From Idea To Beginning And The Work In Between, The Makings Of A Masterpiece.

I sit down, remembering the ideas I had flow through my mind today. My imagination was in high gear. Turning on my computer with one hand and opening my notepad with another, I look around my desk for one of those things I lose plenty of, a pen. Ideas that flooded my mind while I was working at my 9 to 5 job now start to flow out onto the paper in the form of gel-ink. There were so many ideas that I had no idea where to start, exactly that is. However, as they start to take shape on paper, I realize that I've got several bits of information to look up to support my idea. So I start doing research.

Unlike the 1980s and 1990s, when I was still in school, I no longer have to take a trip to the library and spend countless hours looking for the right materials to study. Everything, or near everything, is sitting on my desk, in my phone, and floating around the world wide web, or what has commonly been called the internet. This magical world we live in thanks to some military research and development has brought all of those interesting and unknown facts to our fingertips, as long as we can word a search for them. So, I begin. I search for information on the Himalayan Mountains, and other various mountains with high peaks. I'm looking for one between the twenty and the twenty-five-thousand-foot range. Eventually, I'll settle on twenty.

Then I look up some questions I have about geology. I'm hoping to have a basic understanding of rocks, the structure of caves, the formation of mountains, and anything geological that would make a young geologist come to life. By the time I'm done I already need a pick me up. In my mind's eye, I see that mountains hold many mysteries within them, some buried by a thousand years of ice and snow cover. How, then do I unearth a mystery within a massive formation of granite, iron, and other minerals found in mountains. An avalanche or geological event! Eureka, that problem is solved.

How to get characters up to the mountain top to explore this mysterious cave that was unearthed after generations of nobody seeing its' insides? What would they find there? Having never been on a mountain, my idea is somewhat ambitious, to begin with, so I have to get as much information as I can to imagine being there myself. Movies, movies I say to myself, somewhere there's a movie about climbing the tallest mountains. I step away from the desk, my notepad, pen, and cup coming with me, as I got to search for movies. Landing on Everest, I study the version of Everest from the movie and make notes about how I'd like to present it in written form.

Caves are an entirely different matter. There's less presentation to worry about because each cave is different. Exploring the inside of the caves, that's the part that takes courage, skill, and even then you're still in danger. I design the cave chamber in my mind, going over every inch of the caves' size, shape, age, and what would fit into this cave, nay, this mountain. When it comes to fiction, writing is just a series of what-ifs that are answered and put into a story.

Now, for the hard part...characters. Creating characters is probably something akin to creating an imaginary friend when we're lonely, small, children. They require imagination and inspiration to work hand in hand as you give them life. Characters are like writers' children. Some may invest a lifetime into the characters like J.K. Rowlings did with Harry Potter and his youthful friends. Others may invest considerably less time into one-off characters, characters that are only going to be around for one movie, one story, or even one part of a story. Characters are born of our imaginations, they live and die within our twisted minds, at our very whims, and yet can mean the difference between life and death as a writer.

So, I create my first character, David Johnston, or "Johns" as I call him. I start working on a bio for Johns and before I know it I'm trying to put a face to this non-existent person as if he's a long-lost friend I just can't remember. Johns is an ex-marine, living peacefully overseas, and working as a guide up the mountains. He has a grizzly persona and a charismatic smile. Johns looks like a happy-go-lucky guy except for the fact that he carries around the sins of his past, wearing it like a cross around his neck, afraid to let anyone else bear his burden.

Johns has a partner and compatriot that goes everywhere with him, no matter the risk, William "Billy Boy" Sexton. Like Johns, Billy Boy is ex-military, taking a much different path than the one he started in life. Billy Boy didn't care for the orders to kill he received, especially from bureaucrats and politicians that still wore the uniform. He didn't mind the killing. In fact, he rather enjoyed it. Billy Boy needed to know that it made a difference in the world, that it wasn't for nothing. Modeling characters after people or places you know, as a fiction writer, is not only natural but it might make the most sense of all the things you would do. Imagine you sell rights to make your novel into a movie. If the parts were written for a particular type, while you might not get a say in the matter, you could see one of the greats playing a part you created.

Now, I put these two drifters, wayward sons, mercenaries together in a place that needs a mission. Along comes the four scientists that need to get to the mountainside and examine the opening. Not one of them has ever climbed a mountain or been on a dig at the elevation they are wanting to get to and Johns doesn't come cheap. Six people trek up the mountain from a small village, to explore something that hasn't been seen by human eyes in recorded history. When they arrive there if they survive the climb, what will they find there? Will they all make it back down the mountain alive?

I return to my keyboard, notes made, and I'm ready to write. I hope and pray that the words flowing from me, through my fingers, and onto the screen, are fabulous. This adventure will take a few months but it holds promise. I begin striking keys as the story starts to come to life, my direction is clear, my mission is clearer. This is how I start a story...

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