Writing Books

I'm ready to start in on my Murder Mystery. I've only ever written the draft of one book. I made myself suffer through months of agony and boredom, churning the thing out. It was full of Ideas about the Environment and Poverty. Also about life and death. The characters gave long speeches. Most of the action took place in an airplane. This, as far as I knew, had never been done before (unless you count 'Passenger 57' or 'Airforce I', which I don't) When I finished, I was proud of my Novel.

I gave it to the Contessa to read. Two weeks later, the Contessa and I went out to lunch so we could talk about it. "I got the teensiest bit lost," she said to kick things off. "When?" "At the beginning." I wanted to maim her with a fork but I kept my hands to myself. "What else did you think?" It turned out that the Contessa thought there wasn't a point and that the boredom that I'd felt writing the book was shared by the Contessa when she read the book. At least, that's what I thought she was hinting at. But I wanted to be sure. After I promised her that she could tell me what she Really Thought, I Really Wanted to know, she said "It was a little dull." We didn't talk for the rest of the afternoon.

(While I am thinking lofty thoughts I am brought back to the present moment (highly overrated--daydreaming is much more pleasant) and reminded that am still a secretary. A well meaning but evil man just came in. He couldn't believe I was still working here. "Oh, you are like the family retainer!" he said cheerfully. Not a very nice way of putting things.)

Back to lofty thoughts: This is why I'm writing a Murder Mystery. A MM automatically has a point. There is a body. Somebody figures out how the person got killed and why. What could be more simple?