What I'm Grateful For ...

I wrote the first draft of Darkness and the Devil Behind Me as part of National Novel Writing Month -- 2004. It took me nearly four years to finish it. I started the next in the series last November, also as part of NaNoWriMo. Only I really don't intend to give myself four years to finish it. Actually, I'd hoped to have "finished" the second draft by now. I haven't, and so I'm frustrated. Me, yes, me. Patient Persia is frustrated. But you know what? I've decided to be grateful, grateful that I have a nice story to begin with, grateful that I've gotten so far with writing it, and grateful for the bursts of confidence that hit me every now and then and push me to dig deeper and write better than I thought I could. In other words, I'm going to stop beating myself up and give my inner writer a hug, and say, "You've done well. Keep it going."

Along those lines, I'm happy to mention that my story got a mention in Publisher's Weekly's review of The Blue Religion, the Mystery Writers of America short story collection I mentioned earlier. Here's the review:

The Blue Religion: New Stories About Cops, Criminals, and the Chase Edited by Michael Connelly. Little, Brown, $24.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-316-01251-5

Mystery Writers of America presents a high-quality anthology of 19 original stories that explore a wide range of police experiences, from newcomer Polly Nelson's superb tale set in 1864 Kansas, “Burying Mr. Henry,” to editor Connelly's powerful and grim Harry Bosch investigation into a young disabled boy's death, “Father's Day.” The sordid mean streets, depicted in Persia Walker's “Such a Lucky, Pretty Girl,” are nicely balanced with the lighter touches of Jon Breen's “Serial Killer,” a darkly comic tale in which two police detectives recount one of their cases to a community college writing class. TV writer Paul Guyot contributes one of the volume's strongest selections, “What a Wonderful World,” about a cop's obsessive search for the killer of a hot dog vendor. This is one of those rare themed anthologies that can be enjoyed at one sitting. (Apr.)

Am I thrilled or am I thrilled? Yay!!!!

Till next week,

Persia

So emotional

I've been stuck in a scene for two days. Has that ever happened to you? It's the weirdest thing. It felt as though I wasn't connecting with the characters so they wouldn't let me move forward. Very frustrating.

In the scene, the hero confronts the heroine about an issue that's very personal and important to him. At first I thought I'd have the hero appear slightly vulnerable. Halfway through the scene, it began to read like a Puffs facial tissue commercial. I appreciate a hero who's in touch with his feelings, but this was a bit too heavy-handed. It was making me sick.

When revising the scene, I decided to give the hero a temper. Three quarters through the scene, I realized the hero needed to be dialled back a notch or 12. If someone - man or woman - spoke to me like that, I'd smack them really hard and that would be the end of our story.

What to do? What to do?

Finally, I realized the reason I was writing in circles is that I was focussed on the very personal and important issue rather than having the hero react to the heroine. There are two characters in the scene. I needed the hero to react to the heroine in order to move the story forward.

That's my lesson learned.

Patricia