Silent Deceptions/Idea for a Novel

It's Friday, a good day made even better by my guest blogger, Dorothy Ann Skarles.

Today, she shares an idea that is fermenting in her mind about a suspense novel she is thinking about writing.

Welcome Dorothy.

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My publisher, Twilight Times Books, has a book out titled, How I Wrote My First Book, told by 20 authors, including me, about what went into writing their first book.   

A Scent Of Diamonds was my first suspense/mystery, followed by Enchanted Hunt and then the non-fiction book Learning To Write The Easy Way.

However, today I have another book in mind called SILENT DECEPTIONS


My idea for suspense in a novel is to create tension, that bad feeling that trouble is on the way. A bad situation generates suspense along with efforts made by the protagonist to solve the problem:  Will she or won't she?

This conflict can be personal or psychological. Man against man/woman. Man against himself/herself. Man against nature. A story begins when the conflict begins, and ends when the conflict is resolved. The more conflict you have, the more suspense you have.

Here is a sample draft of my idea…

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Silent Deceptions

A chill ran down Tiffany's spine as she scanned the room.  It was getting more crowded by the minute. People were full of Christmas cheer, all laughing, talking and having a jolly good time. How she hated it! Hated it all! If only she were more skilled at lip reading. For that matter, if only she didn't need to wear the damn hearing aids, those modern devices that carried frequencies and tones.  But in this crowd, even the best hearing aids wouldn't let her hear the way she wanted to. There were too many sounds, and too much music being funneled into peoples' ears, as if they, too, were deaf.

She searched the room and spotted her husband, Spencer, talking to another man in full Santa regalia. Instead of a black belt around his waist like the other Santa's in the room, this particular Santa wore a white one. He kept pulling down on his beard as if he were having trouble talking through the bunched-up hair strands. Tiffany smiled to herself. Spencer had refused to wear a white beard. He said the hairy thing got in his mouth.

She leaned her body against a tall pillar and tried to concentrate on reading peoples lips. It was the only way for her to know what was going on.

She saw Spencer's lips move. "Kill!"

Tiffany dropped the black belt she'd been holding in her hand.

Words formed on the inside of the mouth were hard to read. She might have mistaken the letter K for a T.

But no! The word her husband had used was kill; she was sure of it,

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My question to you is:  Do the first few lines catch your interest to read more? Please tell me what you think.

Dorothy.

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Here's your chance to help a writer decide if she should spend months developing an idea, and then possibly years revising it until it's ready for publication.

Would you read more?  

Any suggestions? 

Thanks for stopping by,

Margaret

Dash Off a Memory/Create a Memoir, Lesson One

My friend and critique partner, Dorothy Ann Skarles, has generously offered to share one of her lessons on how to create a memoir.

Dorothy taught memoir writing at Lodi Adult School until her retirement. She is the author of two novels and one non-fiction book, Learning to Write the Easy Way, published by Twilight Times Books.

Lesson 1: A memory is a gift to the family.

By Mara~earthlight~

Every passing minute of each bygone day is a memory that lives in our hearts forever. But to recapture those fleeting moments from vanishing, we dash them off into powerful words so others may read the way we played, loved, ate, and drank our follies away.

It is often quoted that "the pen is mightier than the sword" and I believe this to be true. Writing is an opportunity to pass on your values and tell what your life was like as you traveled through the years.  Written words are truly the mirrors to our souls.

It does not matter if you call your book a memoir, a biography, or an autobiography. They are all the same in the respect that they are written by you and from your memory. Your age doesn’t even enter into it.  The words that burn in your heart and the thoughts that breathe out your life are ageless and should be written whether you are young or old. 



By Kat

 Memories not written down are memories lost forever. So don't wait on writing about how you lived your life.  Snatch, seize, and enjoy every passing minute of your memory and start writing at whatever age you are.  And when you can't write, record your words and reproduce them later on paper.  The quote "Better late than never," is a motto we should keep on our writing desk along with "Do it now!"

The Introduction Page is the first page of your book.  It can also be called an acknowledgment, a preface, a foreword, or even a dedication.  This page can be short and to the point or long on explanations.  What you write will answer the question of why you wanted to write a memoir for the family and future generations to read.

Now on paper, write:  "I am writing my life story because...

Here's an example written by a student writing about his grandparents.

I am writing my life story because when I was very young, I remember sitting by the kitchen table and listening to the old folks talk about growing up.  My grandmother talked about Germany and coming to America, while my grandfather told how the United States government informed his parents that they could no longer live in North Carolina and how they traveled the trail of tears to Mississippi.

My other grandfather, who came to the United States at seventeen, talked about growing up in Greece and how much more he had to learn than everyone else because, as we all know, everything in the world was invented by the Greeks.  My other grandmother, his wife, talked about traveling to America from France. 

And you know what?  A German woman married an American Indian man, and a Greek man married a French woman in America, and all I could think about as I sat listening was how a loaf of bread cost only two cents.  Really, you could buy a hamburger and a malt for a nickel.  That's how it was way back then.  But now it's time for the rest of the story. 



By _Olga_ [FR]

 Take a moment to think of what you would like to say. What would you like to leave for your family and future generations to read?

Would you like to tell them how you lived and the things you did, what kind of school you went to or the games you played?

Do you want to write about the job you had in World War II? Does your family want you to write a history on their ancestral background and about the people they do not know? Do you want to write about your garden hobby or write family recipes for others to enjoy?

Perhaps you would rather focus on what life was like being a dancer in the ballet or living on a farm? You might even want to write about all the boy friends or girl friends you dated. Or do you want to set the family straight on why you divorced or why you dropped out of school.

Keep in mind that the first thirty to forty years give you the text and the next thirty to forty years supply the commentary on it. So don’t wait! This author will help give you ideas to write your legacy in the great art of living.

You have now written page one in your memoir.
Feel free to leave any questions you may have about your writing project under comments below.

Happy writing.

Dorothy