The curious thing about this question is the more time that passes the clearer the answer has become to me. Maybe it’s because I’m on my 4th novel now, and while writing my debut novel I was studying and learning fiction and writing as I wrote it — a lot happening all at once, which can make it difficult to clearly separate your thoughts. Or possibly it’s the fact that some of the novel is about a sensitive topic, which has clouded or subdued me in talking about it, and then also it could be that much of the novel is from my own experiences that parts of it were effortless in writing, leaving me to struggle in explaining my inspirations because it came off my fingers unchallenged. In a way perhaps like the saying, a person can’t see the forest for the trees. Something is so obvious to you, you fail to see it. However, if every decent question deserves a good answer, I shall try.
The idea of inspiration is referred to in dictionaries with statements like, 'the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative' -from a dictionary. We are not talking about how I wrote the novel, but about the idea that made me want to write it.
Let me first go back in time a bit to create some perspective. If you’ve seen my biography information at my web site, you know I had two former careers; 15 years in management positions of Fortune multinational companies, and another 7 years providing communications and skills training in foreign countries, which doesn’t include my time instructing at the college level.
It’s not everyone who has two careers in their life, it does happen though, and oftentimes there is a story to accompany the change in profession or work. In my case there is a story, which I won’t go into here, but suffice it to say it provided some interesting accounts which I used in writing the story. But I get ahead of myself. At the end of my second career it became evident that some circumstances would not permit it to continue. And as I write this, it reminds me of a phrase about philosophy, and perhaps psychology, from many years ago that says, circumstances control men, men do not control circumstances. And moving along in my story, at that time I endeavored to study fiction and writing with the idea to write a novel. It was an idea I had many years earlier while still in my first (professional) career. In fact it was during a professional development session which explored a person’s alter-ego, and goals for the future. And one of my goals was to write a novel.
When the time came, I read, I learned, I studied, I practiced, and I wrote. I went through the novels of well-known authors, studying their structures and styles, and took the learnings of teaching material about fiction, characters, writing and plot. It was 6 months of dedicated writing and learning.
In coming up with the idea for the book, I knew my background offered a lot of experiences to write about, and also knew that many other authors, some of them bestselling, wrote novels based on their former careers. Then the idea hit me — a corporate mystery, or thriller. It would need some aspects to it to make it interesting, like perhaps a technology that is very advanced and extremely expensive, and even better, it makes a genetic-altering product that the entire world wants to have. Hmm, not bad I thought, it’s already starting to sound intriguing, which was the same feedback I received from others who I pitched the story’s synopsis to.
I won’t go into every detail of how I added all the different plot elements of the story, but I did it in a way similar to what is called the snowflake approach. I don’t profess to use that approach in writing my outlines, but in a similar way I kept adding more to the story — events, characters, and storylines to support all of it, until I had all the ingredients I needed. My approach was very methodical and required less imagination than my subsequent novels, which have some light fantasy in them, except for my business-related book. And I’d say it was because much of the story was already in my head; my background and the experiences from it.
I ended up with the main storyline that follows the main character; Anthony Brina, in his involvement in the futuristic product his company develops before he flees in search of safety, with a few other secondary storylines. This was a fairly straightforward activity as I followed many of the events of my own background, although the character of Anthony is not meant to represent me. It’s just that many of the things, not all, that happen to him have also happened to me, either in principle or more literally. In the story he (must) leave his professional career, just as I had to in my own life. The other storylines include the searching for information about secretive government programs; the relationship Anthony has with his good friend and colleague; Mina Kent, who introduces the role of the media to the story; and the creation of a plan by Anthony and Mina to expose a massive cover-up.
If you’ve heard authors talk about using diagrams in creating and organizing their story on paper, these tools serve to connect and relate the many different relationships that exist in the storylines. I did a bit of this, mostly arrow diagrams and small path or network charting, but relied mostly on short outlines as I moved through the writing. These are gone today and of little use anyway, as they were mainly point form, and of little use after I finished the book. After relocating several times since starting to write the novel, books, notes, and other items, including the computer I initially wrote the manuscript with, have been left behind or have gone missing in all the movement. The tribulations of packing and relocating, again and again. Any details I needed to find after writing the story, I could find in the manuscript easy enough, if not from memory.
