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Friday, April 22, 2011

The Process of Writing: Part Three


Okay, once I have my concept or overall idea, the next thing I do is look for a scripture that conceptualizes the theme of the story. Sometimes this is done in two separate quotes, but the goal is a single idea expressed. Again let’s look back at how I did this with the first three books.

The first book, NHI, and the scripture selected as the theme was Hebrews 9: 27 “And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.”

The second book, DRT: Dead Right There, deals with the issues of sudden and intense violence and the scriptural theme is Matthew 10: 28, “And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  
DRT had a second quote attached by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he spoke in Chicago projects. “A man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live.”
 
And for IAI: Internal Affairs Investigation, the scriptural theme is Proverbs 22: 1 – “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.”
Once I have this, I allow the idea of the quoted truth to work itself in and out through the entire manuscript. Next time we will look at how I deal with setting and character development.  

DRT pages 1-9( 6/9)

(Chapter One Cont…)
 
 
Flipping open his cell phone, Nate called the on-call crime scene tech. Rosie answered on the second ring. “Hey sorry to bother you this early-”
     She cut him off. “I’m already en route. Got in late and heard the call go out. I should be on scene in about…. Now.” She honked her horn as she parked her van across the street from the crime scene. Rosie, a fifty-something Hispanic woman, was almost as tall as she was round, with a personality just as big. She was a no-nonsense, fresh-off-the streets type girl.
     Bumping the van door closed with her hip, Rosie opened her bag and began to set up her camera. “What do you want?” She asked over her shoulder.
     Nate and Mac smiled knowingly as Rosie sorted the varied baggies and evidence containers. “Better get everything. We don’t know what we have yet.” Nate answered.
     “You can get me the heck out of here,” MacGilvery added sarcastically and glanced over at Rosie.
     As Rosie began to create a photo-log of the crime scene, recording the location and placement of items of interest, Nate and Mac stepped back to consider what they had discovered. A half hour passed and Rosie signaled that she had finished with the preliminary photos and was all set to begin evidence collection.
     “Ready?” Nate asked.
     “Nope,” Mac said joking.
     “Oh, shut up,” Rosie cut in. “We’re ready.”
     “Okay,” Nate began, “I’ll walk the route. You watch Mac and Rosie you-”
     “I’ll stand by for collection and tagging. It’s not my first ride on this train you know?”
     Nate smiled.
     Standing near the head of the body, he looked at the scene again. Studying the body’s position, Nate moved around it trying to determine the victim’s direction of travel at the time of attack. Beginning at the corpse’s feet, taking slow steps moving in a spiral search pattern, he progressed outward from the body. Nearing the head again, he stopped, feeling something hard beneath the toe of his shoe. “Mac… I think I got something.”
     Nate knelt down and retrieved a small rectangle shaped piece of plastic from beneath his right foot. Reading the writing on the side of the object, he recognized it to be a sixteen gigabyte thumb-drive.
     Holding the thumb-drive between his index finger and thumb, Nate dropped it into a small evidence bag held by Rosie. She cut her eyes at him. “Next time use rubber gloves, Sherlock.”

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