Putting the Pieces Together

by Debby Giusti

Happy Birthday, Seekerville! October has been a fantastic month. I love the daily giveaways and all the wonderful posts our guests have provided. The take-a-closer-look-at-a-writer’s-life blogs have been fun too. I’ll never forget Ruthy’s 4 AM shot with the kitty and Myra doing her morning exercise a la Wii.

Now, it’s my turn. What to write? What to share? What to ignore?

I start with an internal picture. (I  believe it's called a freeze frame in the screenwriting world.) It’s as if my mind’s eye catches a glimpse of action, either the beginning of the story or the climax. If not worth developing, it flutters away like the falling leaves. But if the idea captures my imagination then I begin to “what if” and the story starts to build.

When my husband and I moved into a new home that had a security alarm, we inadvertently activated the emergency code and were surprised when the police arrived with their guns drawn. Naturally, my suspense writer brain pictured a woman tripping an alarm and the law enforcement hero arriving on scene to check out the situation.

Eventually that “mental picture” morphed into NOWHERE TO HIDE, the first book I sold to Steeple Hill. The heroine and her young son are on the run and need to hide out in her elderly aunt’s coastal Georgia home. To compound the problem, the aunt set the security alarm before she left on a trip and a storm knocks out the electricity. The house is dark, and when the heroine opens the door, the backup power supply triggers a screeching alarm that alerts the island chief of security. You guessed it! Enter the hero.

My second book took shape when I thought about a winding road, an ice storm and a car that plunges off a bridge into raging water, which is how SCARED TO DEATH opens. Of course, the woman is rescued only to learn the old friend she was driving to visit died earlier that day. I had been researching liver transplants for a clinical laboratory article I was writing at the time so I considered adding a black market organ transplant operation that morphed into a transplant tourist racket. (FYI, that’s when US citizens skirt the long wait for an organ by traveling to a foreign country for their transplants.)

Currently, I’m writing a series about special agents in the US Army Criminal Investigation Division. THE OFFICER’S SECRET will be out in May 2011 and began with a fictional Army post in Georgia, two estranged siblings and a CID agent who investigates the death of a female major on post. The second book in the series, THE CAPTAIN’S MISSION, starts with a possible training accident my blond, blue-eyed CID heroine is called in to investigate.

Once the plot starts to take shape, I work on the hero and heroine’s back story and their inner conflict. Usually they are tackling similar issues, which play into the overall theme. Layers are added as I enhance the love story, increase the suspense, plant clues, add a few red herrings and drive the action to the climax. Including an act of nature—a fire, tornado, hurricane or flood--ups the tension and provides another complication.

I’m always thinking of worst case scenarios for my characters. Given two choices, I pick the one that provides more difficulty, anxiety or pain. Speaking of pain, I usually wound the hero or heroine or both. Gunshot wounds, stabbings, infections and extreme cold are some of the problems my characters have had to endure.

Since I write for the Love Inspired Suspense line, I focus on an exciting beginning, a hero or heroine in danger throughout the story, a concrete external problem that needs to be solved and internal conflicts that inhibit the characters in the beginning. During the story, they change and grow. By the end of their journey, they are able to forgive themselves and accept God’s love as well as the love of another.

The picture was taken in my garage, but you get the idea! :)

Now a peek into where I write…the picture at the beginning of this blog shows me on my deck with my AlphaSmart in hand. The simple word processor can hold about 25 pages of text in each of eight files and allows me to write on the go. When hubby and I travel, I’ll work while he drives. Sometimes in the winter if I’ve been housebound too long, I’ll take my Alpha to Starbucks just for a change of pace.

Often I’ll get up between 5 and 6 AM and work at my kitchen counter for two or three hours. About 9 AM, I head to church for Bible Study or some other activity followed by grocery shopping and errands. By noon or 1 PM, I’m back at work. In the late afternoon, I walk before cooking dinner, and most evenings, I’m at my computer, catching up on emails.

Before I start writing, I always recite The Writer’s Prayer. God gave me the prayer shortly after I got The Call. (He must have known I would always need His help.) For the last few years, I’ve handed out the prayer at conferences and am touched when others mention praying it as well.



The back of the previous page provides room for inserts.

When I finish the first draft of a book, I do a number of rewrites and often read the text in a web layout or use a different font to pick out errors I might not notice otherwise. I also print the entire manuscript and put it in a binder for my final revisions. To enter the changes in the computer, I work from the back of the book and move forward, which keeps my page numbers intact as I make corrections.

Here’s a picture of some of my favorite research books. The US Army Survival Manual (Platinum Press, Inc), A Special Forces Guide to Escape and Evasion (Will Rowler, St. Martin’s Press), The Forensic Casebook ( N.E. Genge, Ballantine Books) and Extreme Survival (Akkermans, Cook, Mattos, Morrison, JG Press) have been especially helpful for the CID series.

Research books for the suspense writer.

I hope this brief glimpse into my writing life brings to mind something you’d like to share about your process. Leave a comment or question to be entered into two drawings. I’m giving away PROTECTING HER CHILD and SCARED TO DEATH, along with two $10 Starbuck’s gift card, today.  Your comment automatically enters you in the Big Birthday Bash drawing for a Kindle!

My favorite writing snacks!

The breakfast bar is open—make your own omelets.  Help yourself to the sausage, hashed browns, biscuits and gravy, an assortment of pastries and, of course, grits! The coffee’s on. Grab a plate, pour a cup of joe and let’s talk writing!

Wishing you abundant blessings,

Debby Giusti

http://www.debbygiusti.com/