For National November Writing Month, we turn to Philip C. Baker, author of Hunger Hill, a crime thriller set in Maine. Baker has conducted presentations for fellow writers on "How to write a novel: it's easy!" For many first-time authors, however, building a 100-120K novel—in a month, no less—is anything but easy. Luckily, Baker has some great advice to break down this daunting goal.

PBP: In your presentations, you discuss using a "What-If Machine" to construct your premise, using the example: "What if right and wrong are inverted, and morality is overturned?" to create an interesting plot. What steps do writers need to take in order to create their "What-If Machine" on paper and do you recommend any online tools tohelp them jump-start this process?

Baker: I write crime fiction so I'll focus on the genre. Puzo used his imagination, his "What-If Machine," to create a family whose dynamics and morality ran contrary to the norm. We love crime fiction because it's about the outliers and those who contradict conventions. We're a society of rule-followers, and crime fiction often celebrates the rule-breakers, as did Puzo. I bet there was a kid in your primary school class who broke all the rules and you still remember his or her name. So I recommend that writers start with their character or characters and turn on the "What-If Machine" by asking the question. For example, "What if Rocky McStonewall stole one-fifth of the Pentagon and hid it in Nevada?" Just by asking the question, all sorts of other ideas will occur.

What about the other four-fifths? Will Rocky hold the employees in the one-fifth hostage? How did he do this? How did he transport the building to Nevada? Etcetera. Let the antagonist break some laws and get creative here. It seems like all the laws have been broken, so we must find creative ways for our villains to breach the peace. Abby Hoffman tried to levitate the Pentagon, but nobody, until Rocky, stole it. The only jump-start I can think of is reading internet articles about how the crime you're imagining has been committed in the past, if it has. Research the crime. The inciting incident for Hunger Hill happened during a dinner party at a condo on Casco Bay. An enormous private luxury yacht was anchored in sight of the balcony, where we drank wine and wondered about the owner of such a boat. A Russian oligarch owned it, and that was all the information I needed to get the "What-If Machine" turned on and running. What if a young Russian woman wanted to impress the oligarch so she could become his trusted hit woman by killing the unlikeable butcher of Hunger Hill?

PBP: You tell writers we all have the hardware to write; the software is pre-installed. Can you elaborate on that?

Baker: The hardware is our brain, and the factory-installed software is our imagination. If you want to start writing your novel this November, using both parts is critical to the process, not to mention essential in living a fulfilled life. Let them both run wild, the brain and the imagination, so you find yourself working hard to keep up with them. You will love what happens next: the beginning of your book.

PBP: AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a highly controversial topic for writers looking to find a shortcut to "doing the hard work" when writing a novel. Where do you think AI is useful and where do you think writers should not use it?

Baker: AI is not new, in a sense. The thesaurus, and the dictionary for that matter, are artificial sources of information.

Roget developed the thesaurus to help writers with their word choices. Do you know that Roget also invented the slide rule? What a mind! Anyway, use the thesaurus prudently; only use it as a learning tool. If you're not learning from it, don't use the information.

That's the problem with AI. What does it teach us? Beware, author, of using of AI as a shortcut. But can it be used? I use Grammarly (an AI app) as a spell-check. Microsoft Word spell-check won't find a word spelled correctly unless used improperly. Two words I typographically misuse are "from" and "form." Word's spell-check won't catch this, but Grammarly does. This simply saves time in the editing process.

PBP: A lot of writers ask you, in the planning stages, if it is necessary to craft an outline and write linearly (chapter by chapter)
when constructing the novel. What are your thoughts on that and what works best for you?

Baker: I know of one best-selling author who writes a 300-page outline for a 300-page book. I, on the other hand, do not write an outline. I tend to write a treatment instead. This is the plot, or part of the plot, written out in no-frills jargon. I'll write a treatment for a part of the book, maybe encompassing a few chapters. I'll write a lot of treatments for the back story. It's like short-hand for plot planning.

This brings me to the second part of the question: I do not write linearly. About 60 percent of the way through "Hunger Hill" (which had come together in less than a linear fashion), the final scenes came to me, the end presented itself. I wrote it. This made the rest of the book, the as-yet-unwritten pages easier to deal with because I had an end in focus and a strategy to get there.

PBP: When creating protagonists and antagonists, what is necessary to build believable characters?

Baker: Building believable characters might be the most difficult thing to do in writing. I don't plumb my experience for characters. Maybe I should, but I haven't put anyone I know into a book yet. A believable inhabitant of a novel must be more than an amalgamation of emotions, reactions, motivations, and relationships with others; but it must include all of these elements. When I start writing the story, I trust the characters to begin to expose themselves to me. We must take care to avoid creating a basket of emotions and motivations that don't necessarily work together. It looks like a basket, not a person. It's tricky. You have to trust your characters.

PBP: As a Maine writer, what inspired you about this state and its people? What is your advice for people who use Maine as their backdrop—and how important is research to accurately portray its people and landscape?

Baker: Painters who've worked on the coast of Maine claim there is no light like the light in Maine. Perhaps we write prolifically in this state and about this place because the light exposes the landscape and the people to us in a unique way. I had the luck of growing up here and treasure the sense of place in my childhood home. Maybe many share this feeling with me and want to share it with the larger world. If you're using Maine as a backdrop, though, get it right. I suppose that's true with any backdrop you use, but it seems there are too many cliches, particularly with the language of Mainers, and if you get it wrong, the light of Maine will expose you! Research is always good, but getting Maine right is intuitive; it comes from your hypothalamus, it's left-brain information. It's stuff learned by a bonfire on the pebbly beach with a can of beer and Maine wrapping her foggy arms around you.

PBP: What's a fun piece of advice you like to give aspiring writers you meet along the way to encourage them to take the risk?

Baker: If the writer is older, approaching retirement let's say, I say you've been making and chasing goals all your life. It's why you're successful. Now, chase something you started making when you were a kid, your dreams. Dreams are associated with childhood, with night-time, with mysticism and magic. You've held onto them all this time. Now is the time to go after them. I'd say the same thing to a sixteen-year-old, now that I think about it! Pursue your dreams.

PBP: What are you working on in 2025?

Baker: My new novel is a crime thriller with many of the same characters on the protagonist's side of the equation. I have a whole new group of trouble-makers, though. And they are quite a fun bunch to be hanging out with. My "What-If Machine" is working overtime.

For more information on NaNoWriMo, visit the website. For more information on Philip C. Baker visit the website.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com