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So, let’s talk opening scenes

Let’s have a conversation about how and where, in story, we start our novels. Let’s talk about the process we use to determine it. The reason I’m about this now is becasue that is exactly where I am In the current work in progress, There, That Violent Country. I have a basic outline that I have completed, the broad strokes complete. In addition to that I have a working outline of the structure. I know, at least up front, all 52 chapters and who’s POV they are. I also have a pretty clear idea of the ending of the first act, the centerpiece, and I have — like most of us probably do — the third act down pat.

So, why are we talking about opening scenes, then? Well in this case it is because I’m doing something a little out of the box here with this structure and I wanted to discuss what it is and how I got there. Maybe it will be helpful and maybe it will be trash receptacle worthy. Let’s find out.

I chose not to start with either the Protagonist, who in this case is Ulysses Bloodwood, or the Antagonist, Buckley Slackum. I decided to start the story from the POV of the protagonists brother. I might add here that this particular character only has 3 chapters in the first act and that’s it. Kind of strange, right?

So how did I get here? Well I utilize a coupe tools that I learned in a short story class (one you can find and take yourself if you look through an older post) and therein I learned a cool little technique. After I have a decent idea of the overall story and maybe a couple scenes I let my subconscious take over. I write a few pages for each character to get an idea of their voice. By the way, I might add here that, it seems to weed out those moments where when you are writing off the cuff and a character decides that they are the one that the story is about. That would actually be another great blog post — characters who don’t want the same thing you do.

So, I took the time to write a single page hook for each of the characters. I even wrote them for secondary characters that have no POV chapters. Something important and in the case of this book violent or vile that they are going through. For the secondary characters these become backstory. Something the other characters or that character himself may touch on later. I know what you are thinking. Why not just put all this into a character worksheet or bio page? Well my answer to that is that I want to get inside the characters head and not just describe him.

II’ll give an example. The father of the protagonist in this story goes by the name of Eustace Bloodwood and I found out (yes he told his story, I had no idea what was going to happen) something terrible that happened during his service in Vietnam. I also found out how that impacted him emotionally and how it colored his relationship with his wife and young son when he came home. You want to hear something interesting? It also changed the timeline of the story. I initially had the protagonist as a Vietnam veteran but after hearing his father out I had to make a decision and let me tell you something I learned a long time ago; never to argue with your characters. Take them out entirely? Sure. Argue with them? What’s the point? They know who they are.

The second thing I did was write a page of increasing conflict for each of those characters, put them in story under stress and took at look at exactly how they responded. And based on those pages and what I knew of the story in its infant stages I decided on starting the story with a specific character that I didn’t think I would. I went back and gave him a couple chapters in the first act. We’ll see how it turns out.

I’d like to hear from you. What’s your process for planning and writing the opening scene(s) of your novel? Let me know in the comments.

Coming Next: Casting the characters with actors

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Book Haul

It’s about that time again. How about a good old fashioned book haul post? I mean it’s always nice to see what other writers are reading, right? I know I love book haul posts myself. Book porn incoming!

So let’s see the new additions to the Litman library, shall we?

About 5 weeks worth of reading I’d say

So what do we have here? In my opinion one of the most beautiful books ever written is Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolf but just don’t take my word for it. Look no farther than William Gay for someone who agrees with me. A new (to me) William T Vollmann book of short stories. One of the only Vollmann books I haven’t yet read. A couple by my Favorite Rough South writer, Larry Brown.A couple my Stephen Graham Jones, a really fantastic writer. One of my other favorite Rough South writers, Ron Rash, and a book of his short stories and then finally a couple just to keep me on my toes. Luc Sante’s Low Life — I will actually put a picture of the back cover at the bottom of this post because it’s just right up my literary alley — and the Big Book of Pulps. Believe it or not, and take it as you may, but, there is a lot to be learned from old school pulps about writing.

It doesn’t get any better than that, huh?
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A working synopsis of “There, That Violent Country”

The Slackums own Perdition County and the range of saw-tooth mountains that stand like broken glass bowls surrounding the river-littered valley below. They are criminals who rule from their place atop the hill at the end of a dead-end road that only the worst ever get a chance to see. There, That Violent Country takes place in the late 1970s at a time where there’s a new scourge, methamphetamine, that’s changing the landscape of everything they had known before.

Vietnam veteran and prodigal son Ulysses Bloodwood promised he would never come back to Butchersfield but drawn home for his mother’s wake he arrives to find his older brother, Whelan, dead-nuts in the Slackums’ crosshairs. It’s up to the younger Bloodwood — as it always has been — to save his older brother and his family at all costs.

