Research, Part II

Yesterday I shared that my leading man should look like Eric Bana.  I've decided to shape his lady after Wynona Ryder.

She's quirky, funny, and down to earth.  And ... she has great fashion sense.

Research

I've heard this alot:  "Write what you know."  I tend to disagree.  If everyone writes what they know, we wouldn't have books like Harry Potter, or Twilight.  Even if you happen to write what you know, you still have to do some research.

My novel is about two characters that meet at a slug line in the Washington metropolitan area.  I know about slug lines, but have never utilized one.  I searched online for "slug line" and found this:  http://www.slug-lines.com/  Everything is there, including "slug etiquette," which I found could be an amusing part of my story. 

I then started thinking about my characters.  I want characters who are opposite in nature.  A story with a perfect guy is boring.  The imperfections, quirky habits, and blunders are what make a character endearing.  I knew from the offset that the girl would not be uber rich, because realistically, if you're uber rich, you're not the one standing in the line.  

For my guy's home, I fantasized about where I would want to live.  The kind of house I would want.  If I had won the lottery, of course.  I love Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.  In particular, "Falling Water."  If I won a multi-million dollar lottery, I would, for sure, replicate that home, with a few personal touches of my own.  Here's a link about Falling Water.  http://www.fallingwater.org/2

I imagined the perfect car and thought of a Bentley.  Again, I researched online and found this:  http://www.bentleymotors.com/.  What a car!  That's what I love about writing.  You can dream up anything, and it can be your reality for a bit!

Now it's time to dream about what my guy character would look like.  Eric Bana. 

You like?  And here's another picture of him:

That better?   Of course in the beginning of my story, he won't have any scruff on his face.  He'll be perfectly shaved, perfectly manicured, perfectly dressed. Only after an entire day of chasing Maggie, do we get a glimpse of that hard muscled chest through some rips and tears in his shirt.

Well, I think I will leave you with this glorious image today.  I will continue tomorrow about his lady.

Plotting -- The Basic Outline of my Story "Slug"

The idea for my work in progress came to me while sitting in three hour traffic on I-95 one day.  With envy, I watched the motorists whizzing by in the HOV lane, and thought to myself that I should grow a pair and head on over to a commuter lot to pick up a slug.  A slug is a person who stands in a line in a commuter lot and waits to get a ride from someone going to same general destination.  It was too late to try it that day, so instead of getting out of my car and running down I-95 like a lunatic, pulling out my hair and screaming, I let a story idea take root.  I decided to name my story "Slug." 

Here is the basic, rough, outline:

SLUG

My story is a romantic comedy about Arnold, and Maggie, an unlikely pair, who meet at a “slug line” in a commuter lot in the DC area.  Arnold normally would take the VRE train to work, but because of a bomb scare, and an important 7:30 am meeting, he has to pick up a “slug” in order to make it in time to work.  He is a single 34 year old that runs his own investment firm, and although has everything that money can buy, he has an empty, robotic life.  Not a dust bunny resides in his Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired glass house sitting at the edge of a river.  His Bentley Continental GT is detailed regularly and rarely sees the light of day as Arnold is, well, a maniac about his car.  Maggie works as a temp at the Bureau of Prisons and is a student at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  She is as disorganized as he is organized.  She’s a slug because she knows her ’90 Toyota Corolla barely gets her to the commuter lot a half a mile from her apartment. 

There are some rules on the Slug Line website that Arnold takes to heart. There’s a big No-No list: no smoking, eating, drinking, talking on cell phones, changing the radio station, talking about politics, or religion, rolling down windows, to name a few.  Basically just a hello and goodbye is all that is required of him.  He can deal.  But Maggie breaks all the rules which make for an uncomfortable ride.  She accidentally leaves her cell phone in his car and he slips it into his pocket hoping to find a way to reach her later in the day.  During his important meeting her cell phone rings.  Inadvertently hitting the speaker button, everyone hears a raging maniac threatening to kill him.  It is Maggie’s ex who thinks Arnold is Maggie’s new love interest. 

