When I showed the first chapter to my wife, I was concerned that the first part of it didn’t have the punch I was looking for. I printed it up and gave it to her to read. Her first comment was the question: How long had he been sleep walking like this? I was stunned. The main character wakes up to a mauled deer next ot him, blood is on his hands and mouth and my wife wants to know how long this had been going on? To be honest, I had never really given that much consideration, since for me the story starts with the main character waking up next to the deer carcass. Her next question was: why didn’t he call the police? That question I could answer and did: he woke up next to a dead deer and he’s covered in blood. The police are the last thing he needs to worry about.

This brings up a point I would like to reiterate for all of our writers out there – your story doesn’t begin at the inciting incident, or even the first page. What happens before should be a part of your rough draft. Even if it’s in a vague ‘x happened to him’.

For me, this made me reconsider my main character’s history. How long had he been sleep walking? What have his parents done to mitigate this? What’s he doing now? Is it working? To answer the questions in order: since he was five, drugs and stress reduction, more drugs and hell, no – otherwise there would be no story.

I looked up drugs for sleep walkers. One of them is a well known anti-epileptic and anti-psychotic called clonazepam. I was curious about this, and a small idea started. What if the main character, a bona fide werewolf, was taking this drug for sleepwalking, but the sleepwalking was really him trying to turn into a wolf? Do his parents know this? No, when they see him sleepwalking, he’s on all fours, growling and snapping. They think he’s dreaming about something, but in reality, it’s the wolf trying to get out.

Fast forward to him being a grown-up. He takes clonazepam to control his sleep walking, but sometimes he forgets to take a dose. On most nights, nothing happens. When the moon is full, that’s when he changes and goes on a rampage. This is rare enough that Edgar (our MC) doesn’t make the connection to moon cycles and waking up in strange places, but it happens. He just thinks that he’s sleep walking. The deer represents a new level for him.

I looked up what would happen if he went cold turkey, and hoo boy, it is going to be a problem. Hallucinations, depression, anxiety and so much more for our hero. Most of which also happens with serial killers and the post-kill depression.

Now, this is Tribal I’m talking about, so one of the problems I had was that the political message of ‘how can an essentially good person get swept up in this?’ would get buried under an avalanche of ‘well, if he took his meds, none of this would have happened.’ I want to avoid that for obvious reasons.

Well, as it turns out – Edgar’s mentor, Jimmy, finds out that Edgar’s on anti-psychotics and tells him to get off them immediately. The doctor doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but Jimmy knows better because he’s had experience being a werewolf himself. Sound familiar? Turns out I can stay on message with this new wrinkle, after all. This makes me happy for obvious reasons. I just have to finish the second draft. The first one was horrible and I wrote myself into a corner. This one is much better.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I should have the second draft finished by the end of September and I am going to have it released next year. If any of my long suffering blog readers want to volunteer to be a beta reader, drop me a line. Ta-ta for now.

The answer was proverbially staring at me in the face. Realistically, it was in my ears. My earbuds that I wear at lunch (I have a pair for work and a pair for everything else.) have a longer range than I thought. So, what I am doing now is putting on my earbuds and leaving my phone plugged in at my workstation at the dreaded day job. I can listen to music and not have the temptation to flip through Facebook, Reddit or the myriad other social media sites that capture my attention.

No more of that…

Now that little complication has been solved, I am getting a little headway into the outline. I finally got to write the outline for one of the chapters I have been looking forward to writing. It’s the chapter where the main character Edgar gets to confront his bully Carlton for the first time – it’s the chapter I got the idea to rewrite part way through coming up with the first draft. I can’t wait to sit down and write this particular chapter. It’s an ice cream scene to be sure.

The weather here in Kentucky is being Kentucky – if you don’t like it, just wait ten minutes. I think we’ve gone through three out of four seasons here in the span of a week: cold rain, hot rain, and determined drizzle. It’s nice coffee drinking weather, and certainly good working weather until the power goes out. One nice thing about my laptop id that if has a nice long battery. The weather will steady out pretty soon, so we can all look forward to Southern Humidity!

I did go see Thunderbolts Friday. It’s a good film, and it certainly says quite a bit about mental illness. There was only one thing I found wrong with it, but I’m not going to say what it is because I don’t want to spoil anything. I would give it 3 and half stars out of 5. A good attempt, but they’ve done much better. Didn’t get a chance to see Sinners in the theaters, but I am going to catch it when it comes out on streaming services. I tried to avoid any spoilers, and I ran into one anyways. It’s getting harder and harder to not come into a film completely unknowing.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m itching to get back to the outline to finish the chapter and start on the downward spiral that’s Edgar’s life. Take care, and ta-ta for now.

Well, I have slacked off a little bit on the outline, and I blame that on fatigue from the gym in the morning. It’s coming along, and I am going to work a little on it today. Edgar is in the third act, so things are going to get a lot tougher for him. I’m following the five act structure that I love so much, so this is the act where, like I said, things get tougher for the character. In Edgar’s case, it’s going to be fist fights, sex and dread realizations. Good stuff!

I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but I can’t find the outline I was working for Serve Me Now. If I must rewrite the outline, then I’m not going to really put out over it. I mean – third time’s the charm right, Susan? I can work on it while I get back to writing the manuscript for Tribal. I think doing that is going to be the only way I can clear the slate for a while. After Serve Me Now, I’ve got that Gothic romance that is definitely going to be published under a pseudonym. After that…I think I am going to work on Forever Junkie and after that, I might just throw myself back into Tyro’s stories. I;ve put them off long enough. Maybe I’ll work on Medicine Show before that. I really need to get that out. I’ve got to get a lot out.

Anyone recommend a fiendishly strong brand of coffee? I’ve had two cups of the stuff, and I feel like I could take a nap. I need something far stronger than what I am drinking now, and that was a step up from Death Wish Coffee. I miss the shakes.

Well, if I am going to get to work on the outline, I should get going. Ta-ta for now and have a good day!