Phew!

Last year, I decided (read as, got an urge) to write a pulp novel. Now Lester Dent (of Doc Savage fame) is one of the best and he had a method. You can search online; there are a lot of articles on it. Anyway, I decided last year to write a pulp novel, not just a story. I put doing so off for several months, and because I had dropped NaNoWriMo (for reasons) I decided November would be a good time to write my novel. I started writing in early November and decided not to worry about a deadline.

I wanted to write 50K words, which is a quick read and a reasonable goal for a pulp novel. I started slow, then decided on writing 2500 words a day so that I could finish the first draft by end-of-year (EOY). I thought writing a pulp novel would be easy and fun. Let’s just say it was fun. I never did finish by the end of 2024, but this was due to an unexpected emergency room visit (things are fine now, I think). I finished yesterday with a word count of 51321.

Along the way, I had a beta reader read my work in progress (WIP). The feedback was encouraging and helpful. I’m still waiting for final comments.

Going in, I had a vague idea of taking one of my short stories and reworking a character to a full novel. I had my protagonist. I didn’t have an outline, but I wanted a mystery of sorts. It was right after Halloween. I had a timeframe and setting. I sat down and wrote, pantsing all the way (Ho. Ho. Ho.). The book opens with a bang. Then things turn weird.

I had a strange killer/murder. I had a police inspector. I had a love interest. I had a cat. I had a great setup. Now, I had to put it all together into something coherent. I introduced the antagonist and started piling-on problems onto my protagonist. The antagonist isn’t what you expect. The cat is weird (but cozy). There is yearning between the protagonist and inspector. Then things go really weird.

I won’t spoil it. That’s one of the things I love about how this story turned out. I lay breadcrumbs and hints all over the place (figuratively). Things are never as they seem. There are twists and some red-herrings (in cream sauce). There is a weird final confrontation where the antagonist learns about himself and needs to make a decision. There is also some weird subtle humor (a kind I like writing).

Things end. Things continue. Other things begin.

I enjoyed writing this book. It worked my original character idea out nicely. The ending, however, was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever written. There were so many threads, hints, questions that needed answering, and relationships I had to pull together and answer in a cohesive manner. It was work. But I did it, and feel good about the end result, and glad that I did it this way.

And, I left the story at a place where it’s open to a follow-up (if I choose to write one), but I don’t know how I could top it.

So what did I write? It feels like a weird cozy, paranormal, romance, technological, horror mystery thriller. Well, it has those elements. And, I’m calling it… MiniMe––err, “The Cat and the Warlock”.

What now?

I’ll take time away from this draft and focus on editing the second book in my Coins of Destiny series. Then, I’ll come back to editing this story while I write book three of Coins of Destiny.

For now, I’ll take a couple of days away from writing and reset.

(And yes, I’m in a parenthetical mood today. Weird.)

Word up!

#writing/blog/pulp