Arnold spends a day trying to track down Maggie by going down her contact list.  On the way down the list he meets the characters and places that make up her daily life and in the process, Arnold learns to meditate, receives a massage, models for an art class in the nude, has high tea with Maggie’s eccentric grandmother, gets involved in fisticuffs with her ex ,and gets a scratch on his Bentley.  By the time Maggie finally realizes she is missing her phone and calls her number at 11:30 that night from her land line, Arnold is five steps from her door, and more than half-way in love. 

Part I

Chapter 1   Arnold gets a call from his assistant that there is a bomb scare on the VRE.  He needs to make alternative arrangements for getting into work.

Chapter 2 Arnold picks up Maggie at the slug line

Chapter 3:  Arnold and Maggie get to know one another on the ride in to work.  Arnold decides Maggie is the most annoying person he has ever met.  Maggie thinks Arnold is a stick-in-the mud. 

Chapter 4:  Maggie’s exit from the car.  More mishaps.  Portfolio falls and papers start flying.  Arnold has to get out of the car and help chase down papers in his best suit.  Horns are honking.  She hurries off, and he hurries to get in the car.  The light turns back to red.  He sees a paper flying toward the windshield.  It is a pastel painting.  He gets out and retrieves it.  He gets to work and sees her cell phone in the backseat.  He slips it into his pocket, hoping she’ll call it so that he can return it to her. 

Chapter 5:  Before his meeting, he thinks he turns the phone off, but inadvertently presses the speaker button.  During the meeting, the phone rings, he answers, and Maggie’s ex, a raging maniac, threatens to kill him. 

Part II

Chapter 1:  After the meeting he goes into his office and starts going down Maggie’s contact list.  Cathy is the first one  Maggie’s best friend who is out of town on business.  She tells Arnold that Maggie normally goes to a yoga class on Monday afternoons, and gives him the address.  Thinking she hasn’t arrived yet, he is told to join the group, or leave.  Arnold learns to meditate.  After the class, Arnold learns from the yoga instructor that Maggie takes the Tuesday session and that on Monday she works at her roommate’s massage clinic . 

Chapter 2:  Arnold goes to the massage clinic and is led to a room.  He asks for Maggie, but gets Buzz instead.  A ripped, gay, body builder.  Against his wishes, Arnold gets a massage after which he is told that Maggie is only a receptionist, and that she cancelled that day because she had to make an appearance at the art gallery that sells her work.

Chapter 3:  Arnolds arrives at the art gallery and is told he just missed her, but is asked if he is interested in buying any of her paintings.  He is totally blown away by her talent.  Her paintings are of DC spots with people caught in casual poses.  One painting is just of the feet of people in line at a Starbucks: tourists, business people, and hookers.  Another painting is of two homeless people on a bench engaged in a conversation.  Another painting is of two hookers on the street trying to sell their wares.  These are balanced out with office building scenes – chrome and glass stairways, showing a couple’s legs ascending.  There’s also a painting of a chrome and wood and glass elevator with a couple stealing a kiss.  He begins to see this girl in a different light and finds he respects her talent.  He ends up buying the one with the couple stealing a kiss.  The person wraps up his painting and tells him that Maggie probably went to her art studio.

Chapter 4:  Arnold arrives at the art gallery and sees her in the class.  He observes her for a while and witnesses her concentration, the way the holds herself completely still, studying the still life for a while before placing brush to paper.  He realizes she is quite lovely.  The art instructor notices Arnold and says, oh there you are, please come this way, and Arnold tries to shake his head and wave his hand no.  But the instructor is emphatic so Arnold makes his way to her.  She said, oh thank God.  I thought you weren’t coming.  Here, she says, and hands him a robe.  Put this on.  “But I’m ….”  Oh please!  Don’t get shy on me now!  Just do it!”  So he finds himself taking off his clothes.  Maggie recognizes him and smiles.  He tries to get her attention but the instructor poses him so that he is not facing her.  After the session, he tries to catch her, but she has already left.  She has left the painting on her easel.  She gave him a tiny one.