And without going into unnecessary details, that’s how I came up with the novel. It is largely based on my experiences in my former career, with the addition of characters and events to create something close to what could be called a corporate thriller. You’ve likely heard of legal thrillers or mysteries, or detective thrillers or mysteries, or medical thrillers? The novel is cross-genre as I don’t write formula plots, but it’s set in the corporate world for the first part of it, before the primary storyline mainly travels to Rome, Italy from Toronto, with the sub-storylines traveling to New York, Chicago, Geneva, and the campus of MIT.
I won’t go more into how I wrote it, that’s for another day, but I will say that much of it was intuitive. And as such, you shouldn’t be surprised if my explanation of how I wrote it is different than other methods used by authors. Maybe you are intuitive in something you do, in which case you do something based on what you feel is true, or appropriate, or right, even without consciously knowing the reasoning behind it at the time. And what you did is in fact good or right. If enough people show interest, I can write another post about how I wrote the book.
However, I make this next comment to avoid any future misunderstandings or problems. There is no one best way to write a novel, but there are many approaches available, some of them more established than others. If I were to share my insights about how I write a novel, it will, without question, be different than formulaic approaches. This doesn’t mean it’s wrong, it’s just different, and having said that, it doesn’t mean it is the best way either. It is an approach that comes from this writer who is somewhat intuitive in his writing. It may not be for you, or you may like it. But what is most important is to recognize that writing is a creative process, which by definition cannot be standardized. There is no way to know what a person will creatively come up with next. I realize my words on this topic are debatable, and I hope that those reading this understand there is no one perfect, or best way, of doing it. It depends on the author and what they are trying to accomplish in writing their novel. Having said all of this, there is the commercial aspect of novel writing to be considered, which brings with it it’s own debates.
I was once told by a girl who was enthusiastic about novel writing that she wanted to write a book. She had little experience in writing, but if her enthusiasm was an indication of her initiative she would be able to do it, I told her. I said it’s fun and a lot of work.
A final word on inspirations. Essentially the book was inspired by my desire to write, in fiction, a novel that was a bit thrilling and interesting, using the experiences from my background. I had no other books serve as inspirations, other than the writing styles of some authors; Dan Brown and Robert Ludlum, to name just two of them.
I realize the sensitive aspect of the story regarding secretive government programs can be intriguing, and the global-scale involvement of over 90 countries in investing in the multi-trillion dollar technology development, which includes the United Nations in forming resolutions for it for arguing nations, can also be engaging — and not to forget the inexplicable swindle of hundreds of billions of dollars which Anthony discovers in the fine workings of the sci-fi technology, and the plan he and Mina devise under terrible conditions which is not known until near the end of the story, both which can be just as absorbing.
The idea of inspiration is referred to in dictionaries with statements like, 'the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative' -from a dictionary. We are not talking about how I wrote the novel, but about the idea that made me want to write it.
Let me first go back in time a bit to create some perspective. If you’ve seen my biography information at my web site, you know I had two former careers; 15 years in management positions of Fortune multinational companies, and another 7 years providing communications and skills training in foreign countries, which doesn’t include my time instructing at the college level.
It’s not everyone who has two careers in their life, it does happen though, and oftentimes there is a story to accompany the change in profession or work. In my case there is a story, which I won’t go into here, but suffice it to say it provided some interesting accounts which I used in writing the story. But I get ahead of myself. At the end of my second career it became evident that some circumstances would not permit it to continue. And as I write this, it reminds me of a phrase about philosophy, and perhaps psychology, from many years ago that says, circumstances control men, men do not control circumstances. And moving along in my story, at that time I endeavored to study fiction and writing with the idea to write a novel. It was an idea I had many years earlier while still in my first (professional) career. In fact it was during a professional development session which explored a person’s alter-ego, and goals for the future. And one of my goals was to write a novel.
When the time came, I read, I learned, I studied, I practiced, and I wrote. I went through the novels of well-known authors, studying their structures and styles, and took the learnings of teaching material about fiction, characters, writing and plot. It was 6 months of dedicated writing and learning.
In coming up with the idea for the book, I knew my background offered a lot of experiences to write about, and also knew that many other authors, some of them bestselling, wrote novels based on their former careers. Then the idea hit me — a corporate mystery, or thriller. It would need some aspects to it to make it interesting, like perhaps a technology that is very advanced and extremely expensive, and even better, it makes a genetic-altering product that the entire world wants to have. Hmm, not bad I thought, it’s already starting to sound intriguing, which was the same feedback I received from others who I pitched the story’s synopsis to.
