I'm not a planner at all.

The novel I'm currently in the process of starting is number ten - so I suppose that iover the past four and a bit yaers I have evolved a pattern of how I go about it. It starts, for me, with a character (usually one central charcater but occcasionally two of them at once), and their central 'issue' or conflict. I have to have a feel for that character and the situation in which they find themselves at the start of the book, as a minumum to enable me to kick off. What I then do is open a file headed 'initial ideas' and just begin to type. What usually goes in first is a description - as much already in character voice as I can manage - of the character's backstory, present feelings and cirucmstances. then there is usually a bit of setting description -m again, in charcater POV/voice if I can manage it. All of this I write in prose as polished as I can make it, just as if i were already writing the book - and indeed, sometimes lines or phrases or whole paragraphs of the text do end up in the finished novel - though a lot of it never does. I usually write about 2,000 words of this stuff, and this is my starting point. it's as much an exercsie of limbering up, like an actor trying to get into charcater, as it is any kind of blueprint or ropad map for the book. It's a way of giving myself a feel for my character(s) and setting before I begin to write in earnest.

Then I try to lay out some possible plot ideas, and thumbnails of minor characters, but all of this tends to be sketchy and provisional open-ended (especially the plot part!), and will often be changed as I begin to write the book. This second section usually runs to another 500-1,000 words. Often I try to write about the other characters still in the POV/voice of my MC - or of the book is to be written in multiple third person viewpoints, then I may experiment with decsribing the characters from one another's viewpoints - sticking in little snippets about what they think of one another. That gets the interaction sparking, ready for the off.

Finally, I jot down at the end of the file two or three of what I think might be the themes I want to bring out over the course of the book. This may be literally just a handful of bullet points, or a list of ideas/phrases.

Then I usually mail this document to my agent, and we mull it over, by phone or e-mail - he talks about his response to it and I talk about it him. Then after a few days of fermentation I start to write - not worrying whether this will end up being the first chapter but starting with what at least could be - what seems like a logical place to start.

And, um, that's it. Probably a bit weird, but that's the method which I have evolved by trial and error over nine books.

Rosy x

Rosy - that's fscinating. I lap up hearing about how other writers have done or are doing it.
In the beginning I would listen intently with a view to emulating what worked, but it soon became clear that there are as many ways to write as there are books.
Your method clearly works for you, I bow at the feet of one so prolific.
I started book one with a character and a specific question. What would you do if you thought your client might be guilty. Then I plotted very thoroughly - literally scene by scene, in long hand.
For book two I already had my main character but I kept imagining her in connversation with an asylum seeker. Again I plotted quite heavily, though less rigidly than book one.
Book three happened similarly and I suspect this is now going to become my modus operandi because the stories I'm currently musing over as possible book four are all centred around a character that's fully formed in my mind, then with said person in mind, I plot.
What I would be interested to know from you, Rosy, and others, is how you settle on an idea. I have so many I find it very hard to pin down which one to plump for. I currently have three and am dancing between them, utterly unable to decide, and therefore incapable of writing a word. I've now mailed the synopses to my agent who helpfully suggested I write whichever I feel most passionate about. !!!!?????!!!! But which one is that?
HB x

I currently have three and am dancing between them, utterly unable to decide, and therefore incapable of writing a word.

Start all three, Helen, then you'll probably find one becomes a front runner - but you'll still have another two to fall back on if and when necessary.


- NaomiM

Never had that problem, Helen! I don't have a lot of ideas, so if one happens to come along, I write it! Mind you this could well explain my very low hit rate. Maybe I need to learn to judge what will work and what won't before I actually finish the book!

Seriously, though, I am in awe of people who have ideas for stories all the time. I've got a novelist friend (published) who seems to come up with a new scenario/synopsis about once a fortnight, and have them all in a drawer, mulling over, until it's time to decide on the next project. I find it astonishing - and deeply enviable!

Detective fiction must be interesting - same MC, as you say, and the plot also has to fit within a certain framework. I wonder if these strictures make it harder to come up with new book ideas, or easier?

R x

That is definitely me, Rosy, I often have ideas every day. Mu husbadn jokes that I have should have a 'studio' of writers doing the hard work for me.
But please don't feel envious, I'm in a terrible muddle with it most of the time, always yearning for the next project. I waste such a lot of time with the paralysis of indecision.
I still think your method is better, in that you actually crack on. And you know my thoughts on your hit and miss rate and why that may have absolutely nothing to do with quality and everything to do with disparity of expectation.
Naomi, I think your advice may be exactly what I need to do. If I actually start them, perhaps one will shout to me the loudest, and if not, perhaps I'll havbe three perfectly good novels ( well I can dream).
Interestingly, one idea is far more commercial, high concept than the others, which, me being me, you'd think I'd rush to...and yet those other, darker ones keep whispereing also.
HB x

Interestingly, one idea is far more commercial, high concept than the others, which, me being me, you'd think I'd rush to...and yet those other, darker ones keep whispereing also.

I find I'm drawn to the stories that break convention and so make them uncommercial propositions - a common one being, the MC is too young for the target readership.

I started 4 or 5 while following Louise Doughty's Novel In A Year, and have been dipping into the pile since then, as well as adding to it as and when an idea comes to me while im in the middle of one. Then I'll do a few chapters and mock up an outline, and put it aside.
I'm always afraid I'll run out of ideas, and this just gives me a bank of stories to dip into if necessary.


- NaomiM

<Added>

Thinking about it, there are often people putting up threads saying they are in a slump with the wip and have a great idea for a new novel and should they dump the wip and start the new one istead. And maybe they should simply think of it as making a deposit in the ideas bank. Do a few chapters and an outline of the new one and then bank it, then get back to working on the current withdrawl, ie, the old wip.

I think that's a good idea Naomi - it would get the new idea out of my system, particularly useful if I discover it's a going no-where idea, so I don't pine forit when I'm in the midst of another book.
HB x