My Writing Process

This is one of those blog memes doing the rounds and it was good friend Mandy James who pestered me to do it

Mandy is a smashing lady who is lucky enough to live in Cornwall where she probably enjoys wonderful views of the coast and sea. Course, these will never compete with my view of Syke Side open prison and Higginshaw Gasworks, but you can’t have everything, can you?

Mandy’s latest offering is Somewhere Beyond The Sea, from romantic fiction publishers Choclit. I don’t read romantic fiction (unless you count my bank statement) but the book has been on sale just over two months and is performing better than all but two of my titles and has gathered many positive reviews.

You can find Mandy at: http://mandykjameswrites.blogspot.co.uk/

The intentional humour in the previous paragraphs sum up my approach to life and my writing.

I said yesterday that I’m not a planner, and often an entire novel will develop from a single, humorous thought such as those above. Having said that, because my work is composed (largely) of whodunits, some element of planning is necessary. So where do we go from there?

My Current Work in Progress may provide some insight.

The ending of my last release, Death in Distribution, was left open to continue a theme which will run through the next few books. But it’s backstory, not the main event. At the time, I had no main event.

I was in a café somewhere, and I ordered tea and a sandwich for me and the missus and I had no money on me. This is standard. I get mugged every day when Her Indoors nicks every penny in change from me. Anyway, she had to pay, and once seated, I began to wonder how Joe would react to a customer coming into The Lazy Luncheonette, ordering tea, and having no money.

It wasn’t that difficult a prospect. If the customer was a titled person and Joe poured the tea first, we could have an irritating, yet comic situation. But why would a titled person be eating at a truckstop like The Lazy Luncheonette?

Because he needs Joe’s skills as a private detective.

Thus, A Family Killing (working title) was born

How does my work differ from other in the genre?

Like any whodunit series, the key is in the characters. Back in the golden age of detective fiction, the sleuths tended to be upper and middle class spinsters, bachelors and even couples. There are many writers today who still maintain this class divide.

I created my central trio as working or lower middle class. The upright Sheila, widow of a police inspector, the carefree Brenda, widow of colliery manager and the grumpy Joe, catering son of a caterer, live and work in what was coal town, struggling to make its way in the 21st century. The decision to make them all third agers (or getting on that way) was necessary to account for their various trips around the country. Young people with families would not have the disposable income to permit that. It helped me set their cases anywhere in the UK or Europe.

Why do I write whodunits?

Because I love puzzles. I used to set cryptic crosswords, I love solving them, I enjoy Sudoku, and I love watching detective series mainly to try second guess the ending. My news series, Spookies Mysteries, which launches on June 10th, are supernatural in nature, but they’re still largely whodunits.

I enjoy setting challenges for Joe, I enjoy challenging myself to come up with new and relatively obscure clues which will unlock the entire mystery.

And in the process, I hope I’m entertaining the readers.

So what is the actual writing process?

I write. It’s that simple. The idea comes to me, I type up a rough, usually single-page outline and I begin writing. I work at a fast pace. Usually the whole story appears to me as a grand vision and when I began typing, I don’t stop until I’ve exhausted the ideas. Because the STAC Mysteries are comparatively short, it means I can turn out a first draft in less than three weeks. I don’t subscribe to this notion of putting it away for a couple of months, then coming back to it. Instead, when it’s done, I go back to the beginning and work through it again.

It’s an exhausting process and I’ve been known to work anything up to fourteen or fifteen hours a day.  It’s also not something I would recommend to anyone just starting out.

And when it’s done? I usually bugger off to Benidorm or somewhere like that, where I can soak up a little UV and local ale.

Until the next idea occurs…

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Many thanks to Mandy for pushing me into this. I’m supposed to nominate someone else to pick up the baton, but everyone else has already done it, so if you wanna have a bash, be my guest.

I regret, you cannot leave comments on this blog. Too many spammers. Why don’t these tosspots get a life and do a proper day’s work? However, you‘ll find me all over the place, and you’re welcome to comment on the site where you found this link.

And talking of links…

Death in Distribution, STAC Mystery #11 is on Amazon UK, Amazon Worldwide in both e-book and paperback formats, and you can find it in other e-formats by simply Googling the title and your preferred format.

If you’re new to the STAC Mysteries, the very first in the series, The Filey Connection, can also be found on Amazon UK and Amazon Worldwide in e-format and paperback, or Google the title for other formats.