Archive for David Kelter
After fifteen days of writing, I’m 84% of the way to the goal of 50,000. But as gratifying as that is, 50K has never been my real goal here–my goal is to write a novel. As mentioned before, my previous David Kelter books have been about 70K and 75K respectively (though the latter is only a draft). I have been expecting this to be a bit longer, and so far it looks like that will be the case. My general estimate has been 80K.
That means that not only am I halfway through the month, but I’m probably also halfway through the novel itself, which is pretty good timing. And not only that, but I’m just about exactly halfway through those handwritten notes, too.
The best news of all, though, is that I think I’m over the wall I hit this past week. After four straight days of sub-1000 writing, I cranked out 4,736 yesterday.
(NOTE: Somehow, this post got lost somewhere in the ether last weekend. I think there was more to it when I first wrote it, but here’s what seems to have survived.
Filed under: General Writing | David Kelter, NaNoWriMo, The Murder School|No Comments
Overall, a pretty good week–quantity-wise, anyway. I’ve faced down more than a few “THIS IS CRAP!” moments, but have managed to remind myself that everything is crap until at least the first rewrite.
I’m averaging 3,357.4 words per day, which would come out to about 100,722 words if I keep it up. I’m not planning on having The Murder School be quite that long. After the Service is about 69,000, and the first draft of All That Death is just under 75,000. I expect The Murder School to be longer than either, but not by 25,000 words. If you throw out my single highest & lowest days, I’m averaging right around 2,900 a day–I’d end up with about 91,000 words, which is still longer than I’d like, but acceptable for a first draft. I’m shooting for about 80-85,000 words for this one.
So, not only should I be able to finish my 50K without much problem, I should also actually be able to finish the entire draft before November 30.
Filed under: General Writing | David Kelter, NaNoWriMo, word count|No Comments
This post on Open Wardrobes got me thinking about names in the run up to this new book (working title: The Murder School). Names are one of the weak points of After the Service I will freely admit to. I usually slap a name on my characters at about the same time I think them up, which leaves me with some rather dull character cognomens. My main character’s name is “David,” his roommate is “John,” his editor is “Jane,” his pastor is “Rick,” and his police detective is named “Anderson.” (Anderson might take offense to being called David’s police detective, but that’s what he gets for being a supporting character.)
Jim’s poetic ruminations on the importance of naming, combined with my own innate laziness, have actually combined to force me to take a bit more care in the naming of my supporting cast in The Murder School (hereby called “TMS“).
As I’ve been outlining, I’ve been neglecting to give any of my new characters names, with the exception of the victim. Instead, I’ve been referring to them by initials or abbreviations. My hope is that, eventually, I will come up with stellar, creative, descriptive names that illuminate the nature of these characters without being overly heavy-handed or–even more important, with a mystery–giving anything away!
I don’t know when I will actually give names to these folks, so I may end up posting excerpts with these nicknames still intact. So, without further ado, I present to you the new characters to be found in TMS:
- JL: Jenny Lee: This is the one character I’ve named–the victim. She’s a Christian music star and alumna of Seattle Pacific University. She was supposed to give the commencement address for David’s graduation, but she’s found dead in her hotel room a couple days before. I like this name, because it’s the kind of short name a pop star should have, but it’s actually her real name.
- AG: Alumni Guy. SPU director of alumni relations, or something like it. He contacts David on behalf of the school, asking him to investigate JL’s death–and hopefully to prove that it had nothing to do with SPU, which is getting tired of the tag “The Murder School.” (Get it?)
- Mgr: Jenny Lee’s Manager. He also contacts David, having read up on his earlier exploits while doing advance work for his client. He, too, wants independent eyes and ears on the investigation.
- Rep: Reporter. A reporter and SPU alum David knows vaguely from way back. He’s still trying to hit the big time, and also asks David to investigate, hoping to get some cheap labor that will give him a major scoop.
- PA: JL’s Personal Assistant. A young, cute, freckled Tennessean with an accent David finds adorable. She’s devastated by her boss’ death, and by being stranded alone in a strange city. Or is she?
- KB: JL’s keyboardist. A hip young musician, who, while he was feeling creatively stifled in his current position, is worried about the loss of his steady gig, and mourning the loss of his friend. Or is he?
- JLM: JL’s Mother. A Korean immigrant who has lived nearly her whole life in the States. I imagine she has a Korean name, but that she hasn’t used it in years, and goes by a more American-sounding one. Not very close to her daughter, but angry and distraught by her sudden and mysterious death. Or is she?
- HSBF: JL’s High School Boyfriend. A former jock, who the years have treated a bit less well than he may have hoped, he nonetheless could be said to have some rugged charm, if you overlook the small paunch and receding hairline. But while he still thinks his former girl is smokin’, he hasn’t seen her in years. Or has he?
- VA: JL’s Violin Adviser. First violin for the Seattle Symphony, and one of JL’s music professor at SPU. A young prodigy grown into a less-young hotshot, he maintains more familiarity with his female students than David thinks appropriate. But he also hasn’t seen her for quite some time. Or has he?
- AP: JL’s Accountability Partner. A friend from Tennessee, she knows more about JL than any other person, and loved her anyway. Or did she?
- DKM: David Kelter’s Mother. Or is she? Yes, actually, she is. This isn’t the first time she’s appeared–she’s in the first scene of the forthcoming All That Death, but never got a name. The time has come. She’s kind of a flighty sort, but sharp in her own way–usually having to do with baseball statistics. Hates that David keeps finding himself involved in these murders.
- DKF: David Kelter’s Father. The owner of a fairly successful printing business in the town of Mount Vernon an hour north of Seattle. Covertly fascinated by, and even a little envious of, his son’s escapades.
If you have any suggestions for these names, I’m all ears. At the moment, I’m considering taking names directly from the Washington State voter rolls, for some verisimilitude. But this time, I’m determined to make sure the names fit the characters well–and that will mean I’ll have to actually start writing the book, and get to know them.
Filed under: Characters | David Kelter, fiction, names, NaNoWriMo, The Murder School, writing|No Comments
About this time in 2006, on something of a whim, I decided it was finally time to write a mystery that had been bopping around in my head for a while. Taking advantage of National Novel Writing Month and some impending underemployment, I wrote the story of David Kelter, a college student who gets wrapped up in a murder mystery when he stumbles across a corpse in his church’s office.
Two years later, that story is After the Service, a real live book with real live binding and everything–one half the current offerings of Goddard Publishing, a nascent experiment in author-driven publishing. And David Kelter, as it turns out, isn’t quite finished. This summer, I wrote a first draft of All That Death, which should be available from Goddard Publishing in Spring 2009.
And this November is, again National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, as it is affectionately named). And it turns out that David Kelter is just about to graduate from Seattle Pacific University–and investigate another murder at the same time.
And what better time to crank up the new Goddard Publishing blog than at the beginning of a new book? I’m hoping this blog will serve as an insight into the creative process and an outlet for throughts about writing and art for myself and T. James Belich, author of Edelsha. It will also be an opportunity for sneak previews of the next two still-in-process David Kelter mysteries, and perhaps some other tales, as well. Enjoy!
Filed under: Site News | After the Service, David Kelter, mysteries, NaNoWriMo|No Comments
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