Surprising New World-Building Tools by Martha Reed

The kids are returning home to Pittsburgh for the holiday season, and one of my younger cousins very kindly invited Aunt Martha out to lunch.

She had an ulterior motive: she’s thinking about becoming a writer like me. After sputtering and outlining the multitudinous reasons why I thought that was a terrible idea and why I should never be used as any type of lifestyle example, she broke it down further and simply asked me: how do I write a book? She wasn’t looking for the ‘put your butt in the chair for four hours a day, everyday’ kind of advice. She wanted special and secret hints on how I construct my stories.

Coming fresh from the fray – I’ve just released and self-published THE SEVEN GATES OF GUINEE, my third Crescent City New Orleans Mystery, I was quick off the mark to say that I’m a pantser (meaning that I write by the seat of my pants), and that my stories spontaneously generate from the great universal consciousness. But even as I said it, I knew that’s not entirely true. While I can’t offer a magic writing pill, I have developed some unusual story structuring tools, and I’m willing to share the method to my madness.

1.      Catch the ideas that interest you. I keep a stack of lined index cards and a gallon sized baggie on the bookshelf next to my desk. When I hear or read of an interesting idea, event, or suggestion, I write it on a card and toss it into the baggie. That’s literally as much thought as I give it at the time, but I’m quite sure my active subconscious is quietly ruminating on it while I go about my day-to-day busy-ness. Then, when I’m ready to start a new project, I riffle through the cards to see what catches my eye. Is it something I can use in my new story? If the idea still interests me, it might also interest Dearest Reader.

For instance: Years ago a human anatomy exhibit rolled through our local Carnegie Museum. It caused controversy when it was revealed that the genuine human bodies that were being used in the exhibit had come from a supplier in China and that they may have been harvested from political prisoners like Christians and Uyghurs. That immediate horror initiated an index card. Further research indicated that 10% of U.S. donor organs come from unregulated sources outside the United States. When I noted these details I had no idea they would eventually develop into the criminal medical supply chain network outlined in UP JUMPED THE DEVIL, my NOLA Mystery #2.

2.      Although I’m retired now, I’m an unrepentant project manager and I will go to my grave using a calendar and dates to build an outline and develop my story structure. For instance, for THE SEVEN GATES OF GUINEE, I knew that I needed to fit the new story between two different New Orleans Mardi Gras seasons. Since New Orleans Mardi Gras (AKA Carnival) season starts about two weeks before Lent each year, that gave me my date bookends to create a general timeline. Then, during my draft research, I google to find out if major events like a hurricane or a tropical storm happened during that timeframe that would need to be included in the story to add a real-time element.

This critical timing can also impact the individual character level – for instance, if I’m drafting a scene on a Wednesday or a Sunday afternoon, I know that Aunt Babette Broussard can’t be included because that’s when she attends Noon Mass at St. Louis Cathedral.

3. Hand a secondary character the mic and offer them the stage. The first time I used this trick I didn’t know how powerful it would turn out to be as a developmental drafting strategy. In one of my early Nantucket Mysteries I was stuck in a room full of characters and yet my protagonist John Jarad had nothing to say. Desperately casting about for some forward momentum, I asked his sister Mary Rose – who up to that point had been a cardboard cutout on the edge of the cocktail party crowd what she thought. Mary Rose disgorged so much information that I had a hard time typing fast enough to keep up with her.

Now of course my characters have me so well trained that as the writer I’m being told before I even start a new book which character will be taking center stage. For THE SEVEN GATES OF GUINEE I knew that Aunt Babette Broussard and Cleo Duchamp would be giving me main character energy and boy, did they ever. Gigi Pascoe has been very patiently waiting in the wings for her turn in the next (and as yet unwritten) NOLA Mystery Book 4. Sigh. I'm being managed by imaginary people. It’s a writer’s life, and a good problem to have.

How about you? Are there any special tricks in your magical writing bag that you’d like to share?