If any of you have heard me speak about how I write my books,
I always refer to the voices in my head. No, I'm not schizophrenic, and in need
of a long-sleeved jacket and padded room. What I mean is how my mind works
while creating my stories. I've heard other authors speak of how they have a
strict way of writing their books, such as
storyboards, index cards with plot notes, etc.
Now, I’m not going to say I didn’t try doing things that way, but to be
honest, the dang voices in my head would
always screw up my best-laid plans.
When I begin to write a new book, I
will have an idea of what is going to happen, and how I would like it to end. BUT I can’t begin to tell you the number of
times my little voices have made it quite clear the ending or direction of the
story was not to their liking.
One book,
in particular, comes to mind.
When my husband, Bob, first thought of the idea for my dark thriller,
Pure Justice, he had a particular ending
to the story in mind. However, when I
arrived at the part of the story where I needed to set up for the ending I just couldn’t do it. I was home alone that evening, as Bob was
still driving truck over-the-road. I had
finished my dinner and sat down at my trusty laptop and began to type. I knew what I needed to do, but I couldn’t
bring myself to type the words. There I
sat at my laptop losing a raging inner battle with the voices in my head. You may think I’m crazy, but they were
screaming at me to take this incredible
character and his story in an entirely different
direction than was planned from
the start.
This battle raged on for several
tense-filled minutes, as my fingers hovered over the keyboard. I would type a few words then find myself
using the backspace key to erase them
from my screen. I finally had reached
the breaking point when I stood and began to pace the floor, begging
the voices to relent and allow me to end
the book the way I had planned from day one.
I paced and paced, shaking my head with the hope, the voices would shut
up and let me set up the ending of the story the way I wanted.
But they wouldn’t. It didn’t
matter how much I tried to shake the thoughts swirling around in my mind. The new ending to this story was clear in my mind’s
eye, and I was helpless to fight.
Therefore, realizing I was never
going to win this battle, I relented and sat in my comfy chair and began to
type. The words seemed to fly onto the
screen of my laptop as my fingers typed at a frenzied pace. I don’t even think I was fully conscious of
what I was typing, but it didn’t matter.
The ending of this book was writing itself and I was simply a tool in
the process. I’m sure there are other
authors out there who have known this feeling and are just as amazed as I am
when it happens. To surrender to the
voices in your mind can be difficult at times, but I’ve learned it’s the best
thing to do for they know best. When I
typed the last sentence of Pure Justice: No Escape, Paid in Blood, I knew I had
made the correct decision on how this story should end. The readers and their kind reviews have agreed as
well.
Pure Justice is on ALL major ebook outlets for only $2.99
