I always wait until I’m finished with the first draft of a manuscript before I give the work a title.  Deciding on a title is tortuous for me, I don’t know why, but it is.  When selecting Murphy’s Troubles as the title for my first novel I spent a morning writing down potential titles in two columns on plain paper.  I filled three pages with about sixty candidates.  I set aside my “brain drain” for a few days.  I was exhausted from the process of trying to be creative for a catchy title.  After three days I picked up the list and read over the potential titles.  I started by eliminating titles I definitely didn’t want and reduced the list to about forty.  Again, I set aside my pages for a few days.  The second step was to circle titles I thought would work and reduced the list to about ten.   I waited several more days and then reviewed the list of ten and at the top of the third page – Murphy’s Troubles screamed out to me.  That was it!

My process for selecting the title for my second novel was quite different.  I didn’t wait until I finished the first draft before bestowing a title on my work.  Ian Murphy is a troubled man, suffering from chronic depression and alcoholism most of his adult life.  He is a loner who is often alone with his own thoughts and demons.

In parallel after the 1998 Peace Accord resolution passed by huge margins in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland a sense of hope and relief from violence spread throughout both countries.  None of the factions in Northern Ireland were realistic about how difficult it would be to form a government.  Hope was shattered in August 1998 with the bombing in Omagh and the founding of the Real IRA to replace the Provisional IRA.  Northern Ireland was cast again into the darkness of terrorism.

Both my protagonist Ian Murphy and Northern Ireland struggle to get Out of Darkness.         

At author presentations I’m often asked about the process I use when writing the first draft of a manuscript.  There are as many methods for writing a novel as there are snowflakes.  In fact, one author, Randy Ingermanson one method of writing a novel is called the snowflake method.  He uses ten steps from simple to complex to get to your goal of writing a novel.  I don’t do that.

I don’t want to prescribe how anyone should go about writing a novel.  Writing is different for everyone.  I don’t want to give tips on how to write a novel.  I do want to describe the process I use in hopes that it may help someone along their own path.

I know the both the beginning and end of the novel before I begin writing. I know exactly what my protagonist wants, however, in the process of writing I figure out how the protagonist reaches his goal.  In other words,  I have a “big picture” of the novel.

Because my writing his history based I pick an actual historical event, research the details and then insert my fictional protagonist into the event.  I think in terms of episodes to get me from the beginning to the end of the novel.  After the 1998 Good Friday Peace Accord was approved by referendum in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland true peace remained illusive.  As is the Irish way, a large minority didn’t accept the peace accord and a splinter group calling themselves the Real Irish Republican Army was organized and they bombed a building in Omagh in August 1998.  My protagonist, Ian Murphy, is furious that the fragile Peace Accord is in jeopardy because of the bombing and he rushes off to Omagh to subdue the violence.  At this point the novel is off and running. 

My process for writing my second novel, Out of Darkness, is radically different from the tumultuous journey to write my first novel, Murphy’s Troubles.  The two primary differences are time and experience.  Murphy’s Troubles was crafted while I was raising a family and had a full time career at the University of Wisconsin.  It was written in spurts and sprints over a twelve year period.  While working on that novel I promised myself that some day  . . .

Without the oppression of a full time job beginning in 2010 I controlled my schedule and could devote myself to writing.  I began my second novel in February 2014 and gave myself a monthly word goal and tracked my progress weekly.  I also fought and subdued my internal editor to just enjoy the process of creating the first draft.   The first draft was done by Halloween.  I surprised myself at how fast I wrote and how much I enjoyed creating a fiction world in 1998 Ireland.

The second difference was experience.  For a first time novelist there is nothing better than independent publishing because you learn what it takes to create a book and you control every decision.  My first novel was written in third person objective point of view because I didn’t know any other way to write it.  Third person point of view gives an author the freedom to be in every character’s head and to provide the reader with multiple perspectives.  Many readers have commented that reading Murphy’s Troubles is like watching a movie, it’s that perspective.

Once I accepted that Ian Murphy had more stories to share I knew that the book must be written in first person point of view.  First person point of view is very common and for me the advantage was that I could be psychologically close to Ian Murphy.  Ian Murphy would tell Ian Murphy’s story.  I would draft about three chapters at a time take a day or two break and then read the draft.  I found it extremely difficult to write in first person point of view.  I googled first person point of view novels then went to the library and selected about half a dozen.  I skim read the books to learn how authors wrote from only one character’s perspective.  First person point of view allows for depth but it is also extremely limiting because all the action is seen from only one person’s viewpoint.

I continued writing three chapters until I had something I wanted to share.  I confessed to my friend and mentor, Marshall Cook, that I was wrestling with point of view.  He understood why I wanted to use it and agreed to read my chapters.  As is his way, he succinctly found my errors and pointed out what I could and could not do within first person point of view.  For example, I often had Ian in his own head thinking and I used italics to indicate thoughts in the draft.  Marshall pointed out that the reader needed to see the character’s actions, not his thoughts.  The reader would understand his thoughts by his actions.  So I re-wrote and re-submitted to Marshall until he was satisfied I learned the craft of first person writing.     

My first novel, Murphy’s Troubles, was released in November 2013.  I knew I had an opportunity for holiday sales so I devoted all my activity to marketing.  My emphasis was to market locally by having author discussions at our local library, the coffee shop, and an article in the local newspaper.  One of the questions always asked at the author presentations was:  are you going to write another book and have you started writing it?

The little voice inside my head screamed – are you kidding?  I’ve been working on this book for over ten years – off and on, the last three years intensely.  No, I’m not ready yet but yes I will definitely write another novel.  Fortunately, my internal editor squashed the little voice inside and I would politely respond that yes I want to write another novel but am not quite ready yet.

By February of 2014 I was ready to begin thinking about the next book to write.  At that time I had no idea what I wanted to write about.  I started a few books, two or three maybe – writing about three chapters and deciding it just didn’t feel right.

One evening I had a dream and the protagonist in Murphy’s Troubles told me he wasn’t done with his story.  It may sound bizarre but that’s exactly what happened.  I began researching what happened in Northern Ireland in the months following the vote on the referendum approving the 1998 Peace Accord.  It was a rocky road.  In August 1998 a group of disenchanted IRA members formed a new group called the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA).  The RIRA refused to accept the Good Friday Agreement and vowed to continue the violence. 

In addition, the British government didn’t trust the citizens of Belfast, fearing that violence could/would/was likely to erupt at any time.  Their solution was to build more walls separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods.  These two historical events became the plot to continue Ian Murphy’s story.    

Today is my official, public coming out.  I am revealing that I was born on April 1st and my Mom was 39 years old when I was born.  The day I was born my brother was 16 and my sister was 13.  That makes me the “whoops” baby.  Later in life I joked with both my brother and sister that effectively I was an only child.  By the time I was old enough to remember them they were both in college.

When I tell people I was born on April 1st they ask – Really?  I generally respond – You think I’d make that up?

I grew up in a small town neighborhood on Lincoln Street.  Hard to get more middle glass than that.  My next door neighbor’s Dad was a butcher, across the street was a salesman and an electric line worker.  My best friend’s Dad worked for the city and farmed part time with his brothers.  All of the Mom’s in our neighborhood stayed at home to run the family, my Mom did too.

My parents enjoyed giving me birthday parties for both friends and family.  I have some great pictures of wearing a cowboy outfit, my first bike and other best in the whole world birthday presents.

All of my life I’ve had the disadvantage of being gullible and overly trusting.  Every year my friends pulled April fool’s jokes on me.  I never once figured it out before they pulled off the prank successfully.  It was all good fun and we all had a big laugh, even though inside I felt it was at my expense.

Later in life I researched how the day became known as April Fool’s Day.  It’s all about the calendar.  The original ancient calendar was the Julian calendar which celebrated New Year’s Day on April 1.  Pope Gregory for reasons unknown changed the date of New Year’s to January 1.  The Holy See degreed in 1582 that the world would use Pope Gregory’s calendar which we now call the Gregorian calendar.  Word traveled slowly in 1582.  Those who either refused to adopt the new calendar or didn’t know about the change were given fool’s errands on that day.

Gotch ya! Happy April Fool’s Day!  The whole calendar story is a hoax.  But I really was born on April 1st.