WHAT'S IN A NOVEL (5)

Hi and thanks for coming to my short blog.

Having written 14 novels, you may think it's all plain sailing for me. Not so. Each novel presents its own little problems. For example, the novel I'm now writing (working title: KNOWING YOU) needed a rethink after the first 100 pages. When I looked at the last two chapters, I felt the story was going in the wrong direction. I scrubbed those two chapters and was then left with the question: where now?

I didn't know, but I had a plan. I have found it useful to think around a subject without getting too worried about the future direction. And this is what I did. First I went through existing chapters, made sure there was no reference to the deleted chapters, edited the material a couple of times. Then I wrote lists of ideas, biographies of the characters, produced strange balloon maps showing how events could link together; I thought about all the bad events which could happen to characters. I went for long walks with the novel simmering at the back of my mind. And then I left the novel altogether and, instead, wrote a lighthearted short story and a variety of poems.

A couple of weeks later, I returned to the novel and everything became clear. I started writing the next tranche of chapters without hesitation without even referring to any of the weird jottings I'd done earlier. The moral: just relax and let your subconscious do the work.

ANNOUNCEMENT

I have had to withdraw my short story book, XTRA, because there are only 38 short stories when the cover says 40. I think my talents must be in writing and not counting! However, the previous short story book, TALL TALES, is back on the menu for the time being, until I have two more short stories to add.