Before the Jump

I'm excited about posting a couple of partial outlines so you can see how this novel has already begun morphing.  (Again, it's most likely no one will be reading this until after the novel is published, so I feel safe sharing these types of details with you because it will have been after the fact.  With future novels, I won't be able to be so spoiler-ific.  But I'm nobody right now, so I can.)  Every time my outline takes a significant turn, I safe the file as a new outline ("Outline 001", "Outline 002", and so on) just so I can share them with you and let you in on the actual development AS IT HAPPENS, something I may never be able (or willing) to do again in my career.

But first, we need to get to the point where I have something to outline...

In the early post about "My Genre" I talked about how I had been developing this fairly complex world and some complex, interesting characters but I couldn't make a (good) story out of all of it, so I had to figure out what "my genre" is (for this novel, at least).

I decided my genre is Paranormal Mystery.  It's basically a Mystery novel, but without the murder to solve.  I create a Sherlock and let him untangle paranormal quandaries that TAPS would have difficulty sorting out.  (Hopefully.)

What inspired me to write a series of novels along these lines is the following:

1. Most paranormal investigators stick within a specific field of the paranormal.

Cryptozoologists don't necessarily believe in ghosts or psychics, Ufologists don't necessarily belive in the Bigfoot, and ghosts hunters don't necessarily believe in alien abductions.

This isn't 100% true, of course, but it's a rule-of-thumb generality that paints a fairly accurate broad-strokes image of the field.

Now, when you're talking about independent researchers, this becomes less true -- researchers like John Keel, Brad Steiger and Rosemary Ellen Guiley investigate all phenomena Fortean, indiscriminately.  But a ghost-hunting group isn't likely to show much interest in your Lake Champlain Monster report.

I am versed in all these subjects (some more so than others) and feel comfortable speaking about any of them in the context of a fictitious story.

2. Paranormal investigation groups aren't likely to talk to you much about religion or metaphysics, even though the answers to the deep question posed when you encounter the paranormal can only come from metaphysical sources.

Most paranormal groups I've encountered are "scientific paranormal investigators", meaning that they're trying to apply more or less scientific methodology to their investigations, and they're not comfortable speculating about what can't be proved or disproved.  Naturally, this is more and less true depending upon to whom you are speaking within any given group -- some investigators are perfectly comfortable saying, "I can't prove this, of course, but here's the theory I like best."

This is also true for authors of paranormal non-fiction: If I, for example, were to write a non-fiction book on the paranormal I would be saying the same things that at least 3 other authors have already said, because there is only so much that can be said that isn't wild speculation.  So a lot of paranormal investigators won't tell clients much of what they believe personally -- they see their role as being as objective as possible, and not allowing their personal views to influence the client or their investigation.

But novelists are allowed, nay encouraged, to speculate as much as we want!  If we speculate convincingly enough, we acquire a fan-base!

So I believe I can not only describe the phenomena, but also offer up my own suggestions as to what may be happening and why, and maybe how.

3. Non-believers (read "Hollywood") don't understand the paranormal well enough to write it well.

That's why all the paranormal movies are Horror or Fantasy movies, because the traditional view of the paranormal is that it's scary.

You investigate (not research -- as in reading books -- but investigate -- as in actually going to purportedly haunted locations) and you discover that the paranormal isn't very scary, largely because most of it can't hurt you.  Freaky, creepy, weird, mind-boggling, sure; but not scary.

It's my pet belief that the way to convince non-believers of the reality of paranormal activity is to put them in the field and let them experience it for themselves.  But being non-believers, why would they waste their time like that?

Also, writers tend to be intellectuals, and intellectuals don't tend to be "superstitious".  As a result, screenwriters who tackle the paranormal study the films that have come before, and novelists who write about the paranormal study the literature that has come before.  Ghosts, thereby, are either vengeful or metaphorical.

But popular understanding of the paranormal is changing.

That you to the Atlantic Paranormal Society for creating the trend that gives the masses a different understanding of paranormal events than what has henceforth been depicted in popular entertainment.