Chapter 5:  Arnold finds who is next on her contact list.  It says Nam, her grandmother.  She says to come on by, that it wasn’t unusual for Maggie to stop by before she goes home for the night.  Nam is eccentric, but sharp as a tack and clearly loves her only granddaughter.  There are pictures everywhere from the time she was a baby to current.  He learns a lot from Nam while drinking tea and chowing down on dainty sandwiches and tea cookies.  He learns about Maggie’s parents dying when she was 10, how she could write, and dance, and play the piano.  He also learns about Maggie’s ex, Drew.  Arnold finds he likes the old bird, and is surprised at the amount of time that has gone by.  Nam is equally impressed with Arnold, and gives him Maggie’s address.

Chapter 6:  When Nam closes the door and Arnold hops down the steps, he is greeted with a sucker punch to the jaw.  Maggie’s ex, Drew, is before him.  He tries to explain to him that he is not Maggie’s boyfriend, that he was just returning her phone.  Drew isn’t buying it.  They struggle, until Nam comes out with a glock.  Drew is afraid of Nam, and scrams.  Arnold finally makes it to his car and finds that someone has keyed his car. 

Part III

Arnold parks in front of Maggie’s Apartment building.  He walks up the stairs, and the phone rings.  It’s Maggie.  He says, “I think I have something that belongs to you.”  She says, “my phone!”  He says, “well, yes, that too.”  “What else is there?” she asks.  “This,” he replies as he comes to stand directly in front of her.  And there they are in the doorway, she in her pink robe, and bear claw slippers, and he with a bruised eye and ripped shirt.  He holds out the pastel painting she thought she had lost.  They both looked down.  It was a painting of two lovers kissing in the night under a neon light.  She looked up and thanked him.  She asks him if he would like to come in for a cup of coffee.  He says yes.  She opens the door wider, and says, “don’t mind the mess.”  And Arnold found he didn’t.  

The Basics of Writing a Novel

Here's the short list:

1.  Set aside time everyday for writing.  Show up, at your laptop, like you would for any job.  Be punctual, limit your breaks, dedicate yourself for the entire time period. 

2.  Take your story idea and create an outline.  Include a rough beginning, middle and end of your story.

3.  Get to know your characters as well as you know yourself.  Interview them in your mind, write it all down and keep it handy.

4.  Get the story down -- the first draft.  Don't be fussy.  Don't worry about grammatical mistakes, misspellings, poor dialogue.  Just get it on paper, from beginning to end. 

5.  Multiple drafts.  The second draft should fix grammar, puncutation, spelling.  Dialogue should be tightened.  Check for useless adjectives and adverbs.    Third draft should add backstory, and moving around text, i.e., don't let backstory be in the first couple of chapters.   The fourth draft is where you get creative -- add the sparkly prose (the sentences that make your readers sigh and say, what a writer!  I wish I could write like that!) -- but limit your sparklies to about one per page.  You don't want to bore your readers. 

6.  Beta Readers.  Ask your friends and family to read your book.  They represent your audience, the people who are going to buy your book.  They can offer invaluable advice on what is boring, or what is missing. 

7.  Redraft according to comments from your beta readers.

8.  Critique.  Have your book critiqued by a peer who has been published, or is at least going through the publishing stage. 

9.  Query.  Write the query letter.  Try to find an agent. 

10.  Be prepared for lots of rejection.  Develop thick skin.

11.  Develop even thicker skin.  Start writing that second book.  The first book might not find a home in a publishing house.  Don't let this keep you from your dream. 

12.  Receive an acceptance letter.  Sign a contract.  Start dreaming of your first book tour.  Practice writing your signature.  Buy a new outfit for the Oscars because your book is going to become such a smashing success that it becomes a movie.