In life for the most part, people are not all good or all bad. Depending on what situation has enveloped them at the time often determines where they are in their values. A few people never waver, but most oscillate. We put rituals and friends in our life to help center us. How do you write that in a novel?

What Was

The first novel “The Grand New Delhi Escapade” I used the idea of action events. The training at the Long Ridge Writers Group showed how to create a story around an event using sensory details. In talking with a friend from India nightly we shared our shadows. He had lost a brother and I had lost a daughter. Mix in a bit of Irish family history with the name McGowan, and an answer to the nearly endless complaining I heard while teaching that it was hard to find a clean book, and you get a novel. By the way the endless complaining is unfounded. Here comes the truth. Indie authors ( off mainstream but equally talented)create plenty of clean books. Their marketing machine comes smaller so books are available but not the usual routes. Traditional methods produce fewer books that make more sales. Constraints happen along the way and taking a risk on an author becomes well calculated. The Big 6 know what sells in masses. Unfortunately except for children’s genre it may not be clean as defined by the general public. Who by the way is the fuel for the traditional publishers. They buy the not so clean books. They buy the Indie author books as well but not in the same numbers as the traditional methods. Yes the public’s mouth says one thing but their pocketbook says another. In marketing money spent speaks loudly.

What Is

As an author you can write that which suits your inner artist or you can write that which sells. We do both after all we have to eat. Writers are not alone in this. Singers often sing songs that they are not particularly fond of because the audience or service needs it. Painters often pick a theme and create a series of portraits for marketing. Which brings me back to the central theme of my second novel set in Hyderabad. No villian but plenty of people solving a problem and trying to make a living. The villian is corruption and will be tied to a person’s action. The action itself will be trying to make a living not an intentional act to commit a crime. It results in many people becoming permanently ill for a lifetime.

It’s much harder to write and develop.

I have had to learn ways to create the flow psychologically rather than with action events to build to a climax. It caused the characters in the book to do introspection. The good news is you learn more about the characters. Despite the struggle of writing it, it has made me a better writer. The first novel was pure pleasure to create. The second one leaves me feeling uncomfortable at times. Nearly unsettled. More of a call to “think and let think.” The novel does not have all the answers. Everything does not wrap up neatly in a package like life.

What Is To Come

I am reluctant to write the climax in this novel. The one caught in the corruption essentially was a good man who became greedy for more money. In an act that on personal level seems harmless once distributed destroys the life of many. The fact is we all do small acts that result in corruption. Some of us get put in prison for it and others live freely. Like buying a product created by child labor because you want items cheaply. Child labor as the child has no choice. The whole novel has small struggles throughout it on several levels. At the end Sharlene will have her family and friends. More aware but less innocent.

In the middle of putting food on the table with my other writings, the outline of a third novel has come. Bangalore. positive muslim character, and high tech hijinks. It keeps interrupting. I have to write the climax. I HAVE to write the climax. I must write the climax to novel 2. But not tonight. I have to eat and set up for a client.

Angst, redemption, and then renewal.

Until next time may your life be Love, Joy and ever positive,

Mary