I won’t go into every detail of how I added all the different plot elements of the story, but I did it in a way similar to what is called the snowflake approach. I don’t profess to use that approach in writing my outlines, but in a similar way I kept adding more to the story — events, characters, and storylines to support all of it, until I had all the ingredients I needed. My approach was very methodical and required less imagination than my subsequent novels, which have some light fantasy in them, except for my business-related book. And I’d say it was because much of the story was already in my head; my background and the experiences from it.
I ended up with the main storyline that follows the main character; Anthony Brina, in his involvement in the futuristic product his company develops before he flees in search of safety, with a few other secondary storylines. This was a fairly straightforward activity as I followed many of the events of my own background, although the character of Anthony is not meant to represent me. It’s just that many of the things, not all, that happen to him have also happened to me, either in principle or more literally. In the story he (must) leave his professional career, just as I had to in my own life. The other storylines include the searching for information about secretive government programs; the relationship Anthony has with his good friend and colleague; Mina Kent, who introduces the role of the media to the story; and the creation of a plan by Anthony and Mina to expose a massive cover-up.
If you’ve heard authors talk about using diagrams in creating and organizing their story on paper, these tools serve to connect and relate the many different relationships that exist in the storylines. I did a bit of this, mostly arrow diagrams and small path or network charting, but relied mostly on short outlines as I moved through the writing. These are gone today and of little use anyway, as they were mainly point form, and of little use after I finished the book. After relocating several times since starting to write the novel, books, notes, and other items, including the computer I initially wrote the manuscript with, have been left behind or have gone missing in all the movement. The tribulations of packing and relocating, again and again. Any details I needed to find after writing the story, I could find in the manuscript easy enough, if not from memory.
And without going into unnecessary details, that’s how I came up with the novel. It is largely based on my experiences in my former career, with the addition of characters and events to create something close to what could be called a corporate thriller. You’ve likely heard of legal thrillers or mysteries, or detective thrillers or mysteries, or medical thrillers? The novel is cross-genre as I don’t write formula plots, but it’s set in the corporate world for the first part of it, before the primary storyline mainly travels to Rome, Italy from Toronto, with the sub-storylines traveling to New York, Chicago, Geneva, and the campus of MIT.
I won’t go more into how I wrote it, that’s for another day, but I will say that much of it was intuitive. And as such, you shouldn’t be surprised if my explanation of how I wrote it is different than other methods used by authors. Maybe you are intuitive in something you do, in which case you do something based on what you feel is true, or appropriate, or right, even without consciously knowing the reasoning behind it at the time. And what you did is in fact good or right. If enough people show interest, I can write another post about how I wrote the book.
However, I make this next comment to avoid any future misunderstandings or problems. There is no one best way to write a novel, but there are many approaches available, some of them more established than others. If I were to share my insights about how I write a novel, it will, without question, be different than formulaic approaches. This doesn’t mean it’s wrong, it’s just different, and having said that, it doesn’t mean it is the best way either. It is an approach that comes from this writer who is somewhat intuitive in his writing. It may not be for you, or you may like it. But what is most important is to recognize that writing is a creative process, which by definition cannot be standardized. There is no way to know what a person will creatively come up with next. I realize my words on this topic are debatable, and I hope that those reading this understand there is no one perfect, or best way, of doing it. It depends on the author and what they are trying to accomplish in writing their novel. Having said all of this, there is the commercial aspect of novel writing to be considered, which brings with it it’s own debates.
I was once told by a girl who was enthusiastic about novel writing that she wanted to write a book. She had little experience in writing, but if her enthusiasm was an indication of her initiative she would be able to do it, I told her. I said it’s fun and a lot of work.
A final word on inspirations. Essentially the book was inspired by my desire to write, in fiction, a novel that was a bit thrilling and interesting, using the experiences from my background. I had no other books serve as inspirations, other than the writing styles of some authors; Dan Brown and Robert Ludlum, to name just two of them.
I realize the sensitive aspect of the story regarding secretive government programs can be intriguing, and the global-scale involvement of over 90 countries in investing in the multi-trillion dollar technology development, which includes the United Nations in forming resolutions for it for arguing nations, can also be engaging — and not to forget the inexplicable swindle of hundreds of billions of dollars which Anthony discovers in the fine workings of the sci-fi technology, and the plan he and Mina devise under terrible conditions which is not known until near the end of the story, both which can be just as absorbing.
