Creative Ignition

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  See? Here’s the thing. I just read Roger Johns’ new book, and it’s terrific. And then, I read this blog on how he wrote it. And it’s either hilarious—or...well, it's hilarious. Because a reader would never know, not ever, all the crazy nights and frantic days and unlikely wishes we all make when we are writing—trying to write—a book.

Roger is a debut novelist. Who among us is going to tell him that it never gets easier? Certainly not me. But it does get more fun and more rewarding—and we are thrilled to bring him to the Jungle today to introduce him to his new community.

About the moment the book-magic happened?  He has much to teach us.

 Namely:

THERE IS NO MAGIC IN THE NIGHTTIME!

   By Roger Johns

My debut novel DARK RIVER RISING is out this Tuesday, August 29, and its upcoming release has put me in a contemplative mood.

As the day draws closer, I’ve been thinking a lot about the process I went through to convert the original story idea into a book. Bottom line: it was messy and, at times, a bit comical.

Somewhere I read that one began with an outline. My first few were done in the grade-school style of Roman numerals and capital letters. What was I thinking? Unable to bear the humiliation that would ensue if they became public, these outlines have been destroyed.

Then came the Era of ‘Less-Structured’ Outlines. A book on how to write novels recommended some mental exercises for tapping into my inner something-or-other. I became so focused on the exercises that my original goal foundered on the rapids of my fast flowing something-or-other. As with the formal outlines, written evidence of this experience no longer exists.

After that: The Age of Scene Lists. Endless hand-written pages of scenes. This was actually quite helpful but the ideas wouldn’t behave properly. They were never in the mood to obey the rules by lining up according to the dictates of the three-act structure. I still have some of these pages, but they will never again see the light of day.

Next, I entered the Epoch of Scenes Described on Stacks of Index Cards. These, I lovingly push-pinned onto a big cardboard project board firm in my conviction that by seeing all the ideas in one giant eyeful, the pattern of the story would emerge. Sort of like those pictures where, if you stare long enough the hidden image suddenly pops into sharp focus. Or just maybe, during the night, the scenes would magically rearrange themselves into the proper configuration. There was no magic in the nighttime. I still have some of those index cards.

As I continued my endless walkabout, I learned a lot about writing and about myself. After years of either studying, practicing, teaching, or writing about the law I discovered that the highly structured thinking that makes the legal world go round isn’t necessarily the best place to begin the creative process. Creative ignition, at least for me, lay elsewhere.

This realization came to me by degrees, at about the same time it dawned on me that what I really wanted was to write a story about people. The original idea for the story had fooled me into thinking I was writing about something. Eventually, I came to understand that I wanted to write about someone.

Once these thoughts took root, the original story idea got demoted from ‘the whole point’ to just a vehicle for telling the story of Wallace Hartman, a homicide detective who is in the midst of questioning the foundational assumptions of her life. Up to that point, I had been using characters as tools to write about a plot idea, instead of using a plot idea to tell a story about my characters. I can no longer remember what made me see that I had been thinking about things backwards, but I thank my lucky stars it happened. 

After I cleared one more conceptual hurdle––I changed Wallace from male to female––the magic finally happened.

HANK: We’ve been talking a lot about the writing process this week—but none of it was planned. I love when that happens. Maybe that’s how writing a book works.  SO—changing a male character into a female…that’s fascinating!  I did that in my Sherlock Holmes pastiche story The Adventure of the Dancing Women—which featured detective Annabelle Holmes.

What other male characters might interestingly morph into women?   Hmmm. Jack Reacher would be easy. (Maybe she’d be Lady Brienne?) What is she were Ms. Darcy? Heathcliffe-Sue? You can think of better ones…

(And come see me and Roger—with Megan Miranda!—at the AJC Decatur Book Festival in Atlanta this coming Saturday!)

About Roger Johns

Roger grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana. He has law degrees from LSU and Boston University. After a brief career as a corporate lawyer, he spent almost twenty years as a college professor, teaching business law and employment law and international business transactions. At other times, he worked as a ranch hand, drapery hanger, shoe salesman, tuxedo rental clerk, bookseller, and party photographer–– among other things. He and his wife now live in Georgia. Dark River Rising, from St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, is his first novel.

DARK RIVER RISING

Baton Rouge homicide detective Wallace Hartman realizes she’s losing faith in the path she has chosen for her life. A gruesome murder intensifies both her doubts and her determination to vindicate her choices. In the company of a DEA agent with his own interest in her investigation, Wallace is thrust squarely into the cross-hairs of a neophyte killer who repeatedly shatters her world as he pursues an agenda no one could have anticipated.

LINKS

Web:  www.rogerjohnsbooks.com

Blog:  www.murder-books.com

Goodreads Giveaway: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/241401-dark-river-rising