Gladiator's Pen welcomes guest author J. Drew Brumbaugh to the Ludis. He is the author of the thrillers War Party and Shepherds and here to talk about his writing process. So pour a cuppa and enjoy the post. Don't forget to leave some comment love!
How Does Your Story Grow?
by J. Drew Brumbaugh
As a guest here, I suppose I should introduce myself. I am J Drew Brumbaugh. The J being for James and so most people call
me Jim. I write suspense novels of
various types. I have two novels
available in both print and ebook formats, a third one on the way, and a
collection of three short stories that is available only as an ebook. More info is available at my website at www.jdrewbrumbaugh.com.
For me, novels take a long time to write. I envy those who can sit down and churn out a
finished novel almost from the first draft.
I don’t know how they do it. My
novels grow and change as they are written.
I start with a basic plot in mind and at least an idea for a few of the
main characters. But it’s sketchy at
best, more like an overriding theme.
Still, I have to start somewhere so I write some and then write some
more and somehow the story keeps going, though not necessarily exactly as I’d
planned. Characters try to change things. They’ll say I’m not that kind of person, I’m
smarter than that. Or I just wouldn’t do
that. And of course I listen because who
knows more about a character than the character them self?
And that isn’t all.
Plot changes and additions crop up at the oddest times and places. Often as the novel writing proceeds a new
idea pops into my head, something I hadn’t thought of before that adds to the
story, or complicates things, or changes the level of challenges for the main
characters. Again, the only thing to do
is fix it, add it or change it so that the idea is incorporated into the story.
I’m not sure how these things happen. I wish I could see everything down to the
last detail up front and then maybe I could finish a novel in one or two drafts
instead of ten. I am convinced that
somewhere in the deep recesses of the unconscious mind, the creative ideas keep
percolating even as the book is unfolding.
I’ve started novels without being able to see the ending. I begin with an idea for the initial challenge,
the original conflict that starts the story in motion, but I don’t know how it
will be resolved, or whether the main character(s) will even succeed. I trust that somehow, some way, the
conclusion will materialize as I go along.
I don’t know how to tell you what happens along the way it just happens.
My novel Shepherds
is a perfect example. Over about three
years the story grew, had chapters added, new Pacific
Ocean , there would be storms.
So, a storm became an important part of the novel. Then I thought of rustlers, fishermen who
would steal the factory tuna since they couldn’t find wild fish. Another problem found space in the novel. How about killer whales? They would eat tuna and dolphins too. So, killer whales. Add to that the personal issues that haunt
individual characters, like Olga’s angst over possibly meeting her mother, whom
she’s never seen having spent her life in an orphanage for mutated “shepherds.”
And even with all that I realized I needed a nastier
antagonist. Who? Ah, some of the fishermen work for drug
cartels making and shipping drugs. Some
of the shepherds got in their way and were killed. Enter Toivo, an independent fisherman who has
dolphin friends who help him find wild tuna.
He too gets embroiled in a fight for survival with the drug cartel and
ends up meeting Olga, a shepherd. How
could a couple of nearly defenseless people defeat such a powerful group of
ruthless killers? I didn’t know. It seemed hopeless, which is the point of a
good suspense novel. And yet, as I
neared the end of the book the answer was there. Like magic.
Where did it come from? I don’t
know. Maybe the writer’s muse? So I write fervently hoping the muse does not
desert me. How about you?
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