I was going to talk about the villain in this blog, but some research took me in a different direction, one that changes the entire story.

There's one other character in the story that appears in all stories, though it's rarely ever thought of as a character: the setting. The setting affects how the characters will dress, appear and behave. It also affects the story itself; for instance, while telephones did exist, I can't just have one character call another on their cell phone. (The invention of the cell phone did a lot to affect storytelling, but that's another story.)

I've already decided to use 1907, but I have to choose a location. As I’ve previously mentioned, there has been some suggestion from the research that it might be in Ireland. A search on the date brought up the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels (which are still missing) which could play a part in the story, but that's not sufficient reason to use Ireland.

 A little Infopedia2 research brings up the Abbey Theater in Dublin, which in 1907 was doing a production of Playboy of the Western World (which I have never heard of either). But I want the theater to do Dracula. I could make it a fictional theater, but by selecting a real theater I have the advantage of being able to use factual information. So I might just use it.

Although I'm using a real theater, all the characters are fictional. Both Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera used real places, and since the theater itself is a public place it should be acceptable to use in the story. It also helps add to the realism of the story.

Suddenly, everything starts to fall in place. The Heroine meets the Hero who is playing the villain of the play, but the real villain is the man producing the play. And it takes place in the Abbey Theater in Dublin, Ireland. I now have to do some more research into the Abbey Theater, but already the story itself is starting to appear.

Or so I thought. But here’s where research brought an entirely new angle to the story. Amongst the real people who worked at the theater are two brothers, Frank and William Fay. What if instead of a hero vs. villain story I decided to take out the hero and the villain and replace them with characters based upon real people? Suddenly the story starts to change dramatically and what I have is no longer a historical paranormal romance but a historical romance about a theater company in 1907 Dublin.

Now this decision takes some thought. It would lean towards many new possibilities, but it radically changes the nature of the book. But since it appears to open up many story ideas I think I’ll go in that direction. You may have seen the movie Twister, but you many not realize that it’s based on actual events that happened to real storm chasers. But I’ll get more into that when I deal with the outline. For now I'll say that the change of direction is worthwhile because it offers me more storyline options.

The change in story means the addition of three characters; the two brothers plus someone based upon an English theater manager named Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman who provided the money that made the theater possible.

But this isn’t the end of the new characters. I need enough actors to fill out the parts of the play. Fortunately, the play itself is public domain, so I can use it and parts of it in the story without having to get rights or pay compensation. And I may not need to fill all the roles, just the ones I use.

Right now I have a lot of reading and research to do about the theater, Playboy of the Western World and related material. Only then can I finalize the list of characters. But in the process I’m also starting to develop the outline.

In the last posting I mentioned Invasion Literature. What if a character in the story took an interest in it? Then they could offer radical ideas to get the reader thinking about that sort of stuff and introduce the Heroine to the idea of vampires.

Fortunately, there is a character. She's the Landlady in which the Heroine stays. Her primary purpose is to give the Heroine someone to talk to, but by adding this trait to her character it both expands her character and helps provide opportunity for exposition.

The Landlady is a supporting character. She will likely not take part in the action but will play some part in the story. Exactly to what extent she is involved will be based upon the outline and the actual writing. But for now it's sufficient just to have her available for conversations. It also helps making the story more believable since it would be unusual for a young woman of this time to live entirely alone.

I could also add more characters to the Landlady's house, maybe make it a boarding house. But then I run into the problem of others possibly getting in the way of the story. Still, it's too early to rule them out.

I might add one as a sacrificial character, someone who gets killed or runs into trouble to set the tone of the story and show how far the story is willing to go. They appear all the time in stories but are often overlooked. It's usually some young woman who dies in the first act. Doing this implants the idea in the reader that the hero or heroine could also be killed. It's not always necessary to do this, but it's a useful gimmick. But it can also backfire when your villain doesn't live up to expectations or when you don't want to reveal your villain or their nature too soon.

As Heroine has someone to talk to, so does Hero. But there are so many details to him that I'll get to that in another posting.

As another side note, the postings don't necessarily correspond with what I'm working on that day. I might spend part of the day working on one character, part researching and part working on another character. But I'm trying to keep the subject matter together for the postings to show the process in the least confusing way possible. And as I believe I've mentioned before, what I post isn't necessarily what I've worked on that day or the day before, but it is fairly close.

Many might also wonder why I haven't started on the outline yet. In a way I have, but not so much in writing. I'm researching and developing the character right now. Once I have the characters, they will help determine and shape the story. It's all right to spend a few weeks developing the outline since that's where much of the planning is done, and good planning will help save time later. So even a month of development is practical when one considers that it could save months later.

I also hope these posts don't come across as confusing. I'm often writing them when I'm tired and not in the clearest mind. My focus right now is on the novel, not the posts. I may tend to drift off focus or forget what I'm talking about mid-sentence. But they are secondary to the actual novel. And it's only because of the amount of new material--and that I'm doing a lot of thinking about the story--that I'm writing so much right now. As I get into writing the novel I'll probably cut back to once a week.

