For The Mothers

A Mother's Day wish for all the moms out there -- may you have just enough excitement in your life to keep things interesting, just enough safety to keep things secure, and just enough action to keep you from never being bored.

Oh, and per my spouse, plenty of diamonds and gold. But that's a personal preference, I'm sure.

All the best,
C.W. Walker

Time...Not On My Side

Where has well over a month gone?

I realize I was busy. But I made the commitment to blog at least somewhat regularly and here it is, about six weeks after my last blog. I hardly call that 'regular'. And I hardly noticed the time passing, either.

I notice it when I'm writing. By that I mean I remain hyper-aware of the passage of time that my characters and storyline are going through. Has too much happened to fit into a regular day or night? Then it's time to alter something, either the flow, the pacing, or edit just a few lines to move day to night.

Is not enough happening? I'm aware of that, too. If it's not enough to fill the hours, then either something more must be added in or we need to start the next chapter with, "The next day..." as our first words.

But time in real life flows much faster than time in novels. An author can describe one moment for pages or one year in a sentence. But in the regular hum-drum world, time moves forward one day at a time.

Clearly, I need to look up and pay attention to it a little more often. But you see, it's so different in this story I'm working on...

All the best,
C.W. Walker

I Refuse

Only last blog I mentioned I was about to start a new novel, very dark themes, tons of research. I've still not started it.

I've started something else.

It's still dark -- I try, but I go for the darker themes, and that's just how it is. It's still going to need some research. But not what the other one requires.

I didn't make the choice consciously. I just couldn't write a damned thing on the book I intended to. Out of nowhere, this other idea said, "It's my time." And so it is.

So, I refuse to write something I don't want to at this time. (I'm able to say that right now. We'll see how long this resolution lasts.) I'm still writing an action thriller with at least three mysteries to solve. It's still got all the dark and terrible things people do to one another because they can. It's just a different one from the other one.

And, for now, that makes all the difference.

All the best,
C.W. Walker

Getting Started

I'm about to start a new novel. It's going to deal with dark themes (rape and murder of the serial kind). And I'm hesitant.

Honestly, I'm not hesitant about the subject matter. I'm hesitant because of the huge amount of research I'm going to have to do to get this story right. And not just the violent crime part.

I'm mixing in an amateur sleuth, a private investigator, two different officers in the police force who do very different things, and the corrections system. Parole and community service, too. As well as other, non-criminal aspects of both the heroes and the villains.

I know some of this. But not all of it. Not by a long shot. And so I stall.

Why? Some like research. Some love it. Me, I like it just fine when I have the time. But I want to get rolling. And research takes some of that precious time away from the writing. In the case of this story, it's going to take a lot of that time.

I know there are some who advocate just writing it and fixing it up later. However, I tried that early in my career and found it disastrous for me. Get it right the first time, that's my motto.

So, with that motto in mind, perhaps I'd better stop stalling and start reading. And then...then I can start writing.

All the best,
C.W. Walker