Pauline Rowson's Blog - Posts Tagged "stages-of-a-novel"
The stages in writing a novel - I'm at the 'excited' stage
Each stage of writing brings with it its joys and frustrations. I'm at the 'excited' stage at the moment where I've worked up several ideas for the next DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel, which will be number nine in the series and my eleventh crime novel. I've sketched out some key characters, and the theme is developing nicely. I have a body, and a location, which is, as usual, Portsmouth, England and the Solent area on the South Coast of England. There are other inicidents knocking around in Portsmouth CID; Andy Horton is on his Harley, still getting aggravation from his ex wife, and trying to put together pieces of his past and the mystery of his mother's disappearance, and Sergeant Cantelli is back from his holiday. It's the beginning of September.
The next stage is 'bashing it out' where I'm trying to get as much of the story written and as quickly as I can while the ideas are there and I'm keen to see how it all hangs togther. Many writers find this first draft frustrating and a bit of a pain and I've often wished I could brain dump straight on to computer, perhaps one day we will be able to do this! For now it's fingers to the keyboard, for me. I'm pleased to say that I now have the first three chapters written, just over twelve thousand words, and I'm starting on chapter four. In between writing the first draft I'll be doing some location research, some more plotting and further general research.
Once the first draft is written, I can relax a little and start to flesh out and shape the novel. This takes many revisions and often further research until finally I check that everything hangs together, all the unanswered questions have been answered and that the words and phrases used are the correct ones. All in all usually a nine month process for me.
Meanwhile DI Horton number eight is with my editor and DI Horton number seven, A Killing Coast has just been published in hardcover. You can check the order of novels in the DI Horton series and get more details on all my crime novels and other books on my web site at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
A Killing Coast
The next stage is 'bashing it out' where I'm trying to get as much of the story written and as quickly as I can while the ideas are there and I'm keen to see how it all hangs togther. Many writers find this first draft frustrating and a bit of a pain and I've often wished I could brain dump straight on to computer, perhaps one day we will be able to do this! For now it's fingers to the keyboard, for me. I'm pleased to say that I now have the first three chapters written, just over twelve thousand words, and I'm starting on chapter four. In between writing the first draft I'll be doing some location research, some more plotting and further general research.
Once the first draft is written, I can relax a little and start to flesh out and shape the novel. This takes many revisions and often further research until finally I check that everything hangs together, all the unanswered questions have been answered and that the words and phrases used are the correct ones. All in all usually a nine month process for me.
Meanwhile DI Horton number eight is with my editor and DI Horton number seven, A Killing Coast has just been published in hardcover. You can check the order of novels in the DI Horton series and get more details on all my crime novels and other books on my web site at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
A Killing Coast
