Writing Into the Dark

No music review tonight; I'm going to give the next album another listen before I get to that.

One of the things I learned about writing that really resonated with me was the idea of writing 'into the dark'. That's where you just start writing. No plot beforehand, no outline, no prep work. Just sit down and start typing. It's not for everyone, I know. But for me, it's natural. Sure, I might have some idea of where the story is going (as I did with the story of Kane and Apprentice), but for most of what I write, it's just straight-up 'get to writing'.

This is easier in some genres than it is in others. For fantasy, it's not that hard. I wrote the entire Devil's Playground book into the dark; seven stories, none of which I had much of an idea other than 'let's throw this monster in there and see what happens'. The same with Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System; the only idea I really had was 'set each story at a different planet and don't repeat the plots'. I think it worked out pretty well.

The toughest genre to do into the dark would be mystery. Why? Because you have to keep the story consistent from start to finish. You can't have a character say one thing happened and then have him say the opposite happened a few chapters later unless that is going to be a significant point to solving the case. And it's not always easy to remember what was said, so reviewing is an important part of writing mysteries into the dark, or at least taking notes about important points.

For my first mystery, Final Exam, I had the story in my head when I was in university. The first time, that is, over thirty years ago. It took me that long to finally work up the mettle to just finally write the damn thing. And it turned out quite well, even though I knew how it was going to end.

The second one, though...I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write. I had just published Final Exam, and the rush from seeing people buy it online right in front of me at work pushed me to start writing another one. But about what? I had no idea. But I remembered reading a blog about writing into the dark and how the best way to write was to just write. Start writing, and see what happens. Let the creative mind go all-in on whatever story starts to come out of you.

So, I did. And eleven days later, I had The Missing Magnate. The first words I typed were, "So, you have an office now." And that was the extent of the story in my mind at that point. I had nothing except my two characters, Bill Potts and Cameron Vail. I had no crime, no victim, no murderer, no client, no idea. And yet, it worked out.

Writing into the dark can be challenging, even terrifying. But it's a lot of fun if you trust your creative mind to know what it's doing. Don't argue with it; just let it go. Your creative mind is awesome at telling stories. Give it the chance to do so, and you'll be amazed at what pops out. I know I was.

I've linked to most of the books I mentioned above; here's the link to Crystal Lilac, the second book of Kane and the most recent release in my oeuvre. Yes, that's a fancy word. I'm a writer; I like fancy words.