Thoughts on writing
I was wondering why I haven’t done as much writing this year as I did last year. I was starting to worry that I’d lost the enthusiasm, but that’s not the case. Then I thought I t as prehaps because I had become lazy (more likely), and then I realised what was going on. I am working on a series of Victorian mysteries, as you may know. I reached the end of book six and decided that was enough of the through-line begun in part one, and the characters had gone as far as they could go in an on-going battle with two enemies. However, the characters still had a lot more to give, and so I have carried them forward into a new series…
It’s still Victorian England in 1889, but now I am writing what you might call pure detective stories. Before, the threat to my ‘crew’ was personal, now they are being asked to investigate other people’s problems, and that’s given me a problem of my own. Mainly constructing the evidence and getting into detail. Before, a story would flow from the top of my head, and apart from some scribbled notes, I could more or less keep all the information up there and pull it down when the need arose. Now, though, I have to know where certain people were on certain days and make sure everything is deduced logically as they would do it, without giving too much away but while also keeping the story moving. The problem is, I change things as I go, have better ideas and stray from my detailed plot outline because something better comes along. And that means, having to go back and make sure what I have written is changed accordingly and ties in with what I’ve decided now, and that’s what’s taking the time.
Anyway, it’s still fun, and my routine hasn’t changed, and another benefit is that I am doing more research. I was in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette for October 1877 yesterday reading some fascinating articles and news while looking around for actual events I could mix with my fabricated story. It’s easy to spend an hour reading and being distracted when I should be writing furiously, but it keeps me away from the TV and biscuits, so I can’t complain. And that was my thought this morning.
