Starting Paranormal Privateers, a comic zombie novel

So, how does one begin Starting Paranormal Privateers? I gave the germ of the idea at the end of My Undead Mother-in-law:

Slight spoiler follows:

Congress issues a letter of marque to the Newbys and Melvins in gratitude for their service to the country and gives them a superyacht to sail.

This was my starting premise for the whole book. What adventures could I have for them?

Fighting Somali pirates! That’s chapter 1. Then they battle human trafficking. After that, terrorism in London. Then they fight nuclear terrorism by a terrorist state.

But by this time in my chapter outline, I wanted a complete break from predictability. I introduced a new foe unlike any the zombies or the world had seen. The hint is hidden in the back cover:

The First Tool for Starting Paranormal Privateers: Chapter Outline

Without giving too much away, I outline my book chapter by chapter first. Each chapter is an adventure and a story by itself. I have a setting, characters, conflict, and resolution in every chapter.

I also seek to make each conflict, each problem, more challenging than the previous ones, with higher stakes.

Here’s a portion of chapter 1 outline:

They capture a pirate boat. (Somali pirate’s point of view) Quick action, sense of zombies, Diane’s character, background on zombie pirates Background, George’s character & others, introduce villains and background. Have George and Diane swim to the boat, pop completely out, and kick serious butt, with Lulu and Sharon. Like a pod of dolphins.

Every scene, every chapter must be fun and interesting, funny and informative, giving you new details about the characters and the conflict and what might happen next.

If you want to read this finished scene, it’s here on my blog!

Eventually, I finished my chapter outline. I’d revise it later, shuffling things around, but no major changes.

Now what, Andy? Break the chapters into scenes next!

The Second Tool to Starting Paranormal Privateers – Scene Chart

What’s a scene chart? I’m glad you asked! I’ve got a sample of my spreadsheet next:

Some rules to follow with scenes:

First, every scene must have a point of view character and keep that point of view.

Second, every scene must take place at a specific time in the book timeline. This allows the author to organize scenes in time order. The reader may never know when some scenes take place. But the author should.

Third, every scene must lead to another scene. The reader may not see a relationship between the two scenes. There may be time and distance changes. But the location and time should become clear eventually.

When an author writes a complicated novel with many characters and locations and simultaneous action, it’s hard for the author to keep track, let alone the reader. The author must be clear and then he must let the reader in on what’s happening, when and where–eventually.

The Third and Final Tool to Starting Paranormal Privateers – Research

You say, “Research Andy? Are you serious? That’s so boring!”

Not really. Part of my love of writing is a love of reading and a love of learning. I love digging into a subject like the Somali pirates. Why are they, pirates? When did it start? When did it stop? Why did it stop? Why did it start up again?

Then there’s the geography questions. Where did the Somali pirates patrol? How did they capture ships? Where were they based? How far did they sail?

I had to know the answers to all that and more to write the first chapter. I noticed that a real drag on my writing speed was stopping to research something. So I went through my chapter and scene outlines and wrote down everything I had to research. I did that from July 2017 to October 2017.

Finally, I was ready to start really writing, on November 1st, 2017.

But more on that next week.