Obsessions…
Esther Brookstone in Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press, 2017) obsesses over recovering a painting; in the sequel Son of Thunder (to be published by Penmore Press), she obsesses over finding St. John the Divine’s tomb. Obsession is common enough in fiction, and it takes many forms.
In Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder (Carrick Publishing, 2013), a senator is obsessed with making the country great again…his definition of greatness, of course. In Aristocrats and Assassins (Carrick Publishing, 2014), a terrorist is obsessed with vengeance against those who betrayed his homeland…and against Detective Castilblanco, whom he met when the detective was a USN SEAL. (Esther’s paramour Bastiann van Coevorden has a cameo in that book.) Obsession is a strong emotion human beings that develops for many reasons.
I know something about milder forms of obsession. I obsess over reading and writing now. The first is easy to satisfy: I pick out a good book and obsess over finishing it—I can’t wait to find out if the thriller’s main character prevails, or how the mystery’s detective resolves the case, or how the sci-fi story ends. Some people would call those books ones readers can’t put down—real page-turners (page-swipers? I’m usually on my Kindle). A story can grab me that way.
Even with my own stories, I can obsess. I wrote The Midas Bomb (the first edition) in a few weeks. I obsessed with finishing the story that my characters were practically writing for me. That often happens to me. (The major changes made in the second edition—Carrick Publishing, 2016—were to put Detective Castilblanco in first person to match other books in the series.)
Let’s call that “getting in the zone” in our writing because “obsession” often has a negative aura for some people. (Esther’s obsessions are positive; the terrorist’s and senator’s are negative.) When a plot seems to unfold without much intervention from the author, its characters really grab the author, and the author is eager to know how the story ends, that’s a good obsession.
But authors have to be careful. Finishing the novel-writing marathon is only part of writing fiction. In addition to making sure other elements work well—title, beginning, and end; characterization; logical structure; and so forth—there are various editing steps and proofreading after formatting, whether the author is self- or traditionally published. And, even though I’m a touch typist, my creative mind often gets ahead of my typing, causing me to leave out words and make typos. In other words, my obsession with writing a novel must carry me beyond that finish line in the novel-writing marathon.
I don’t obsess with every novel—some just represent blood, sweat, and tears as I try to make things work out. That’s part of the writing adventure. We can turn those stories into good ones too with some hard work. Are they better or worse than the ones we’ve become obsessed with? It might not matter to readers. As stated above, their obsessions with a book are a bit different. That’s okay.
Maybe the best novels are the ones both readers and writers have obsessed about. That implies a connection between author and readers that’s wonderful and makes publishing fiction a great human experience.
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Comments are always welcome.
Rogue Planet. Sci-fi books are generally “evergreen” books, at least the ones involving the future of human beings in our galaxy—they never get old. This is one of mine. If you read A.B. Carolan’s Mind Games, you’ve learned how difficult it is for ITUIP (“Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets”) to control the colonization of new worlds and bring them into the trade union. Eden is such a world, forced back into virtual savagery after one tribe takes over and establishes a brutal theocracy. It’s up to the son of the deposed king to do something about that. Hard sci-fi with Game-of-Thrones fantasy elements, action, suspense, and intrigue await this novel’s reader. Available on Amazon in both ebook and print format, and in ebook format on Smashwords and all its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
