TLDR!
Here’s what to expect from this month’s update:
Google Maps and writing chase scenes
A VERY rough draft
Accountability report
Google Maps and writing chase scenes
There are some things that I really love about being a writer.
Discovering who my characters are at the deepest levels.
Finding interesting situations to put those characters in, just to see how they react.
Seeing what happens next.
Learning the landscape that my characters call home.
But there’s one thing I really love, and that’s adding in all the little details that most of us take for granted. What does a place smell like? Can I see the Space Needle from this location? Are there lights at a given junction? How does the rain affect the roads? Can a foot chase create problems for traffic? What buildings are around here that a character could try and take cover in?
All of these little things might seem like things I could make up. And you’d be right. I could do that. But I won’t!
I’m writing stories set in a city that has a population higher than that of the entire state of Alaska. And I want everyone of them to be able to pick up my stories and recognize the places mentioned, the streets, the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the overall feel of the area.
I was lucky enough to spend three days in Seattle and the surrounding area in 2017, but that’s almost a decade ago. It gave me a feel for the city, but landmarks and places change over time.
While I’m not adverse to getting back to a city I fell in love with, it’s very expensive to fly to Seattle to check it out in person, just to figure out if turning left at a junction would take me uphill, or downhill.
And that’s where Google Maps comes into play. I can visit the city as it was when the most recent images were taken, walk the streets in “street view mode”. This is a tool that I think is very underused by the majority of people who use Google Maps. But for me, it’s invaluable, because I can explore, decide if a location works for a particular part of the story, or figure out aspects of the landscape that would otherwise require me to visit again.
So, here’s a view of the junction of 8th Avenue and Bell street, which features in the chase scene I just finished writing (a sample from the rough draft can be found below). By the time I’d reached this junction, I’d covered four city blocks, explored six junctions for buildings that caught my eye, run into a vampire, and created two vehicle accidents.
A sample from the draft of that chase scene
Please keep in mind, as you read this, that it is only a very rough first draft. However, comments, and feedback are welcomed. What did you like? What didn’t you like? What visual or phrase caught your imagination?
“Female down… unconscious in alley… two blocks southwest of 6th and Bell. Attacker took off… when I got there. No name.”
I hung up, hoping that the dispatcher hadn’t had time to trace my phone, since the mortal authorities were poorly equipped to handle a vampire, let alone one that had just fed.
I turned out of the alleyway, glancing around for any sight of the vampire, and spotted him only feet away from me, trying to blend in with the crowd. But I also noticed something else. He was deliberately touching more people than he needed to, and each time he did, I saw the person he touched stumble, slow down, or yawn. He was still feeding, not taking his fill, like he’d tried to with the woman in the alleyway, but taking a sip of life with each little touch. I was dealing with a damn Vitae, a life-leach, a vampire that could feed by touch. I was going to have to be careful and end this quickly.
I yelled for him to stop, partly to catch his attention, partly to make him panic, but mostly in the hope that the people around him would try to distance themselves. And as he looked around wildly, trying to find me, the crowd scattered.
That was my opportunity, and I took it. I raced toward the crowd, scattering them even further, and made a grab for the vampire’s jacket.
He let me pull on it for a moment, and then slipped his arms out, leaving me with the jacket and staggering at the sudden absence of resistance. I brought the jacket to my nose as I saw him dart into the flow of rush-hour traffic and inhaled his particular combination of scents.
If I’d been able to shift to wolf-form, I’d have got a lot more olfactory information and a better chance of following him by scent alone. But I didn’t have that option. Not here, not now. Not in the middle of a chase, and not in the middle of a crowded street. It would take too long to strip, stash my things somewhere safe, and change forms. There was also the risk of being seen, caught on camera, or recorded in action, and I was already causing more commotion than my bosses would like.
Which reminded me, I had one more call that I should have already made. I had to alert the Supernatural TaskForce that I was in pursuit of a suspect and figure out what kind of backup was available.
I hit the speed-dial for the switchboard, as the honk of horns, screech of brakes, and the acrid smell of burning rubber brought my attention back to the matter at hand.
The vampire had just avoided being clipped by a car and was racing between the lanes of traffic trying to find a way through.
He darted into a break in the traffic, and I heard the screech of brakes as another car tried to avoid hitting him. Its tires failed to grip the wet road surface, and the driver must have panicked and turned the wheel as he braked, because the car started to skid sideways.
I was too busy trying to see which side of the mess the vampire would come out on to pay much more attention to what happened next. But as I pushed through the gawping crowd, I could smell burning rubber, the electric tang of the oncoming storm, and then the sound of a hard impact somewhere behind me.
I caught sight of the vampire just reaching the other side of the road. He was limping slightly, as if the skidding car had hit him. But he was working hard not to let the injury slow him down, so I plotted a course through the stationary vehicles, and tried to intercept him before we could do any more damage.
Once again, please feel free to use the comments, or reach out to me directly with any feedback. I’d honestly love to hear from you!
Writing/Editing Update
I’m about 10,500 words into the story, and working on the detailed outline for Chapters 7-10.