Thursday 12 April 2012

That Tricky Third Book

So - books one and two complete, about time to start work on the third then?  To be fair, I think starting a new book and plotting it's intricacies is always difficult - I just forget how labourous the task was previously because I have a shiny, finished book to show for it. 
Each time I start a new book I have enough ideas for maybe three chapters and some idea of the 'big events' including the ending.  It's scary starting off like that - without much idea of where things are going, but I have found in the past if I plot in too much detail I have 'told' the story and am already bored of it by the time I get to writing and all my interest fades.  So - to counter this - I note a few things down that I don't want to forget but then allow the story to take me off where it wills.  In book two of PI a character who was only ever meant to be a voice on the phone muscled her way into the action and built up her part.  Likewise a throwaway character from PI1 decided he wanted a larger part and became rather vital to several aspects of PI2 and his shadow threatens to cast itself over the whole series.  On the other hand a character I thought would be more obvious was little more than a shadow across the PI world.
Well, this procrastination here with you has been lovely, but it's not going to get book three written so I'd best be off.
The rough mock up of the PI3 cover

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Pretentious writer - moi?

Since I stopped trying to be pretentious I have found it a lot easier to write.  Now, I don't blame anyone but myself for becoming one of those writers with literary pretentions but I can see where it started.  You see, in 2001 I began an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester.  This was a wonderful experience, taught me a lot and I met some really wonderful people - some of whom are enjoying a good publishing career like Bethan Roberts.  However, the one thing these courses teach you is to aspire to more than popular fiction, literary fiction being the only 'respectable' outcome of your efforts.  Now some 'literary fiction' I enjoy, but some of it is just bunkum - seriously, have you tried to read Wolf Hall?  I gave up when I could no longer tell which character's point of view I was meant to be with.
So, since giving up pretentions and just writing something I find enjoyable, that I would wish to read, I have found writing a whole lot easier.  And you know what?  It's just more fun!