Great --I Hope--Beginnings

by Hank Phillippi Ryan

So this is the moment. I’m endlessly grateful for it, but that doesn’t make it any less terrifying.

My dear Forge has contracted with me for another book (my eleventh!), another standalone. (And a group of more enthusiastic and talented people you will never find. My editor, thrilled. The publisher, thrilled. The PR department and art department, eager to go.)

But do not tell. The author? Terrified. I am about to type chapter one, and yeah. Four hundred pages to go. (This photo proves it CAN work, right?)

Writers, how do you deal with this, the idea that there’s a book in there, somewhere, and I know I can find it, and I love the story idea .But yet, there’s this journey, this unpredictable surprising unrelenting unforgiving process that at some point, turns into a joyous baffling thing that becomes a real book.

You have to start with a first line. How many lines can a writer come up with? A million of them. I have one in first person and third person, present tense, past tense, and everything kind of works, but just typing them makes me see what it has to be. How does that work, that the writer brain understands how the story has to be told?

What happens, when the main character’s voice begins to come out? How does that work? When her name was Gianna, she said not a word. When I changed her name to Rachel—ah. She had an attitude, a history, a background, a goal . Why is that? Why didn’t Gianna have a life? That is what Sue Grafton calls “the magic.” And I am lucky when I can find it.

Rachel’s husband--is he good or bad? Or some of each? And what’s his name, anyway? Not Eli, I learned that when he would not appear. Not Adam, or Ellis or Travis. He might be David. Seriously, I have the state treasurer’s list of people—thousands of them—who have unclaimed money due to them in the state treasury. I have looked through pages and pages, and I’ve got to tell you, not one person has a name that fits my character. How can that be? But I can tell you I know it’ll happen. Who will he be?

And the District Attorney? And the possibly evil—possibly--friend? What’s in Rachel’s past—do we know? All the questions that, a year from now, I have no doubt will be answered. But right now, most of it is blank. That is scary, and that is exciting, and I will let you know what happens. Watch this space. About this time of year, 12 months from now.

A year ago, right about now, I was beginning TRUST ME. I worked on it worked on like a maniac, edited and polished, and cut and changed and revamped and rethought and at some point, had a few –I have to say—great ideas. And this time next year, I hope you’ll be reading it. But this Wednesday, I will write my first words of this new book. Please send karma, and support, and tell me—what do you say to yourself when you start? Not just a book---but anything?

Comments

[Kathy Lynn Emerson]

Dear Hank,
Been there nearly 60 times now. It never gets any easier. And, at least in my case, I almost always start in the wrong place and have to go back when I'm a few chapters in and redo the beginning. But somehow it all works itself out eventually. As they say in Shakespeare in Love, it's magic. A year from now, you'll be holding up a finished copy and it will be great.
Kathy/Kaitlyn

[Storyteller Mary]

My sis and I used to quote from Shakespeare in Love, "It will all work." How? "No one knows, but it always does." (paraphrasing -- I might need to watch it again). You are so brave to share the fears. Judging by all those other books, I know you will prevail. <3
I have consistently found my opening lines of papers somewhere in the middle of a piece. I'd tell my students, to encourage them to just start with what they have, and then point out how much easier it is to rearrange text with computers. In college, we'd cut, rearrange on our bedspread, tape together, and retype. Life is better now in so many ways. Still, it's hard to wait for the next book. ;-)

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Kathy, thank you. It is incredibly reassuring. I cannot tell you. And you are right! I keep imagining a year from now...
thank you!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Mary! Just start, just start. You are SO right.

But um, can you come over?

Maybe I need to watch that movie. Like, right now.

[Mark]

You can do it! I have faith in you!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Oh, thank you, dear Mark!