Somedays it feels like I'm living in fog with my feet in a concrete block, at others I feel I have wings. It's been a concrete block couple of days but I've managed to think through parts of the plot that weren't working and have ditched them in favour of other ideas. I've kept a record of the old ideas in case I need to revisit them, but I'm much happier with the new state of affairs.
So what has been causing so many problems?
Being overly ambitious and creating a scenario that works like juggling plates. I'm writing a crime novel about a serial killer and needed something to make my plot stand out from all the rest. So what did I do? I devised a series of nine murders over a space of 3 years and all the bodies are placed in a specific area to be found at the same time. I have a police officer with post natal depression and a specialist from Hong Kong working the case. The motivation for the murders was originally revenge but other factors take over and at the moment he gets away at the end in case I want to write a sequel. Easy-peasey eh?
Although this is my third novel, it's my first 'proper' crime novel and I'm well out of my comfort zone. I know little or nothing about Hing Kong, China or martial arts, so I've had to do a lot of extensive research alongside trying to get a manageable plot and believable characters. The hours and hours spent looking at satellite photos of Hong Kong and China to find suitable areas for my character to live in, eat, meet people/clients etc doesn't seem to justify the few lines I've written about them. Of course, I could make it all up. But having authentic details here and there is what I feel gives a novel credibility. It's a light touch, but the last thing I want is for someone who knows Hong Kong to throw the book down in disgust and say, 'She doesn't know what she's talking about.'
Am I being too ambitious? Would I have done better to have just a couple of bodies?
Probably. But I won't know till I'm finished whether it will have been worth having so many complications and twists until I'm done. Or undone. It's a way of stretching myself and pushing that bit harder to see what I'm capable of. I always layer my prose - get the storyline down first, check through for consistency of names and places then go through again to make sure the signposts are there, the little details that show rather than tell. Finally, when I'm happy with all that, I go through it again to check my prose and ensure it's more poetic than pedestrian before I pass it on to one of my readers for her feedback and to another for proof-reading. It's a long, long process, for me anyway, and with all the marketing and book signings and social media stuff you have to do once the book is published the return is zilch in terms of financial rewards. But I love it. I love the buzz I get when something goes right, when I think I've cracked a difficult plot point, when my characters speak to me and when I hold the finished product in my hand.
There's nothing like it.
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