Hello. My name is Alison, and I'm a plotter.
I'm currently working on plotting the first book in a new series that will be set in and around the quaint seaside hamlet of Carmel-by-the-Sea. I know most of the characters, I know who "did it," and I know the major plot points. Now, I'm looking for ideas to fill in all that extra space in the middle. Stuff has to happen. You know it. I know it. Readers expect it.
However you look at it, Carmel is an eccentric little town, filled with colorful characters. It relishes its quirky reputation and encourages individual expression. The town was founded as an artists' colony shortly after the turn of the twentieth century and is now a magnet for tourists from all over the world. As a result, some pretty odd things happen here.
Carmel is blessed, or cursed--depending on your point of view, with a weekly local paper, The Carmel Pine Cone, which includes a day-by-day police blotter drawn from the call logs of the local department and county Sheriff's Office. For the past couple of years, I've been keeping a folder with some of the most unusual entries for use in futures stories. Now is the time to pull out my collection of cut-out slips of paper and start searching for items to spice up my story with bits of local color.
There are so many good ones, I'm having trouble choosing, but here are a few of the entries I'm considering using:
"Report that a known subject used a knife to cut the head off a plastic flamingo on Highway 1."
"Officer was conducting routine patrol at 0500 hours on Sunset Drive and located a large grey and black Rubbermaid travel bag. Bag contained male clothing, four boxes of window coverings, wood stakes, jumper cables, a black backpack with male's clothing and tie-down straps."
"Peace disturbance at a hotel on San Carlos Street. The hotel manager brandished a taser at a guest."
"A female reported a male howling from her driveway on Pine Hills Drive."
"Robinson Canyon Road resident reported a Buddhist monk kicked in the door to his trailer."
"Report a female on Red Eagle Alley had walked out onto her balcony in the nude and asked gardeners to be quiet. She agreed to put on some clothes."
"Report of a subject on Forest Avenue going through the garbage on private property. Subject has been admonished before. He was advised of the trespass warning. He later admitted to splashing holy water on the trash."
"Female reported that someone entered her storage area below her house on San Carlos Street and cut up some of her husband's sweaters."
"A male real estate agent reported one year ago he went to a home on San Carlos Street for a possible listing. Upon arrival, a female offered him alcohol and marijuana. He felt uncomfortable and left. Today the female called his office and said he should be fired."
Some of these are definitely going to make an appearance. Like they say, you can't make this stuff up!
Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com
I've passed the three-quarter mark in my current manuscript, the third and final book in my female bodyguard Phoenix, Ltd. series, so it's time to start mulling my next project. Actually, I've been thinking about this one for several years. I even wrote the first four chapters of the first book while waiting to see if readers would be interested enough in Unwritten Rules to make it worthwhile to write more books in that series.
The new series will feature three artist sisters who work in different media: a maker of wind sculptures, a raku potter, and a glass-blower. I don't know much more about the stories, except that they'll be set here. And therein lies my dilemma. How real do I make the setting? Do I call #Carmel-by-the-Sea by its real name, or does it become Cypress Cove? What about #Monterey? For the purposes of the books, I'm considering re-naming it Otter Bay.
People love to read books set in areas they know. The descriptions bring back a flood of memories associated with the locales depicted in the story. We've all read and enjoyed books like that--they're accurate right down to the street names. The Monterey Peninsula is a spectacular area, full of wonderful potential settings, but it's also a small, fairly tight-knit community. Any errors or bits of artistic license on my part are bound to be noticed by local readers. By setting my books here, I enjoy an automatic boost in local promotional opportunities, but that might be a double-edged sword.
The benefit of re-naming places is that I can manipulate things, put them where I need them, combine places if I want to. I might use a local restaurant as the basis for a fictional one, but if I name it I'd better be pretty darned accurate in my description. The beach stairs have to be in the correct location. I can't have redwood forest overlooking the ocean within a half-hour drive of town, when in fact, there are rocky outcroppings covered by cypress trees or a sweeping, grassy plain.
Fictionalizing the setting gives me much more leeway but erodes the realism many readers enjoy. Even if the local population here is small, millions of people have visited here from all over the world. Some may even end up reading this book.
As a reader, or a writer, how do you feel about the strict treatment of real places? Do you love authentic detail, or are you satisfied with authentic atmosphere? I need to know how readers feel because I can go either way, but I know already that setting is going to play a huge part in these books.
Help!
Alison
www.alisonhenderson