Now I will develop the villain--or try to. As you recall, I mentioned that I was going to make the villain a vampire, and that the novel Dracula has been around for ten years. But there's no need to introduce the villain just yet. Since Dracula is still active in the popular psyche, though it may have faded into subconscious memory, it's likely that it triggered enough public imagination get get people thinking about vampires again.

Off to Infopedia2 again, this time to look up Dracula. Not too much but there is an interesting reference to Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving in 1906. So Stoker would be on people's minds. But what I'm looking for is the play and when that was created. So it looks as if I'll have to do some Internet research. (Which means moving to another computer since I use a separate computer for writing than for accessing the Internet.)

On a side note, I know as if it seems the research I'm doing is very general, but it doesn't have to be specific. This is not a biography or journalistic work. I only need are the general concepts that someone from 1907 would be familiar with. And because this is a work of fiction, I don't even need to worry about whether I'm accurate or whether I'm right--as long as it's believable.

The Internet research, mostly entries on Wikipedia, indicate that Bram Stoker worked as an actor about the same time he wrote Dracula. While the company he worked for never appeared to have turned it into a play, it is plausible that someone could have adapted it as a play at that time. So it is conceivable that a current play could keep the story relevant in people's minds.

The research also brought up a reference to Invasion Literature, which included stories such as H.G. Wells' War of The Worlds, and Dracula was a part of that trend. This information will be useful later.

Now it would be very easy to introduce the villain by showing him right away, but since we have vampires in common literature and common consciousness, why don't we just suggest it's a vampire at first? This isn't the easiest thing to do, and done wrong can come off as cheesy. But done right it creates a nice tension and conflict to start the story, one that will encourage the reader to continue reading to find out if it's really a vampire or not.

Although I have some preliminary ideas about the villain, I find with my research that it might be better to work on a supporting character first. So after all this, I still only have a few vague ideas about the villain. However, I have a very interesting idea about a supporting character that will help with how the villain is seen. So I'll put aside work on the villain for now until I deal with the supporting character.

I chose for this story to set it in 1907, just at the end of the turn-of-the-century. This was a period of the Edwardian Age in England, which fell just after the Victorian era, when Edward the VIIth ruled. It's also the period when Ragtime was a big musical influence. And it also conveniently happens to be just about one hundred years ago.

I spent a fair amount of time today (or yesterday, or the day before, depending upon when I post this) researching this time, which mainly consisted reading through entries on an old program called Infopedia2  I picked up a while back. The package consists of six programs such as a dictionary, encyclopedia and the sort. I paid only a couple of dollars for it, since it was a few years out of date at the time. But since most of the information doesn't change--or at least changes very little--it's still useful even though the program is probably about ten years old now.

This isn't the full extent of my research, and I'll be doing more of it later. But I needed to do it before continuing on with the creation of the Heroine, which for the time being I'm just calling Heroine. Her time is important to her character since it has such a major influence upon her. With Hero it's not as important because he comes from a different world with different influences, and being a man has career flexibility. But for Heroine I need to select an occupation that fits with her time.

Speaking of which, I chose to make her a singer mainly because it gave her cause to be out at night. Since the story involves creatures of the night, having her in a situation where she could encounter dangers and the Hero. And interestingly, I discovered in my research that Dracula  would have been in print for ten years so it would still be prevalent in the public consciousness. I may or may not make use of that fact in the story, but it does help justify using a vampire as villian.

Anyways, getting back to Heroine. Here's a couple of paragraphs about her:

Heroine is Vaudeville(?) singer. As such she often goes home late at night alone. She is single and would like to marry but first needs to find love. She is slightly timid but hides her courage, which she has enough of to walk alone home. She feels she can stand up for herself, but prefers to avoid situations requiring her to do so.

Heroine has black hair which she keeps tied tightly behind her head in a bun. She dresses conservatively but elegantly, yet within her financial means. She prefers muted colors over bright colors but isn't against wearing them when they suit her.

Note that I chose to describe her physical appearance. This helps me to work our her personality. I want a character that will be so bold as to walk home alone at night but still timid enough to need help. If the character is too shy she won't put herself into danger, but if she's too bold she'll either get herself killed or give Hero no opportunity to help. Remember, she is a product of her time and this story is a romance; Laura Croft would be out of place here. But she's not shrinking violet either, and that aspect will be drawn out with the story.

Violet. That might make a good name for her.

I realized that I should probably refer to the manuscript as a Novel-Length Manuscript, since a novella could also be a book. I was thinking "book" as opposed to a short story manuscript which would be too short for a book on it's own (aside from children's stories, which this is not).

In order to force myself into using a different system of creating my Novel-Length Manuscript, I decided to write it in a slightly different genre than I'm use to. Most of my previous works tend towards fantasy and the paranormal, with humerous and  romantic elements. For this one I decided to create a historical romance. But since paranormal is popular, I'm going to make it a Historical Paranormal Romance. However, I don't have a title for it yet, so for a working title I'm calling it HPR.

