Thunderstorms excite me. Lightning blazing across the sky like a futuristic laser sword slashing through the darkness, makes my heart skip a beat. I wait and count the seconds until the thunder follows to see how far the storm is from me. Somehow, the closer it is, the more exciting. I am prepared to take cover should a tornado loom too close, but I know in my heart, I would wait until the last second to dive to the safety of a shelter.
As a mystery writer, I have mostly plotted as I wrote. Of course, I usually know the ending when I write the beginning of a story, but it is the "how we get from Point A to Point B" that makes the story memorable. The twists that take the story from a gentle May rain to an unpredictable storm – all the "what if’s" that change people’s lives in seconds – that’s what compels me to write.
Like sudden streaks of lightning gouging the sky, the characters show me which path they’d take. Where there once was only darkness, the characters raise a brow and say, "Follow me to adventure." I go willingly.
In Chapter Four of "Only if it Rains" (an unpublished-at-the-moment mystery novel), a character I had meant to be nothing more than Victim #4 turned into comic relief that I would miss writing about and I honestly hated when I'd have to write his death scene, but it was only a matter of time. He had to go. Still, when homicide Detective Caylor Reed became entangled in gym equipment in a most embarrassing way, he appeared hovering above her. The newspaper reporter who dogged her every move for an exclusive while trying to get a date smiled that idiotic smile that made her crazy. "What are you doing here?" she asked. When I typed those words, my hands flew from the keyboard and I actually gasped. Where had he come from? He was supposed to be somewhere off stage with the serial killer getting murdered. Wow. It’s almost like lightning streaking across the sky before the rain, before any expectation.
I love when the storms come and when the words flash through my mind...my writing surprises even me. I hope it surprises you, too.
Deborah--
(Confidential to Travis: happy now?)
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