SIDEBAR:  You know, I recently read Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and as a paranormal investigator, he pretty much got it right!  I mean, Scrooge experiences a lot of phenomena in a very condensed amount of time, but one wonders if Mr. Dickens didn't, perhaps, have some first-hand knowledge of the paranormal.  And yet, ask someone at random if they think A CHRISTMAS CAROL could have really, actually happened, and images of various film and TV adaptation will pop into their mind, and the will probably laugh at the question.  Dickens could have secretly been describing something that actually happened to him or someone he knew (unlikely, but not completely out of the realm of possibility), but because of the way it has been depicted over and over again, people will likely tell you it is completely impossible and fanciful.  The adaptations were done by non-believers who were following the filmic traditions of Fantasy films, not paranormal investigators who have encountered the phenomena first-hand.

So my point is that I suspect the industry has room for a fiction writer who deals realistically with paranormal phenomena.

Okay, then...  Who is my Hero?

I have my genre -- which is really my world and tone -- so now I need someone to roam around within it...

I prefer to write with a light touch.  I like Comedy and Dramedy.

Plus, when you investigate the paranormal, you quickly learn that it's not only useful to have a sense of humor about yourself, but just about every other investigator or researcher you meet has one.  We spend our weekends IN HAUNTED HOUSES, for heaven's sake!  If we can't laugh at ourselves we can't laugh at anything!

Plus, since the traditional popular view of paranormal phenomena comes mainly from misguided Horror tales, I thought it would be really nice for my sub-sub-genre of paranormal stories to offer the exact opposite.

And besides all that, I just have more fun when I'm writing more fun stories.

And that last point isn't for nothing...  I don't know how many months I am going to spend writing and rewriting this thing.  I need to be having a good time while I'm doing it, or else what's the point?  I have no idea if it will sell.  If it gets published, I don't know if it'll sell more than 3 copies!  I'm doing this when I'm not at work, so this needs to be fun for me.  (And for you, if you intend to be a professional writer.)

So my Protagonist is (was, actually) Allan Nathan Kane.  He's fresh out of college, a degree in Journalism, and he wants to be a serious journalist, getting to the story BEHIND the story, exposing the mechanations behind the events that mainstream media covers.

Right now, his only outlet is a journalism blog, though.  It's a free blog.

His money comes from the paranormal, of all places.  He has always been interested in the paranormal, and while in college he wrote a couple of books about the subject for fun, under the pseudonym Philip Blackwood.  He knew writing about the paranormal wasn't going to get him anywhere in his career, so he made sure not to use his real name.

Only... Fate happened...

The upsurge in Paranormal Reality Television shows lead to him getting periodic gigs as "producer" for a couple of cable shows.  They would use entries from his books, pay him not-sucky checks, and then not bother him until next filming season.

Only, there's this wrinkle:

People LOVE Philip Blackwood!  His books are quoted and misquoted on Internet websites as much as Jeff Bellanger or Rosemary Ellen Guiley.  And Philip Blackwood has such an all-encompassing view of the paranormal that it isn't long before ghost-hunting groups begin emailing him and calling him to consult on particularly enigmatic cases.

So I have a cool built-in running gag: People keep calling Alex Kane "Philip Blackwood", and have difficulty understanding when he tries to explain that he's really Alex.

That should be fun, right?

Okay, so now I have a world, a tone, and a Protagonist!  John Vorhaus (HOW TO WRITE GOOD, et. al) would get started right about now.

I, however, wasn't able to get started until I watched an episode of CASTLE and found an AMAZING structure!

I was cagey about naming the specific TV show in earlier posts, because I don't want to invite possible litigation against my and/or my work.  But as of this writing (I am currently on "Outline 004") I feel quite confident that my novel will bare absolutely no resemblance to the episode that inspired  the structure for this novel.  As with any truly, genuinely creative endeavor, this story took on a life of its own, dictating much to me, though I assumed I would be dictating to it.

The Muse (whatever-the-hell THAT is) helps us out, doing half the writing for us.  But, as Stephen King points out, we have to sit down and start doing the work without the slightest inkling of whether or not the Muse will even show up.  (Because whether or not the Muse does show up, the work still needs to get done.  If it's going to get done.)

So from watching an episode of CASTLE, I came up with the EXCELLENT story structure, and THAT was the cliff I felt comfortable jumping off.  The Insecure Writer in me KNEW that even if I failed in every other way, the Reader would enjoy this particular path through a story.

But as he story has been developing, that structure has fallen away.

For the better?

Maybe.  It's WAY too-fucking-EARLY to tell!

But the point is that the structure (1) closed a bunch of my metaphorical "doors" in my outline, and (2) gave me the confidence to jump.

So I guess the next logical step, from here, would be to post "Outline 001", so you can see my starting point...