And a comment on the secretive government programs. In the novel I make a plausible case for the existence of sophisticated technologies in use today. Plausible, as in ‘(of an argument or statement) seeming reasonable or probable’ -taken from a dictionary. Let me be very clear when I say I did not write the book to imply this part of the story is real. I wrote it to support the story’s happenings and to leave it to the reader to consider. The information pertaining to this aspect of the story is footnoted in the back of the book. The story is fictional while parts of it offer a fictional portrayal of events and ideas that are real. It is not non-fiction or based on a true story, as explained in the novel’s disclaimer.
This aspect of the book has created much controversy. In real life there are people who believe that secretive technologies are being used today, and then there are others who do not. An interesting point to note in this is how when some people have publicly spoken out about the use of such secretive technologies, they are discredited. This leaves the other side of the argument which proposes that if such methods are in use and secretive, discrediting accusations would likely be the result. However, this is not the primary part of the novel while it is presented to be plausible, leaving it to the reader to appreciate as a portion needed to support the overall story.
I should point out that the swindle in the story is not based on a real swindle. The entire story is fictional although some aspects of it are taken from real ideas and events. Because of my experience in multi-national companies and different areas of them, I was savvy of what was needed to be understood to write the swindle aspect of the story, so that it is realistic. What you don’t know is my background includes writing proposals with financial considerations in Fortune companies, and working with figures and information in the area of performance and financial measures. This is how I could write this part of the story to be so realistic, which some have responded to in surprise when they understood that while the story is fiction, parts of it are real to true facts.
Yes, I know, I didn’t mention how MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) fits into it, or how a mysterious woman who is well-versed in ways that are seductive and aluring comes into the story, or how Anthony’s loving mother dies suddenly, or how he manages to find the thing he has been missing in his life. This is the discovery, or finding, or change in the main character where they learn something about themselves, or resolve a conflict of sorts within them, which is often an objective of novels.
But like I said, my explanation of how all of the aspects of the story are written to come together is for another day, we’re talking inspirations here. I don’t want to give away the entire story. It has a lot in it as you can see, and for this reason I tell people they are better off asking their specific questions instead of me guessing at what they want to hear. For now, my best advice is read the book and then get back to me.
The original manuscript was in the area of 110,000 words, and its re-edited version, now called The Swindle, is at about 125,000. As much as I had wanted to go into more detail in aspects of the story, and even add others, I was restricted by the length of the novel and managing the level of intensity throughout it.
And don’t forget about the book’s contest. You could win a kindle e-reader! (See my web site for details) The contest involves an article from a publication of Harvard Business School, which helps explain the swindle in the story, that’s how true to life parts of the novel were written.
This aspect of the book has created much controversy. In real life there are people who believe that secretive technologies are being used today, and then there are others who do not. An interesting point to note in this is how when some people have publicly spoken out about the use of such secretive technologies, they are discredited. This leaves the other side of the argument which proposes that if such methods are in use and secretive, discrediting accusations would likely be the result. However, this is not the primary part of the novel while it is presented to be plausible, leaving it to the reader to appreciate as a portion needed to support the overall story.
I should point out that the swindle in the story is not based on a real swindle. The entire story is fictional although some aspects of it are taken from real ideas and events. Because of my experience in multi-national companies and different areas of them, I was savvy of what was needed to be understood to write the swindle aspect of the story, so that it is realistic. What you don’t know is my background includes writing proposals with financial considerations in Fortune companies, and working with figures and information in the area of performance and financial measures. This is how I could write this part of the story to be so realistic, which some have responded to in surprise when they understood that while the story is fiction, parts of it are real to true facts.
Yes, I know, I didn’t mention how MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) fits into it, or how a mysterious woman who is well-versed in ways that are seductive and aluring comes into the story, or how Anthony’s loving mother dies suddenly, or how he manages to find the thing he has been missing in his life. This is the discovery, or finding, or change in the main character where they learn something about themselves, or resolve a conflict of sorts within them, which is often an objective of novels.
But like I said, my explanation of how all of the aspects of the story are written to come together is for another day, we’re talking inspirations here. I don’t want to give away the entire story. It has a lot in it as you can see, and for this reason I tell people they are better off asking their specific questions instead of me guessing at what they want to hear. For now, my best advice is read the book and then get back to me.
The original manuscript was in the area of 110,000 words, and its re-edited version, now called The Swindle, is at about 125,000. As much as I had wanted to go into more detail in aspects of the story, and even add others, I was restricted by the length of the novel and managing the level of intensity throughout it.
And don’t forget about the book’s contest. You could win a kindle e-reader! (See my web site for details) The contest involves an article from a publication of Harvard Business School, which helps explain the swindle in the story, that’s how true to life parts of the novel were written.
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