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How The Heck Did You Come Up With That?
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This is a new feature on my website. I always want to know where writers get their ideas, and I hear that a lot from my readers, too. So from time to time I'll be writing background articles on my books—research tidbits, structure ideas, adopting real-life settings, etc.
These first two articles are about my novella, "Necessary Betrayals," which is collected in the anthology HOT PURSUIT (NAL, Dec 2005).
Long Island Memories
One of the things I enjoyed about writing Necessary Betrayals, was the setting. It’s the first piece I set in my home stomping grounds of Long Island, New York. I grew up and went to high school on the North Shore, and it was so much fun revisiting some of those familiar locations.
In the novella, Francesca and Quinn look for Gina, Francesca’s missing sister, at Rudy’s Diner. As far as I know there is no real Ruday’s Diner on Long Island, but there could be. I've been to dozens of diners just like it. The huge black and white cookies, the linzer cookies...how many times have I eaten one of those?
A few years ago, I took a trip to Bayville with my folks, who still live in the same house I grew up in. We took the back roads, if you can imagine any back roads in a place like Long Island that’s so heavily developed. But you'd be surprised. Despite the subdivisions and shopping malls, there are still many tree-lined streets and charming old towns on Long Island. We had a wonderful day, ending up in a small restaurant right on the Sound. The sky was warm and blue and there were sail boats on the water. I used that setting for Oyster Cove.
Another place on Long Island that’s beautiful is the village of Sea Cliff. Set on a bluff overlooking Long Island Sound, its narrow, winding streets are dotted with Victorian, Queen Anne, and Gothic style homes, many of them built before 1940. I thought about this picturesque setting and wonderfully wild landscape when imagining Francesca’s old home.
Writing A Novella
A few minor spoilers, beware!
Necessary Betrayals is my first romantic suspense novella. I was nervous about writing a shorter form—usually my books are four times longer! But I started thinking about how an episode of Law & Order not only covers solving a crime, but the trial (and often conviction) of the perpetrator—all in an hour (forty minutes when you subtract the commercials). I wondered if I could write a shorter book using a similar structure.
Episodic TV shows are broken into "acts" the same way a play is. Each act is sandwiched between commercial breaks. I thought about the typical act breaks of a TV show and then translated them into chapters.
An episode of a TV show often begins with a cold open—a short hook that is intended to get you interested in watching the whole episode. I spent the first page or two of chapter one creating my "cold open"—a panicked phone call from Gina to her older sister, Francesca.
The first act, which begins just after the first commercial break, introduces the main characters, Francesca and Quinn, their relationship, and the mystery—my chapter one. I set up two story questions: what happened to Gina and what happened between Quinn and Francesca? Well, three, if you add: and what are they going to do about it?
In the next act, the characters on TV find clues to follow. In my second chapter, Francesca and Quinn find clues they think will lead them to Gina, but they also begin to reevaluate what happened in the past.
In the third act, the characters on TV might uncover the villain and begin to try to defeat him. Often, their initial attempts fail. In my third chapter, the villain is not only uncovered, Francesca and Quinn are forced to confront their past together and take a hard look at what betrayal really means.
But before that can happen, the villain must be defeated. In the TV show, this happens in the fourth act, which is often the climax. This is where the heroes are in the most jeopardy. In chapter four of my novella, Francesca and Quinn are captured by the villain and their desperate situation also helps reveal their true feelings for each other.
TV shows often have ending "tags" or small scenes that tie up loose ends or are small but insightful character moments. I added an entire last chapter to do that, adding a twist that I hope was unexpected.
Using a structure similar to an episode of television helped me structure my story and give it shape. Hope you enjoy the result!
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