The Pieces Are Coming Together

I have characters! Most of them still don't have names, but I'm getting closer to that. I tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour last night and ended up staring at the ceiling for three hours. But I figured out some story stuff. Not only do I have characters by description, I can imagine what they're like. They're real people, living in my head now. It's getting a little crowded.

So, who do we have now?

• The main character, a bartender with brain damage, who seems to have some strange abilities
• Jo Castilla, kind and caring, is on a quest to help… someone
• The honeymooning couple: he's an architect, she's an avid pinterester
• The author, who writes romance novels under a female pseudonym, is here researching his next book
• Mary Jane Sebring, flirty and impulsive, is not going to have a nice weekend
• The proprietress, who runs the Something Something Inn

And here is what I know. Our main character meets Mary Jane on the boat out to the island. A storm brews on the horizon. In the middle of the night, characters are awoken by a loud bang, followed by the repeated sound of the storm shutters banging against the wall. Well, that explains it, nothing to worry about. But in the morning, one guest is missing, and seems to have left an alarming amount of blood behind. Cut off from the mainland by a winter storm, it is up to the remaining characters to uncover the killer among them.

*Cue dramatic music*

So I know how it starts. I might know who the killer is. Maybe. I haven't really decided. And I don't think I'll tell you when I figure it out. You'll just have to read the book when I eventually finish and publish it.

On the subject of publishing it, this one will probably a novella. That is, too short to be a novel, but too long to be a short story. Why can't I make it a full length novel? Well, the events take place over a single weekend, and there's not a lot of room for subplots in such a short time span, when all your characters are stuck in one place. There's just not enough to fill out a full-length novel.

Also on the publishing side of things, I think I'll be doing it under my own name. Sorry if that disappoints anyone. The cons of pseudonyms just started outweighing the pros. I'll keep writing the blog under this name, though. For now, anyway.

I have a week before I have to start writing this. In that time, I need to name five characters, the quaint island inn, and the story itself. You might ask, why not name the story after it's done? I find it harder, for some reason. Like, I have to come up with a name that suits absolutely every moment that I wrote. It's too much pressure. I like to name them beforehand and hope the title still makes sense later. I like to live on the edge.

Well, I'm off to stare at lists of names and hope something jumps out at me. I'll see you on Tuesday.