The Woods by Harlan Coben

Today I read The Woods by Harlan Coben.

I read this book as a part of my Learn to Write by Reading Project.

I am so glad I found Harlan Coben.  Plots don't come any twistier than his.

It's Sunny Today

A novel without a theme is like a day with no sunshine.  It's sunny today.  There is joy in Mudville.  Bon Secour has a theme.

I finished reading Inside Story by Dara Marks two months ago.   Since then, I've read it two more times.  This is an awesome book showing how the best structure is driven by the theme.  How all action is derived from theme.  I've been writing extensive notes, and, I've struggling to develop a theme for Bon Secour. 

It hasn't been an easy path.  I've probably explored and rejected a half a dozen themes.  And what I have may wiggle a little more in the future.

One of the difficulties involved the decision to make the villain the Protagonist and the everyman the Antagonist.  This switch, suggested by my Writers Group, turned everything upside down from my original idea.  If I were to tell the story of their conflict equally, then my theme for each character had to be same because as Marks teaches, you can only have one theme in a story.

Multiple themes, one for the Protagonist and one for the Antagonist, were relatively easy.  Fitting them into the same theme was more difficult.  My resulting theme isn't profound, but I think it is universally accepted.

Ta Ta, the theme for Bon Secour is:

You can have anything you want if you are willing to pay the price for it.

• Bob Lee's (the Protagonist) "A" story is the quest to become wealthy and powerful as a succesful drug smuggler.
• Matt's (the Antagonist) "A" story is to rescue his sister from the drug smuggler (Bob Lee).
• Bob Lee's "B" story (fatal flaw) is that he cannot see anything wrong in what he does.  Bob Lee must accept his good side and become complete if he is to attain his success.
• Matt's "B" story (fatal flaw) is that he cannot forgive himself of past actions and behavior.  Matt must accept his bad side and become complete if he is to overcome his obstacles.
• Bob Lee and Matt share similar "C" stories.  Each is unable to connect with others.  Ultimately, this isn't working for either of them.  Matt changes and is able to open his heart.  Bob Lee rejects change and clings to his fatal flaw and rejects love.

Twelve sentences.  Doesn't look like much, but, it's the culmination of two months serious thinking and two full days of trying to get it on paper. 

Themes are so much easier to read about than to actually do.

Switcheroo

I've been thinking about what my Writers Group said about making my villain the Protagonist.  They are right.  He is the driving force of the story.  Everyone else is reacting to him. 

So, I'm biting the bullet.  Bob Lee Rankin is the official Protagonist of Bon Secour.

Now, I've got to go develop complete external ("A"), internal ("B") and relationship ("C") story lines for Bob Lee.

And that will be fun.  He is twisted and I love dreaming up his fictive world.

Progress!!

Today, I took Chapter 1 of Bon Secour to the CITE Writers Group for critique.

I was afraid to let anyone read what I had written.

They were fair in their criticisms.  My violent story opening may not have been their cup of tea, but, they said they liked how I wrote action.

Don't you just love it when someone says something nice to you.  God Bless Them!

Wish I could learn how to be more diplomatic and not so blunt in my own criticism. 

I appreciate that I got better than I give.

They didn't like my carefully crafted opening sentence and paragraph.  I thought it was genius.  They thought, 'not so much.'

I still think I need to re-work the first paragraph.  For now I will wait for the muse to inspire me.

Now I'm fired up to have another chapter ready for critique next week.

The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver

Today I finished reading The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver.

I read this book as a part of my Learn to Write by Reading Project.

What an imagination, a quadriplegic investigator.  This is a fascinating read.

Drawing the Line by Leonard Critcher

Today I finished reading Drawing The Line by Leonard Critcher.  This is Leonard's debut novel. And I think what I read is the second draft.  It is a randy coming-of-age novel set in the early sixties. 

Leonard moved to Texas and I moved to the Alabama coast.  We haven't seen each other in a while.  Through the modern miracle of FaceBook we found each other and found out we were both writing novels.  He got his ready for critique before me.  I salute his perseverance.

I thank Leonard for the opportunity to read and critique.  I learned so much about writing from the process.  And I set myself up to not make the same mistakes I called to his attention.  To do so would be to serve up a big fat lob and be prepared to have it smashed down my throat when he critiques my w-i-p Bon Secour.  Leonard and I have been friends for more than thirty-five years.  He beat me unmercifully at tennis too many times to count over those years.  He's a competitor with a capital "C".  I'll pay for being hard on him when it comes time for him to critique.

The Enemy by Lee Child

Today I finished reading The Enemy by Lee Child.

I read this book as a part of my Learn to Write by Reading Project.

The highest complement for a thriller is to say you couldn't do anything else until you finished the book.  The Enemy is that kind of book.