Finally. In the last ten days or so I’ve managed to start and complete the second and third chapters of my work.

The second chapter made its way onto paper almost exactly as I had thought it would. It was short, only about 1000 words, because it only further examined the relationship between the main protagonist and his main confidante and girlfriend. They discussed their thoughts on the potential client that made her way into his office earlier in the day. Mercedes, the potential client, would also be his first as a private detective. His office isn’t officially open, but it’s on the verge and she was the first person to go in after seeing his website.

The third chapter presented major difficulties in that I had gone through several different scenarios before writing it. I decided long ago that I wanted to put a white collar crime spin on the story, but when it came time to write about it I realized that it was a bit more complex than I had previously thought. I enlisted the assistance of a friend of mine who has a Master’s degree in business to help me on that end, but ultimately decided to alter the story slightly in order to write about a topic that I’m more comfortable writing about at this point in my career. I chose illegal drug activity instead (not because of personal experience!) This chapter didn’t quite get into the drug aspect of the story, but it acts as a lead up to that aspect in that chapter four is surely going to discuss that part of the story in major detail. Mercedes officially makes the decision to hire the private eye after being given the night to really consider the step that she was planning to take. The next part of the story will reveal to the reader the major criminal aspect of the story that must be resolved by the end of the book.

I want to reveal something about the work in each post, so…..the main protagonist, I’m not ready to reveal the name just yet, spent three years after earning his Master’s degree in criminal justice working odd jobs before realizing that private detective work was what he had been searching for. He then chose to open an office for his work.

In other news, I have read Ceremony by Robert B. Parker and Faithless by Karin Slaughter in the time since my last post. We all know that all writers started as readers long before ever writing anything!

The lead up to the completion of the first chapter of my book was extended and allowed for nearly every detail to be well thought out in advance of my actually writing it. I had spent countless hours lying awake in bed in constant thought regarding the opening chapter of what I hope will be my greatest work.

The chapter was quite literally a year in the making. I came up with the name of the main protagonist and made the choice to base him loosely off of myself in early 2012. It came after writing the first eight chapters of a story that I could not pursue fully because doing so would have forced me to make the choice between writing and school.

As far as the chapter is concerned, it simply serves as an introduction to three of the five main characters of the story. Two of these characters borrow the names of two interesting people in my life, Sydney and Mercedes. I thank you both for lending out your names to an aspiring writer!

Lastly, I aim to reveal a small bit about the relationship between the main character and the woman in his life that predates the start of the novel. You’ll just have to keep coming back in order to learn more about the characters and who they are!