Now that the holidays have passed, I’m beginning to sketch out my next novel, Mute.
I gotta tell you, this story idea has been in my head for nearly thirty years. When my wife and I were newly married and we were still trying to figure each other out, I kept using my wife as a sounding board for my story ideas.
What I didn’t know at the time was that my wife HATES the process of anything. She likes the idea of something and the finished product of that something, but pretty much hates every step in between. So, asking her to participate in the brainstorming of an idea was torture for her.
The phrase she disliked the most was, “Hey, let’s talk about Mute.”
She’d try to help, because she loved me, but that lasted about 30 seconds before she’d throw up her hands and say with a sigh, “I don’t know!”
Back then I thought everyone liked the creative process. I was wrong. I’ve learned my lesson and I respect the differences between us.
Since then I had tried, on multiple occasions, to write Mute as a screenplay (that was my creative outlet of choice at the time), but once I got into the meat of the story, it would lose its way.
Which meant I had a good idea, but not a good story.
So, I shelved it. Until now.
My skill as a writer has improved greatly over the last few decades and I’ve accumulated a large number of notes on the story since mid-last year, when I added it to my writing schedule
I think I’m ready to finally take on the idea that started it all…
“What if a talk radio host had to remain silent to keep his wife alive while, at the same time, his librarian wife had to talk non-stop in order to keep from getting killed.”
That was the idea 30 years ago. I’m finally ready to turn that into a thriller novel.
It’s about time, right?
Just for fun, I think I’ll go find my wife and say, “Hey, let’s talk about Mute.”
She’ll sigh and glare. It’ll give me a chuckle.
I wonder what she’s going to do when I actually place the finished novel in her hands?
I can’t wait to find out. 🙂