I haven't really worked out the plot of the story yet, but generally speaking it's about a female singer living during 1907 who is saved from vampire led werewolves by a mysterious hero. Now I know that sounds a little corny, but at this point it's allowed. Remember I'm only still developing the ideas and I haven't committed to anything in writing.  And that's another advantage to using outlines. It allows one to make changes on the overall story without needing major rewriting. If I had started writing the story and wanted to change it, I might have to throw out a few chapters or work.

At this point I've only done some basic work on the outline and I'll get into that later. For now I'm working on the characters, starting with the Hero. And at this point, that's what he's called: Hero. I'm usually good at developing names, so I'm not going to worry about that right now. And it generally doesn't make that much of a difference anyways exactly what his name is, it's his personality that will reveal his true character.

So Hero is one of the Gentry, or as one might more commonly know it, Fairies. But in my research I've found that they don't like the term Fairy. I also find it conatates a particular type of fairy which is only inches high and would make the reader think of a very feminine character. But in calling them Gentry I can develop these characters into alternate humans, the same way Tolkein developed the Hobbits as alternate humans. 

So my Gentry Hero has been sent to Earth, or in my literary universe, the Earth Realm (the Gentry live in the Gentry Realm), to battle against creatures from the Shadow Realm that come to Earth such as werewolves and vampires. The who aspect of realms is something I've developed in my last two NLMs, and if and when they get published you'll see what I'm talking about. For now, think of the realms as alternate planets.

In developing Hero I've written a one page description of his character. Here is an expert of that:

Hero has light blonde, almost white hair, and is thin but muscular. Looks young for his age, which he chooses not to reveal since it is relative to his Gentry existence. Looks mid to late twenties. Often wears white during day but prefers dark colors during night. Dresses elegantly but tries not to stand out.

Hero can use magic but prefers to use a silver sword hidden within a wooden cane which he always carries with him. The cane itself can act as a magical staff, though he rarely uses it for more than a scabbard for the sword. The cane will burn the flesh of any Shadow Realm monster it touches.

Note that I'm writing in very general details which could be used as a way to develop further aspects of the character later. I'm only listing a couple paragraphs here for now because the rest would require some explanation and I don't want to make these posts too long.

For now, that's all I'll say about Hero. Next time I'll get into Heroine and some supporting characters. I should also mention that these articles are currently a little behind in what I'm doing right now but as I said, I don't want to make these posts too long. I'll just mention that today I'm working on research.

Since I've been meaning to make more use of my blog, I decided to use it to describe the development of my current novel-length manuscript. I even considered  doing a podcast, but I'm more a a writer than a talker. Still, I haven't completely ruled it out and may find cause to do one in the future.

Obviously I'm hesitant about sharing ideas so openly, but I know that nobody reading this blog would be stupid enough to take any of my ideas for use in their own writing, simply because any writer who needs to resort to such behavior could never develop a career as a writer. A career writer needs to be creative enough to develop their own ideas. Besides, since this information can be seen by anyone--including publishers and agents--and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get away with it.

But nobody reading this series of articles should need to resort to stealing ideas, since this exercise is meant to show how to develop one's own ideas into a novel. I've written four 300+ page manuscripts plus a few shorter book-length works, although I've yet to have one published. I have had a couple of short stories and poems published, but don't claim to be any authority. I have been working at becoming a novelist for more years than I care to mention, but as published and unpublished novelists know, that's part of the process.

However, in the time that I have been writing I've learned a fair bit and I felt that this might be a good chance to share what I've learned through showing how I am developing my latest work. Granted, I may be making some mistakes along the way, especially since I'm trying to work in a different way than I have before, but provided it results in a published book then the mistakes won't be that significant. And I can always correct them for the next work.

This time around I decided to write a manuscript (it's not a book until it's published) in a way different than I have been. For my previous works I wrote them in what I would call an "organic" fashion; I started at the beginning and continued writing until I was finished. That method works fine, but it has one major disadvantage: speed. I calculated that the last one took me about seven or eight months and I wrote about 300 words per day on average. The fastest I've worked on a Book-Length Manuscript (which I'll hereafter call a BLM) was about 500 words per day, even though I've had days where I've written 3000 words in a single day.

For this BLM I decided to use the more traditional and more professional outline system. There's really many variations on the system, but all basically require that an outline is written before the story is written. Part of this comes from a feeling of being blocked and just not being able to write organically right now. And part of it comes from trying to improve my productivity and speed.

I feel that any professional writer should be able to use an outline, and most do. If you choose not to that's fine, but remember that you're competing with people who are producing two, three and even four books per year. Everyone hopes for that one book that will make it big, but most big name writers get so from writing lots of books. And even those professionals that don't use outlines are capable of doing so. So if you're serious about being a writer you should learn how to use outlines.

I realize that this is a long introduction, and as this series develops I'll probably write shorter articles. Next time I'll describe a general outline of the BLM and try to get into the hero.