Dealing with his own past — the flooded memories of his time in the war that have crippled him and his poisoning by Agent Orange — he sets out to seek redemption that may be found in the wild timber he grew up in, but it has changed during his time away into something savage, more resembling the war he fought over seas than the small mountain life in which he was raised up. Along the way he may even allow himself to love again. A girl he left behind, Joelle Cambeul, has been waiting for something or someone with a keen awareness that her time on the mountain may be running out and is seeking salvation and redemption of her own. 

Thematically this story is a displaced southern gothic picaresque that holds within its boundaries love, betrayal, the wartime razor wire that ties families together, brutal revenge, and man’s search for his place in the world.

 With a cast of characters that includes a sociopathic killer, an unhinged apostle of the Lord that both crucifies and baptizes folks with the ardent zeal that only those of great belief can muster, a wood witch surrounded by meat trees who still practices the old ways of her folk, and a bi-eyed second generation lawman who will pay any price to claim the mountain as his own, the opportunity for redemption lies atop the cold winter’s mountain, snow set ablaze by clan war and desire.

 Against the quilt of the dying 1970s and the beginning of the amphetamine epidemic where the hard-scrabble people of the northwest prospered or died, we find at the heart of this tale family, decency alongside deception, and ruin. Herein seething hate and blistering love meet at a dark crossing where damnation’s heart beats somewhere in the night on a mountaintop alight with fire, lighting the path to the obscure depths of the human heart.

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Causality rather than conflict in Japanese storytelling structure and my thoughts on subverting genre

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Japanese horror stories. They are profoundly effective. Until recently, I, like many, couldn’t really put my finger on exactly why that was. That is to say I never really took the time to read and watch it like a writer. That’s easy to do with good storytelling, especially of the grit of some of the books/movies that are out there. We tend to give in fully and suspend our disbelief.

Well, recently I became interested and decided to do a search online and came across this pair of blog posts by a gentleman by the name of Rudy Barrett: https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-horror-structure/ & https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-horror-emotions/

The first is an interesting dive into the skeletal structure of Japanese horror fiction and how it differentiates from that to which we are all much more accustomed, western storytelling. After doing a quick check of the accompanying figures it started to click as to exactly what it was that was different. The next link was his follow-up to the structure where he discusses the specific emotions and their implications on Japanese horror. We use most of these in our fiction as well and in the hands of a good writer they are just as effective. I think it’s the pace and the structure that makes it all so damned intense.

This got me wondering just how to take a story I’m working on and subvert the genre by re-plotting it to better fit into Japanese structure. It is amazing how much work it takes. It seemed simple at first but I learned quickly that it isn’t. I used a short story I have entitled “Balefire” that is set in early twentieth century America where a priest is a killer. That’s a rather simplistic view, of course, but it’s a dark, violent, horrific piece that I had written but never submitted for a Halloween anthology last year.

I’ve used a line from the original article by Barrett in this blog post’s title as that is the small thread I kept referring to while re-purposing my original story. It made some of the steps easier. Now that I am looking at all that I need to change and rolling over and over in my mind just how that might read I wonder if this is something that western audiences will get or not?

The bottom line? This is what we do as writers, right? We rush down caverns and filter ideas always seeking something that is fresh. I think a mash-up of Japanese horror structure with western characters might be just that but I guess I’ll never know until I try. It’s time to get to the typewriter and give it a shot.

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A fantastic day for an inaugural post

Today I had my first short story published by Bull: Men’s Fiction and it just happened to coincide with my move from tumblr to WordPress and to “The Writers Coffeehouse.” I would like to touch on both of these great items a little if you, the kind reader, will indulge me.

First up, my short story. It’s a little murder spree of a story entitled “The Angels’ Armory,” and it was published today and can be found here: The Angels’ Armory by Hetch Litman . It’s a rough south yarn about a group of folks that call themselves the Small Town Killers and spill some blood in the great state of Alabama. Be warned, it’s dark and not just a little bit violent. I appreciate the hell out of the folks over at Bull: Men’s Fiction for taking a kite on it and deeming it worthy for publication. If you found your way here and take a chance on it, I hope you like it too.

Now, onto what brought me here to The Writers Coffeehouse. Craig and I met in a short story class taught by Richard Thomas over on LitReactor. After that class was over Craig talked me into taking a class on OneStory. We decided to create a space for writers and this is the beginning phase of the end result. We have a lot of wonderful things planned for the Writopia Mall so keep your eyes peeled.