Paige Hawthorne: Blog

Several of you good people, many of you better scriveners than I am, have asked me what my writing methodology is. I've always been a fiction reader, mysteries especially. So that's a pleasant after-dinner evening for me. I sip wine and read.



Every once in a while a plot or character idea occurs to me and I jot it down in a standard College Rule notebook. Random notes, unorganized, uncoordinated.



Then, when I have time, it's laptop time. I look at my notebook - - arrows, cross-outs, a phrase that I can't remember what it's about. And try to organize, prioritize, work the stuff into the general mental outline that I'm trying to follow.



It pleases me when a character goes off track, when a measured plot line meanders away from me. But I try to eventually corral it all into the original story profile. When I simply can't, I adjust. What was that movie line … "Print the legend."



One embarrassing aside. I'm such a terrible speller that Spell Check often can't save me. And sometimes I can't even stumble close enough to find the word in Dictionary. It's rather sad, isn't it, that I have to use Google to find the correct spelling.

I have a clear, well fairly clear, mental outline of where "Winter's Wonderland" will go. But oddly, this makes me a little uncomfortable. I'll tell you why.

Some of my characters and plot lines are based on books I've read by authors I admire. But other characters, the important ones anyway, are lightly disguised portraits of people I love.

So, seeing the end of this story - - and I know how silly this seems - - is sort of like seeing the ends of our lives.

Is this irrational? Of course it is. But somehow I've boxed myself into where I'm identifying so closely with Walker, Vanessa and Daddy, that I'm a little scared to let them go.

Very unprofessional.

Maybe that's the point. I'm far from a professional writer.

I was pleased that Robert Coover has written a new novel, "Huck Out West." If a professional author can 'steal' one of America's most iconic characters, Huckleberry Finn, I don't feel too bad about 'borrowing' from my favorite mystery writers!

Some e-mailers who wait until a story is finished before taking it up, have asked me for an estimate. My guess … "Winter's Wonderland" will come to an end this month or early in April.

Paige

Several e-mailers have mentioned to me that they don't begin reading a story until it is completed. Makes sense. Although it will be some time before "Winter's Wonderland" turns the last page.

Others advise me to ignore the scoring system which, they tell me, is weighted. For me though, I guess it's my competitive spirit, it's not easy to overlook the higher scores some writers have. Well, I'll just have to learn to steal better material.

A few readers encourage me to continue my writing even though some characters and parts of the plots are an 'homage' to real writers whom I enjoy. And admire. In any case, 'Walker' is reality-based on my own son. Well, some of the sex stuff is imaginary. My real-life father is the inspiration for Captain Dave Jennings. Finally, my lover, my love, my life, my everything - - Vanessa in here - - is not exaggerated. Honestly.

Hi,

This is my first foray into writing fiction and what surprises me is how informative some of the emails are. Good feedback. For example, a number of people mentioned they enjoy the geographical descriptions of Kansas City.

Another pointed out how derivative some of my writing is. And he's right. I'm an avid mystery reader and I'm shamelessly cribbing from some of my favorite writers. But a lot of "Winter's Wonderland" is my very own.

I don't know what the scores mean, except there are writers in here with much higher grades. And some are lower than mine, so I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. Probably about where I belong.

Paige