Dacie Mae and the Lessons She's Teaching Me
Typically my writing is extremely plot-driven.
The characters are somewhat secondary to the plot.
This is a weakness in my writing.
I'm just writing the story and moving the pieces around in it.
This is a fault I never really recognized until I got thick into writing the third installment of Dacie Mae: Midnight Under the Magnolia.
Dacie Mae, a series of mysteries released in installments, follows a young reporter who dreams of making it out of her small town and into big-city journalism one day. Problem is, she is the only family her clinically depressed mother has left and, she wouldn't admit it, she's also attached to her town.
Dacie looks like this, whoever she isFor the past several days I have had no one else at home with me. It's just that time of year when the boys go on an adventure with their grandparents and my husband goes off somewhere to do his National Guard duty. I took a couple days to wallow in watching whatever I wanted and playing Sims 3 while I watched it. I read a couple books. By the third day I was totally over TV and the muse had been fed by all the reading and I just wanted to write.
For two days my TV has remained largely ignored, not being turned on until I'm ready to pass out late at night. I wrote 10,000 words the first day and the second day I re-read all of Midnight Under the Magnolia and then wrote 7,500.
At first, my goal was to just get through 2k, just get through 2k a day, and even that seemed like a huge feat to accomplish. But in the silence of my home the characters grew to life, started saying and doing things I hadn't asked them to say or do. When I go to bed at night, completely worn out, I still can't fall asleep because US Deputy Marshal Hank McClain is lingering in my thoughts or that thing that happened with Dacie Mae and Henry Wallace keeps replaying in my mind.
Hank kinda looks like this....The story is taking on a new dimension that wasn't in my well-laid plans.
I was going to scrap it all, "You're veering off topic!"
But this isn't just about the murders. It's about Dacie Mae, her struggles and her strings and everything that she comes along with. So if she wants to step out of the plot into a coffee shop to get some work done, I'm going to follow her because I'm invested in her. If Hank wants to show up and be big brotherly or whatever it is he's being, I'm going to let him.
It's not the first time I've made this claim but this will be the best thing I've written so far. Of course, every writer should say that with every new work she's putting out. But truly, this is my best. (So far.)
For those of you who haven't heard about Dacie Mae, my goal (now that summer vacation is dying), is to release a new part every Friday. Think of it like a television show.
Right now we're working through Dacie Mae: Midnight Under The Magnolia. All of these installments follow the same string of events and will eventually be bundled into one book. How many installments in one book? It's looking like 4 or 5. Each installment is .99 If the entire "season" of Midnight Under the Magnolia is 5 installments then the entire book will be $4.95.
Get DACIE MAE part 1 Now!
Kindle Nook
Get Holler's Grove FREE July 23rd
Kindle
The characters are somewhat secondary to the plot.
This is a weakness in my writing.
I'm just writing the story and moving the pieces around in it.
This is a fault I never really recognized until I got thick into writing the third installment of Dacie Mae: Midnight Under the Magnolia.
Dacie Mae, a series of mysteries released in installments, follows a young reporter who dreams of making it out of her small town and into big-city journalism one day. Problem is, she is the only family her clinically depressed mother has left and, she wouldn't admit it, she's also attached to her town.
Dacie looks like this, whoever she isFor the past several days I have had no one else at home with me. It's just that time of year when the boys go on an adventure with their grandparents and my husband goes off somewhere to do his National Guard duty. I took a couple days to wallow in watching whatever I wanted and playing Sims 3 while I watched it. I read a couple books. By the third day I was totally over TV and the muse had been fed by all the reading and I just wanted to write. For two days my TV has remained largely ignored, not being turned on until I'm ready to pass out late at night. I wrote 10,000 words the first day and the second day I re-read all of Midnight Under the Magnolia and then wrote 7,500.
At first, my goal was to just get through 2k, just get through 2k a day, and even that seemed like a huge feat to accomplish. But in the silence of my home the characters grew to life, started saying and doing things I hadn't asked them to say or do. When I go to bed at night, completely worn out, I still can't fall asleep because US Deputy Marshal Hank McClain is lingering in my thoughts or that thing that happened with Dacie Mae and Henry Wallace keeps replaying in my mind.
Hank kinda looks like this....The story is taking on a new dimension that wasn't in my well-laid plans. I was going to scrap it all, "You're veering off topic!"
But this isn't just about the murders. It's about Dacie Mae, her struggles and her strings and everything that she comes along with. So if she wants to step out of the plot into a coffee shop to get some work done, I'm going to follow her because I'm invested in her. If Hank wants to show up and be big brotherly or whatever it is he's being, I'm going to let him.
It's not the first time I've made this claim but this will be the best thing I've written so far. Of course, every writer should say that with every new work she's putting out. But truly, this is my best. (So far.)
For those of you who haven't heard about Dacie Mae, my goal (now that summer vacation is dying), is to release a new part every Friday. Think of it like a television show.
Right now we're working through Dacie Mae: Midnight Under The Magnolia. All of these installments follow the same string of events and will eventually be bundled into one book. How many installments in one book? It's looking like 4 or 5. Each installment is .99 If the entire "season" of Midnight Under the Magnolia is 5 installments then the entire book will be $4.95.
Get DACIE MAE part 1 Now!
Kindle Nook
Get Holler's Grove FREE July 23rd
Kindle
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