A little philosphy on the topic of writing today.
I'm working my way through re-reading the Joe Pickett novels by C.J. Box. I picked one of them for my top 10 reads of 2025. But, honestly, I could have picked them all. I really like this series. Why? And why am I re-reading them so soon?
I'll answer the second question first. I'm doing them again because I didn't actually READ them the first time through. I listened to the audiobooks while I was down with shingles. First of all, audio is my weakest input channel. Secondly, I usually fell asleep listening and had to go back and figure out where I had "lost it." This may have resulted in missing some things. Third, highly related to the first reason, I take in much more when I see the print, when I can flip back through pages to check something. I'm highly visual.
Why do I like this series? I like the (mostly) outdoor setting, even though it's set in the West which I understand much less than the eastern forests. The characters are a little bit larger than life, but not excessivley so. Joe is (mostly) a little too good. Nate is (mostly) a little too feral. Joe's family is spot-on, except his mother-in-law, who is a little too grasping. Law enforcement at every level is a little too corrupt. But like the Jack Reacher books, sometimes you just want to see justice being done, even if it's not exactly legal.
The writing is good. Here's a sample that's not part of the high-tension plot. "The moon was a perfect thin slice of ice-white in a thick soup of stars that hardened as the temperature dropped near freezing."
Dialog is crisp and is fitted to the character, not generic and stilted.
Here's what got me thinking today. I just finished
Free Fire, where the story is set in Yellowstone National Park. Parts of the plot are somewhat believable; the motivations for the crime(s) are solid as eventually revealed. Four people are slaughtered in a remote section of the park that, because of the wording of the law, turns out to be a place where one can commit a perfect murder. In fact, the killer turns himself in, knowing he can't be prosecuted. The rest of the plot then hinges on what was his motive. No one can find a connection between him and the victims. Except Joe, of course.
Now, if I were to give you a five-sentence syopsis of the rest of the plot, you would probably snort and say, "Ridiculous." And you might be right. But the point is, as the way it's written, it works.
So, where am I going with this? As you may or may not be aware, I am stalled on the plot of
Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. I have A,B, & C written. I know pretty much what E is going to be. Part D has eluded me for months. I've kept writing, hoping the next piece would appear. It has not. I've written some nice stuff in this transitional section. For example: "I heard no deep, even breathing suggesting that anyone was asleep. I certainly wasn’t. Flapping nylon, moaning wind, the uneven percussion of rain falling from branches as well as the sky, and fricative sighs of pajamas against blankets created a muted sound track for our emotional discomfort."
What hit me today was that maybe I don't need part D to be quite as realistic as I've been thinking. The whole story is a bit ridiculous anyway- set against the background of a Live Action Role-Playing Game- Ana, Chad, and Mariah find themselves compelled to play by a sinister stranger. Can it get more goofy than that? (I've warned everyone that this story is "different" - you'll either like it or you won't.)
Maybe I need to just buckle down and outline a scenario skeleton that makes some sense and then put some muscles and flesh on that baby. I've got people who like my characters. I need to run with that and get them through this bizarre, thick, plot
I wrote 182 words today, and they don't move the story along. Got to fix that.
