Happy Halloween!

For those who love to create the thrill and chill of fear! For darklings, strangelings, the morbid and the imaginative --

Have a grand time on this most hallowed of holidays!

Perhaps take some time out and read a ghost story or better yet, read it to someone else too.


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About the author -

Raven Bower is the author of the upcoming horror novel, Apparitions (ArcheBooks March 2007)

Raven's Blog

Part 2

I ranted and raved, steamed and stewed…and did various other non-productive things that really only amounted to procrastinating.

Then I decided to get productive and actually solve the issue with Apparitions. I had Bailey, the ghosts and the serial killer. Happy with those three elements they were slated to stay. I also found upon further examination that the heightened horror factor actually worked very well, better in fact than the pure thriller I had intended.

In hindsight I shouldn't have been so shocked or stumped. Books with a high aspect of horror, monsters and darkness have all ways enthralled me and so it stands to reason Apparitions would also have this slant.

With a shrug of the shoulders and a moment of lament that the time I'd spent stewing would have been better spent accepting and rewriting…I changed flow of the story to better fit a ghostly horror / suspense story.

I sat down with the text I had and noted the changes I'd need to make at the beginning of the story to make the new plot focus work. Interestingly enough I found these changes would make the story far stronger and engaging. From there I tinkered a bit with the supporting characters and then finally wrote a new and extremely loose outline of the final three-quarters of the book.

As a note that outline went off course too and eventually got ditched. But the topic of outlines and plotting deserve a section of their own. If you're interested look for that one on Raven's Hollow.

Anyway, it may sound more complex than it was and it wasn't nearly as time consuming as it sounds. In the end Apparitions became a better book and I learned a lot about myself as a writer.

When plots, characters or genre go awry sit back and take a close look at whatever new possibility is being presented by this twist. Sometimes we find that if we let it go the way it wants to we uncover a brilliant, lively story. Other times we realize there's been a mistake along the way that needs to be corrected -- perhaps even something we forced. Either way and no matter what the main issue is rest assured it can be fixed with a little thought and trust in yourself.

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About the author -

Raven Bower is the author of the upcoming horror novel Apparitions (ArcheBooks March 2007)

When Plots...And Genre Go Awry

I conceived the idea for Apparitions during one of my stints of interest in serial killers. At the time I was also (and still am) intensely interested in the phenomenon of ghosts and their supernatural links to our realm. Another area of interest is how some people are sensitive to the presence of ghosts and others seem unable to even consider their existence.

That said, my main character Bailey Khane was born of these branches of interest. She is able to sense and communicate with the ghosts of the serial killer's victims.

Now I had my main character, Bailey, and my serial killer. More than enough to start with I thought. I proceeded to outline a straight suspense / thriller novel and then got to work on it. Honestly, there was all intent on keeping it that way. Unfortunately the muses that be vetoed my original concept roughly…oh a quarter of the way through the first draft.

I was shocked.

As if abundant ghosts and a rampant serial killer were not enough…my precious, pure suspense thriller had somehow become creepier and darker than I intended. At that time it mutated into a cross genre of horror/suspense.

It was at that time too that my plot came to a jarring halt. Bailey wasn't acting Baileyish and I was stumped. I had wanted a pure genre and well…what I had was not that.

What is an author to do at that point? When their entire plot outline is rendered useless in one dramatic twist? Well, there are as many answers to that as there are authors. In my next post I'll tell you what this author did and why.

Greetings

Welcome to my little home in cyber space where ghosts and creepiness abound. Settle in for my next post - When Plots...and Genre Go Awry.