Since the new year also started a new writing project I decided to spend each Monday talking about the process as the story unfolds.
Spirit of the Sky is the third book in the spirit trilogy about three sibling spirits who watch over the Lake Nimiipuu(Wallowa county Nez Perce)I had the heroine for the story, the last sibling of the trio who had yet to have her story written. Sa-qan, Bald Eagle, soars above the Nimiipuu country watching the encroachment of the White man. Her story takes place while the Nimiipuu are fleeing from being captured and put on a reservation. Up to this point she has been a stickler for rules and following them. She finds impulsive actions must be taken when soldiers are killing her people.
The hero has been more elusive. I knew he had to be a hard core soldier. His commitment to duty and country will be tested. He also has a flaw- he blames himself for his families deaths during the civil war. The cavalry is his family now.
And those two characters and the plot of the fleeing Nez Perce is the start of my book.
I've read six books on the Nez Perce flight. Some from the Nez Perce Point of view and some from the Army's point of view and some fiction. All are helping me with setting description and the actions of both sides during the flight.
That's the beginning step in my latest book.
What steps do you take? Or if you're a reader how did you think a writer starts a book?
1 comment:
Something speaks to me - a setting or a character or an instant or a plot idea. From that I start piecing the rest together. Mulling for the novel usually starts long before I start writing it. Like right now I have 2 novels brewing in my head while I revise another.
Husband is my tech man. So, I usually give him assignments or other experts I know. I do research - usually reading. Sometimes visiting in person.
I have everything about ready to go on the next novel except research at the historical society here as I plan to set it in Central Oregon about 1900 - to start. But I am having trouble pinning down my over all series plot - to unfold over the series of books. I'm sure it will come to me eventually. Hopefully, before I finish revision on this novel.
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