It’s been a while
The good news – the really good news – is that I have finally finished the fourth book in my Maybridge Murder Mystery series. – Murder in the Vineyard.
It’s taken far longer than it should, which is what happens when you set off into the mist, flying by the seat of your pants, as you follow your characters through the story.
The Process
The wonderful Sue Grafton, author of the Kinsey Millhone crime series (A is for Alibi etc) once said that when things got tough with a book she was writing she “relied on the process”
E L Doctorow wrote that “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.!
It’s what I’ve done all my writing life. Sit down at the keyboard and leave it to my characters to show me the way. If I’ve set them up with a strong enough situation they will show me the way.
It’s a process that has worked for me through nearly eighty romances. I am here to tell you that it does not work for crime. At least not a crime series.
The series
It worked for the first book. New characters that I didn’t know well, who I’d set up with a strong situation and followed to see what would happen. I had a good plot idea for the second book and Abby and I worked it out together. In the third book I threw Abby into a situation that I had already set up in the second book.
By the time I came to the fourth book, I had a title and a great set up. I wrote the opening, couldn’t figure out how it was going to work. I may get there, but this time the headlights were not helping.
I started again. Wrote fifteen thousand words. Hated it. Scrapped them. (You can see why book 4 has taken a while!)
I was rescued by the dog. Then I had a body. The mist, however, was thick and remained like an old-fashioned London pea-souper as I inched my way to the end.
That is to say that I reached a conclusion, named the murderer and have sent it off to my editor.
Lesson learned
I have always said that when writing my crime novels my sleuth, Abby Finch and I, have worked out what happened together. This will always be the case to some extent, but I have had to accept that when writing crime, you need a road map and some very good headlights.
When…
Your next question, when will you be able to read it…
Well, there will undoubtedly be revisions coming back at me in the near future – that is normal and a fresh pair of eyes is vital to spot plotholes, repeats and all the other things that you miss when you’ve read something a gazillion times and your brain sees what it expects to see.
Starting research for book five – Murder at the Holly Bush Inn – I’ve discovered at least one error that I missed. Possibly two…
And honestly, not much seems to have in publishing in December, so the chances of get my notes before the middle of January at the earliest are remote.
Copyright: SerjantKaysa
I will keep you informed but in the meantime, as I mentioned, Murder in the Vineyard starts with a dog.
Meet Scout.
In other news
Harlequin have reverted the English language publishing rights for some of my romances and, in the gaps, when staring at a blank screen became intolerable, I have published a few more.
Is a two-in-ne containing A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge and Anything But Vanilla – available here wide for the first time
And Family for Beginners is a two-in-one, Mother Makes Three and Her Ideal Husband, again available wide for the first time. (I played with the cover for this one. What do you think?)
All books are available individually on KU at Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment