Prologue, Chapter One...and Reading

I've finished my prologue. I agonized over it for a few days but finally got something I can not only live with, I think it's good as well. Too bad you don't get to see it until the book is published! I can now concentrate on Chapter One.

I've been reading Robert Crais' L.A. Requiem, one of his Elvis Cole mysteries. It's later on in the series but, in my opinion, one of his best. Cole and his partner, Joe Pike (the strong and silent sidekick, but as strong and silent sidekicks go, Joe Pike is pretty well written; not at all a caricature), are hired by the father of an ex-girlfriend of Pike's to find her. Seems the ex-girlfriend has gone missing and no one knows where she is. I'm about a third of the way through the book and am enjoying it, even though I've read it previously.
Crais' mysteries are among my favorites. I also like reading, and I've said this before (yes, I can repeat myself to the point of boredom), James Lee Burke and early Robert B. Parker , both of whom I'll be reading after I finish L.A. Requiem.

Reading other mystery writers, especially current mystery writers is fairly important, I believe. Doing so shows you what's selling to the publishing houses and also gives insight, to me anyway, into how good stories are put together. I need to do a lot of work on story structure, my weak point. In fact I'm planning on taking Robert McKee's Story Seminar the next time it is held in either New York or L.A. If you don't know what Story Seminar is just go online and Google "Robert Mckee Story Seminar." Or rent the Nicholas Cage movie Adaptation in which Cage plays screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. It is the story of Kaufman himself adapting Susan Orlean's Book The Orchid Thief...which became Adaptation on screen. A little confusing but fun; and in the film Kaufman attend's McKee's class. Enough of that. Just go look it up.

I have to be careful about reading the work of others, however, because I can come away feeling completely inadequate to the task of writing a novel. James Lee Burke is arguably one of the best mystery writers of the last twenty years. I can read him, think that I'll never be able to write like him and then do nothing until I manage to remotivate myself a few weeks later. And a "few weeks" is the fast turn around time for me. It could drag on longer. Dangerous.

Towards the end of developing my skills in crafting a good story, or just writing a book that makes sense, I'm reading Scene and Structure, a Writer's Digest Book. It seems like a pretty basic book but will probably help me since I'm at the basic level in both scene and structure. I'll talk more about the book as I get further into reading it.

More later.

Bill Browning, writing from Starbucks at Barnes & Noble/Buckhead. Monday, 5 April 2010.