Scraps of paper and lost ideas

 I was deeply into a fast-moving part of a manuscript when my wife sat down beside me with a computer problem. After several minutes of unsuccessful troubleshooting, I referred her to our children, who are much more familiar with the workings of her Apple computer.

Turning back to my work in progress, I looked at my partially completed paragraph...and had no idea where the plot was going. I'd been on a roll, but the interruption took me away from the flow of ideas. I re-read several pages but couldn't recover the train of thought I'd been on. I deleted several paragraphs and went in a different direction. 

Today, my character told me he'd been inspired to pick up his guitar and play Vincent, by Don McLean. The lyrics, "Starry starry night," remind him of a painting by the artist who is the subject of an upcoming cozy. After queueing up that song on my computer, YouTube decided I would also like to hear Gordon Lightfoot music.

I was writing with music playing in the background when YouTube played a live performance. Gordon Lightfoot was talking between songs while tuning his guitar. He said the next song, Carefree Highway, had nearly been lost if not for a slip of paper with a few lines of lyrics he'd jammed in the pocket of his jeans. Armed with those few words, Lightfoot later picked up his guitar and composed one of his most famous songs. He quipped that if he hadn't found that slip of paper before the pants went into the wash, that song would never have been written.

As an author, I get that. I can't count the number of times I've had what seemed like a brilliant idea, only to lose the thought when I was distracted or fell asleep. To overcome that, I've sometimes rolled out of bed at 3 AM and written a brief outline, sent myself an email with a few key words, or sometimes written few paragraphs on a blank page, just so the idea isn't lost.

In an effort to help me overcome the random and unpredictable recovery process of my mind, one of my consultants supplied me with piles of recipe cards. After reading a few sample chapters of my first cozy, "Whistling Pines", Brian met me for lunch with three stacks of recipe cards. "These are characters. This pile is locations. The final pile is plot twists." He's continued to supply me with information, primarily via email now, but his ideas are boundless and well documented. He understands how many thoughts fly around while I'm writing, and he's determined to help me overcome the volume of ideas that are forever lost by my unreliable mental retrieval system.

My cop consultant, Deanna, sends me imperatives. "DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE..." or "THAT CHARACTER CANNOT..." Messages sent in capital letters seem to stick in my mind better than lowercase texts.

Book signing events are often chaotic sources of plots and characters, supplied by the attendees. "You should set a book in the old quarry. My Aunt Harriet was killed by a burglar who set her house on fire. My neighbor was found tied to a chair in the basement with a gunshot wound to the back of his head-the coroner ruled it a suicide." In addition to the plot suggestions, colorful fans abound, giving me inspiration for quirky characters. The problem with a book signing is that the ideas fly at me while I'm politely inscribing books, trying to not misspell my own name. Most ideas originating from that setting are lost, but others stick in the dark recesses of my mind. Kirsten, a friend and librarian, suggested using images from a GoPro camera, a plot twist later used in "Devils Fall".

Like the bit of lyrics Gordon Lightfoot found in the pocket of his jeans, some ideas get randomly pulled out of my memory and inserted into books. Others end up in the mental equivalent of the washing machine: If ever recovered, they're blurred images on a water-soaked piece of paper that may or may not be recognizable.

Check out "Grave Secrets" the latest Doug Fletcher mystery from BWL publishing.

www.bookswelove.net/hovey-dean/

Grave Secrets is a mixture of memories from a Florida trip, research, suggestions from my cop consultant, and the voices of the characters. There may have been some notes on scraps of paper involved...