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| Robert Ellis |
Starting a
new project, whether you're intending to write a screenplay or novel, is never
easy. Sitting aboard that mythical ship lashed to the dock for the past six
months, taking it easy, dreaming good dreams, never having to make hard
decisions or risk anything by putting yourself on the line seems pretty fine
right now! But eventually, unless you're finished,
that proverbial ship needs to idle through the waterways and hit sea at full
sail.
I wish I could say starting to write
something new gets easier, but for me it doesn't. I've written seven novels,
and the start has become exponentially more difficult each time!
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| Two novels that tell one story: Detective Matt Jones |
I think one reason might be that my
storytelling abilities seem like they're still developing, so each new novel
means having to learn the process of writing all over again. As CITY OF ECHOES
and THE LOVE KILLINGS would suggest (the idea that these two novels are one
continuous story) I'm still actively experimenting with how I do things and
why.
The reason I mention this is that
writing the first chapter of THE LOVE KILLINGS presented me with a unique story
problem. Because I've never heard of anyone writing two novels to tell one
story, I had nothing to study or fall back on, or even lift, borrow, or steal.
While it's true that stories have been serialized in the past and published in
newspapers and magazines or even on radio and TV, my problem was entirely different, and
let's face it, way more difficult to solve. I was writing a second novel. Days
wouldn't pass, a week or even a month. Readers wouldn't have access to THE LOVE
KILLINGS for a year after they'd read CITY OF ECHOES. In this case, I busted
through the writing, and delivered the second novel eleven months after the
first. Still, by any measure, that's a long time.
But here's the writing problem: how do
you provide someone who is beginning with the second novel enough to go on
without slowing everything down for the reader that began with the first? Bringing
the new reader in on part two of the story means there's a lot of work to do. What's
that first chapter of the THE LOVE KILLINGS going to feel like?
Let's face it, exposition is as deadly
as a crash to anyone who uses a computer. How does a writer use exposition to his or her advantage? Or at
least, how do I?
Something John Truby (THE ANATOMY OF
STORY) once told me is that conflict heals most wounds. I'll never forget
reaching a point while writing my second novel, THE DEAD ROOM, when I had to
fill the reader in on the hero's background. It was crucial to the story that
the reader understand what Teddy Mack was running from in his past. Without
this knowledge, the story would never pay out, and both the character and the
story would feel thin. At first I wasn't sure what to do. I had managed to keep
any exposition in the novel to a minimum and was keenly aware of how deadly it
can be. Keenly aware of how many novels I had stopped reading and never picked
up again because the author got bogged down in the use of exposition and failed.
Conflict heals most wounds, so here was my solution.
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| Defense Attorney Teddy Mack's late night drive home |
In THE DEAD ROOM I decided to put my
hero in an old car with bad tires. I set the scene in the middle of the night
and added a winter storm. The temperature was just beginning to dip below
freezing, and so much snow was piling up on the freeway that all Teddy could
see were the tracks and rear lights from a single car in the distance. I feathered the exposition in and out of
Teddy's attempt to drive home. As he thought about that moment in his past
still haunting him in the present, he'd come up for air, checking the
temperature gauges and struggling to keep his old, broken down car on the road. If conflict
heals most wounds, then I made it my business to pile on as much as I could.
And it worked. It really worked.
The story never slowed, and by the end
of the chapter, readers knew how much trouble Teddy Mack was in.
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| Facing Chapter 1 with a plan |
But what about THE LOVE KILLINGS? This
writing problem is far more dangerous because we're talking about the opening
of a novel, in mid-story no less! Exposition is deadly, but in chapter one,
it's radioactive. I realized one thing before I even started. There was no way to
succeed without blowing major revelations from the first novel, CITY OF ECHOES.
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| Detective Matt Jones' view of Potrero Canyon in the hills of LA |
With this in mind I bit the bullet and
used the same technique I'd used in THE DEAD ROOM. Remember, CITY OF ECHOES and
THE LOVE KILLINGS are one story and serve as the introduction of LAPD Detective
Matt Jones, so Matt has to begin part two of this narrative in a world
overflowing with conflict. Again the scene is set at night. LA is hot and dry and
out of water. As Matt sits on his back deck recovering from gunshot wounds
received six weeks ago in CITY OF ECHOES, he's watching a wildfire on the other side of the
canyon with great concern. Firefighters are struggling to save homes and contain the blaze. The air is thick with smoke and floating embers. Ash is falling out of
the sky like snow, and Matt thinks his house could be next. And then, despite
the late hour, the phone rings. It's his supervisor, and he has news. Matt has been
cleared for duty, and there's a new murder case to be solved. A case so dark
and spooky that his supervisor won't talk about it on the phone.
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| A view of the Wildfire in LA from the hills |
All this conflict is piling up. And
feathered throughout the moment is just enough detail about what went down in
CITY OF ECHOES to lock a new reader in and keep him or her in the game.
And it worked. It really worked.
CITY OF ECHOES on Amazon.com
THE LOVE KILLINGS on Amazon.com
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ROBERT ELLIS WRITERS BLOG
Much thanks
to Jessica Lee, an avid reader and fan, for sending me a copy of this author
pic she tricked out in Photoshop, as well as the poem that opens my second
novel, THE DEAD ROOM. I had written the short piece as a student in college and
always wanted to see it published. When it came time to set the mood for the
novel, the two seemed like a perfect fit and destined to be published together.
Again, thanks to Jessica and everyone else who sends me images of my books set
in their own worlds. Cafes, beaches, on the front seat of their car -- it's
always a big kick for me and always makes my day. Thank you!
