I Made THAT Character the Protagonist? Really?

I’m sure that everyone is so sick of hearing me say, “I didn’t plan this.” But it’s once again true. I really didn’t plan on giving Rod his own book. Why would I when he was such a jerk in the beginning?

Yet about two thirds of the way through Evan’s story, I knew how it was going to end. He and Rod were going to be running from the authorities, Evans would be apprehended and his younger, more temperamental accomplice would be left to handle everything on his own… which is where the next book would begin.

I got so excited about it that I even wrote the first chapter of “Amateurs Play Elsewhere” way before I was done with its predecessor.

In it, a panicky Rod is making his way along dark Baltimore City streets, sticking to the shadows and wishing that Evans could be there with him.

It was a pretty intense opening, but then “Moves and Countermoves” took twists I hadn’t anticipated, making my forward-thinking efforts an absolute waste.

Oh well.

I gotta say, after I realized Rod was going to be the next protagonist and after I’d accepted it and even after I’d gotten excited about it, it was still a little bit of a daunting idea. I mean, this was kinda new territory I was tackling.

Back on June 1, this is what I said about writing from Evans’ perspective:

“One chapter, I was writing from a familiar female point of view; the next, I was doing my best to think like a guy. A guy who used to be in the military. And turned to crime. And then grew a conscience again. Now, I’ve never been a guy, or in the military, or turned to crime. Though I have shed and regrown a conscience a time or two. So I figured this was going to be three-quarters of a major challenge.”

Now take all of that and add in how Rod’s a bit of a moody baby who’s “a nasty letch with a bad temper,” as Kayla puts it in “The Politician’s Pawn.” In other words, out of my main three characters in this series, I have the absolute least in common with him. Perhaps I have the least common with him out of all of my main characters in any of my books.

So how did I get around it?

Stay tuned. I’ll tell you all about it on Wednesday. 

Same Story Line, Different Main Character – Totally Fascinating!

In last Wednesday’s blog, I admitted – WARNING: SPOILER ALERT – that I meant to kill Kayla at the end of “The Politician’s Pawn.”

That didn’t happen though. And since I didn’t figure that wasn’t going to happen until the last two chapters, I was left with three possible options:

1.       End the story on an inconclusive note

2.       Write a really, really long book in order to resolve everything

3.       Start figuring out a sequel

As usual with my stories, I didn’t get any say in the matter. My muse took over and chose (i.e., demanded, mandated, put a gun to my head and said, “Do this or else”) that a sequel it would be. Moreover, it was going to be a sequel from blue-eyed, conflicted-bad-boy Evan’s perspective.

I genuinely don’t remember ever consciously making that decision. It just happened. One chapter, I was writing from a familiar female point of view; the next, I was doing my best to think like a guy.

A guy who used to be in the military. And turned to crime. And then grew a conscience again.

Now, I’ve never been a guy, or in the military, or turned to crime. Though I have shed and regrown a conscience a time or two. So I figured this was going to be three-quarters of a major challenge.

Except that it wasn’t. My gun-toting muse (I really should name her if I keep bringing her up. How about Katrina?) was about as benevolent a story-line kidnapper as possible.

The first thing she did was prompt me to start out “Moves and Countermoves” – WARNING: SPOILER ALERT – back in Kayla’s living room after Evans has handed a manila folder full of evidence over. So it rehashes a dozen or two lines of dialogue from the very end of Dirty Politics 1. Only it’s Evans’ eyes we see it all through, and his thoughts we get to listen in on.

Here’s the first thing I discovered writing that same scene from a new perspective: Male and military-trained or not, he’s not nearly as impassive as Kayla thinks he is. And he definitely wasn’t the night before, when – WARNING: SPOILER ALERT – he saved her from becoming another sad, D.C. crime statistic.

Fictional though both Kayla and Evans are, it provided me a rather fascinating example of a real-life truth… that we never really know where another person is coming from. They might be acting badly. They might even be acting in a downright evil manner, in which case they have no excuse.

But they might just have a reason nonetheless. And sometimes that reason is pretty darn heavy.

Just ask Evans. Which you can do as of June 24, when I publish “Moves and Countermoves.”