Stuart Bone's Blog - Posts Tagged "novel"

When I first took a break from my career in banking to write full time, I took the decision to keep regular office hours. It was something I was used to and I soon realised that writing as a career is totally different to writing as a hobby in your spare time.

As much as I love doing it I also enjoy having weekends off and switching off each evening. I think that's very important otherwise the writing can take over.

That's not to say I don't suddenly think of something during the evening or weekend but usually I'll just note the thought down and come back to it during my writing day.

The worst thing is thinking of something just after you've closed your eyes to go to sleep at night. Fortunately I do keep a notebook in the top drawer of my bedside cabinet but writing down one idea invariably leads to something else. I've brought in a rule that I will only switch my light on to write notes three times. After that I force myself to switch off.

The other thing that I'm fortunate in is having an office in the third bedroom where the door can be closed when I'm done and this really helps with switching off. A number of years ago I had the opportunity to take a year out after being made redundant from my job. I did a short story writing course and also worked on my first attempt at a novel. At the time I was living in a small, two-bed roomed apartment where all the rooms came off of a tiny hallway. To get any light into this space I had to keep the door to the second bedroom open. This was where my desk was and so every time I walked through that hallway I saw the desk and I either began thinking about the stories I was working on, or I felt guilty because I hadn't been working on them that particular day. I wasn't ever able to switch off properly. Still, it was a lesson learned.

Today is Saturday and after I publish this I will not be doing anything else book related until Monday; and that feels great.

I've been able to spend all this week concentrating on the new novel. I've been rewriting notes, adding new characters, working out when a particular murder takes place and how it helps the story develop; it's been brilliant. (I promise you it is still a comedy, even though there are killings. One of my characters is on medication that gives her the side effect of feeling horny all of the time...she doesn't want to change the dose).

I had to draw myself a map of the setting yesterday; the city centre of Cunden Lingus. Well I say draw, a few squares inside a big circle that represents a ring road on a scrap of paper isn't going to win me any art awards...unless I scrunch it up, piss on it and call it 'Artist's Struggle' and then it will be up for the Turner Prize!

I'm really pleased with how the ideas for the novel are progressing. I have the opening of the story prepared, which is always handy as writing the first few lines of what will become a 90k - 100k words book can be daunting. Mind you, by the time you're up to draft five, the original opening will have gone completely and been replaced by something totally different.

Still, that's all part of the writing process and I absolutely adore it.

I've not written too many blogs this month but there is a reason for that. At the end of February I had a literary agent take an interest in my second novel, Nothing Ventured and I gave them time to read the whole novel to see if they wanted to take me on as a client. Obviously I couldn't really say anything about that so there was little to write about.

Sadly they contacted me last Friday to say they wouldn't be representing me; which was a big disappointment; especially as they've had a lot of success with one of their other clients. She wrote a series of novels about a boy wizard, I can't remember her name at the moment...

Anyway, they told me they weren't sure the tone and concept of the novel were commercial enough for what they were currently looking for.

It made me think about my genre of writing in general. I've mentioned before about the lack of agents willing to look at humorous fiction for adults. They either want funny children's books or non-fictional humour; something written by a celebrity who has a large enough following for the book to sell widely.

I think the number of celebrities who "write" books these days is making it harder for new voices to be heard. Obviously there are some who are very good writers but there are plenty who put their name to something that has been written for them by a ghost writer. But then again writing & publishing is a business like any other so why wouldn't an agent/publisher focus on a project that has a guaranteed success rate. I suppose I could try and become a celebrity myself either by having a few singing lessons or dropping my trousers in front of Theresa May as she delivers Article 50 and get myself on the ten o'clock news; but I don't think that's right for me.

I still believe humorous fiction can be as popular as other genres. How many comedy films appear in cinemas each year? How many sitcoms are there on the TV? Look at how stand-up comics fill arenas these days, rather than just performing at small comedy club venues. Comedy novels are getting published by established writers but it's still mostly crime/thriller/mystery submissions that agents are requesting on their websites.

I think the problem may be that people think humour subjective; which it is. We all laugh at different things; but then again; aren't we all subjective when it comes to books we read in general? Take crime as an example, not everyone reading Val McDermid will want to read Agatha Christie. There's a plethora of crime writers out there catering to everyone's tastes. Humour is just the same.

I don't want to sound like I'm whinging, I'm just stating a fact. I'm not deterred from continuing with my own writing career. After all, a successful literary agent did just think my writing good enough to take a closer look at. As an agent receives, on average, 150 submissions each week mine stood out among the many so I can only take that as a positive thing. I think my first two novels are good and, judging by the ratings and reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, so do a lot of others.

The recent experience has made me rethink my next novel though. The one I was writing was another humorous novel that did have a crime story in it (it was about a woman using her developing psychic abilities to help the police solve a murder. I can tell you that now as I'm not continuing with it) but it was definitely more a humorous crime story, rather than a crime story with an element of humour in it (if that makes sense).

For me personally, I've never wanted to be an 'indie' author; someone who goes it alone, but I've had to become that and have tried my best by self-publishing my first two novels and trying to market them as much as I can. I still feel the best way forward is to have an agent. For others that's not the right path but it is for me and that's why I'm going to make my next novel appeal to as many of them as possible. The new characters of the crime novel are already forming and there will still be humour as they each rub up against each other (metaphorically speaking. I'm not writing "that" sort of novel. That would mean a whole different research path!!)

So I now have a private detective character forming and a missing person mystery that takes him back to the case that got him sacked from the police force.

Mind you, the way I've casually abandoned two novel ideas in the last six months that could all change by next week!

Well I've been out and voted this morning. I'll be glad when the General Election is over. There's so much reference to it on social media and some people are getting really passionate about it and obviously hate certain parties. