When I first engaged in the task of developing my new novel, ZION'S WEB, I really had no clue what type of book I wanted to writeâ€"other than I wanted my story to be a thriller. Despite involving Mormons in the novel, I definitely was not trying to write LDS fiction, nor do I feel I succeeded in doing thatâ€"at least not in the normal sense of the word. But what I did write, in my view, is absolutely uniqueâ€"and, more importantly, it's mine.
This naturally goes for the hero in my novel, Zachariah (Zack) Burton, an ex-FBI-Agent-turned-private-investigator who lives on a 50-foot sport fisher in San Pedro, California. In figuring out exactly how I wanted to craft Zack, it is perhaps useful to examine the underpinnings of detective fiction which is where I got my cue. In researching private eyes, I determined that many of these personalitiesâ€"at least those of the male variety set in the twentieth century and laterâ€"seemed to bear at least some similarity to the hard-boiled detectives created by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. These men were all rough hewn, no frills types of individuals, with a somewhat cynical view of the world.
My lead character Zack fits this profile in many ways due to many of the events that have transpired in his life. Zack recently lost his wife to cancer, for instance, an event that forced him to begin drinking too much. This behavior ultimately led him to lose almost everything he had in life, including his job with the FBI. The one thing he was able to hang onto was the Kajiki, his sport fisher berthed in a marina in San Pedro. True to his hard-boiled image, Zack starts out as a loner and a near-total recluse but through the course of the book matures as a person until by the end he is far more approachable and sympathetic.
What makes Zack unique , however, is the Mormon element. Thanks to the nature of the case he is involved inâ€"the rescue of a female escapee from a polygamist compound run by so-called fundamentalist Mormonsâ€"I thought it was vital to differentiate these individuals from the mainstream Mormons housed out of Salt Lake who gave up the practice of plural marriage over a hundred years ago and excommunicate any of their members who continue practicing it. For similar reasons, I also felt it was crucial to include background information about mainstream Mormonism in my story.
The lady Zack was married to as an example was a Mormon, although he is not. His ex-brother-in-law is also a Mormon and supplies the primary vehicle through which assorted historical items about Mormonism are presented, although these are never allowed to interfere with the main story line.
The upshot of all this is to say that your lead personality in detective fiction should be crafted around something you identify with personally, which is how you'll make him or her your own. If I had copied Dashiell Hammett's character, or Chandlers, or any one of a half dozen others, my personality would not have been unique, which would have influenced my book and made it somewhat unremarkable . And if your story is not unique, it has little chance of developing a powerful audience or distinguishing you as a writer.
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This naturally goes for the hero in my novel, Zachariah (Zack) Burton, an ex-FBI-Agent-turned-private-investigator who lives on a 50-foot sport fisher in San Pedro, California. In figuring out exactly how I wanted to craft Zack, it is perhaps useful to examine the underpinnings of detective fiction which is where I got my cue. In researching private eyes, I determined that many of these personalitiesâ€"at least those of the male variety set in the twentieth century and laterâ€"seemed to bear at least some similarity to the hard-boiled detectives created by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. These men were all rough hewn, no frills types of individuals, with a somewhat cynical view of the world.
My lead character Zack fits this profile in many ways due to many of the events that have transpired in his life. Zack recently lost his wife to cancer, for instance, an event that forced him to begin drinking too much. This behavior ultimately led him to lose almost everything he had in life, including his job with the FBI. The one thing he was able to hang onto was the Kajiki, his sport fisher berthed in a marina in San Pedro. True to his hard-boiled image, Zack starts out as a loner and a near-total recluse but through the course of the book matures as a person until by the end he is far more approachable and sympathetic.
What makes Zack unique , however, is the Mormon element. Thanks to the nature of the case he is involved inâ€"the rescue of a female escapee from a polygamist compound run by so-called fundamentalist Mormonsâ€"I thought it was vital to differentiate these individuals from the mainstream Mormons housed out of Salt Lake who gave up the practice of plural marriage over a hundred years ago and excommunicate any of their members who continue practicing it. For similar reasons, I also felt it was crucial to include background information about mainstream Mormonism in my story.
The lady Zack was married to as an example was a Mormon, although he is not. His ex-brother-in-law is also a Mormon and supplies the primary vehicle through which assorted historical items about Mormonism are presented, although these are never allowed to interfere with the main story line.
The upshot of all this is to say that your lead personality in detective fiction should be crafted around something you identify with personally, which is how you'll make him or her your own. If I had copied Dashiell Hammett's character, or Chandlers, or any one of a half dozen others, my personality would not have been unique, which would have influenced my book and made it somewhat unremarkable . And if your story is not unique, it has little chance of developing a powerful audience or distinguishing you as a writer.
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About the Author:
Michael Snow is the author of ZION'S WEB, the first in the Zachariah Burton detective series. As well as writing novels, Michael maintains a blogsite which incorporates some helpful and highly engaging blogs including information regarding creating a fictional detective.
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