible account takes up only two chapters, with the second chapter saying much of the same thing the first chapter did. Essentially, I have to take three pages of information and expand them into 300 pages. But after struggling with how to begin, I decided not to begin. Instead, I wrote the final chapter first. I began with the final event and detailed what happened. That worked so well, that I think I will step backwards a bit and write about the event that caused the situation that triggered that final event. If that works, I’ll step back even farther and detail the events leading up to those events. Eventually, I may reach the point at which the story begins. It will be a point at which the good guys are dying a slow death. By that point, I’ll have a better understanding of what it is that is killing these guys.