Sept 4, 2023
What’s the biggest problem you have in your writing right now?
For those of you that have read my Harmony Duprie Mysteries, you know they are on the ‘light’ side. No on-scene murders, no blood and gore every other page, no one dies weekly. They were fun.
What I’m working on is the opposite of that. And it’s tough, changing my mindset.
My new main character is Cheyenne McGregor, Annie to her friends and co-workers, a divorced woman in her late twenties. She was in a major car accident before the story starts, and bears the scars to prove it. The story takes place in Pittsburgh, PA in the mid 1980s, when computers were about to go personal and change the world. But Pittsburgh was having additional issues because the steel industry that funded the local economy was dying.
I’m making the setting as realistic to the time as possible, using a mix of real and fake places. It’s harder to research than I expected, because so many of the records of that time are not widely available on the internet. Shoot, I spent an hour trying to figure out if police uniforms were blue or black back then. (They were blue – I think.)
I’ve put Annie to work in a barely-staying-afloat private investigating firm, working part time as a PI and part time as a bookkeeper. The scene I’m currently writing takes place in a wrong-side-of-town bar, searching for her abusive ex. Her boss, Mike Edwards, is helping her, against his better judgement. Making the bar low-life enough in a few choice sentences is tough, although I think the cockroach scuttling across her shoe is a nice touch. Having her squish it is a bonus.
My biggest current problem in my writing? Letting the dark side of life have free rein on my story. I’m pretty sure Annie will have at least one hospital stay. Maybe more. I’m not sure how big the body count will be.
What about the other authors on this hop? What are their biggest problems? Find out by following the links below.
As always, until next time, please stay safe.
Sept 4, 2023
What’s the biggest problem you have in your writing right now?
That sounds like a pretty good premise, I like the idea of a change of style, of heading on out of your comfort zone. It will be fun to see where it leads.
The story is taking me places I hadn’t expected. That’s a good thing.
Oh dear! Beware the research rabbit hole. I lost an afternoon to looking at footwear of the 1890s once just to decide what my heroine was wearing, and it didn’t end up mattering that much! @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act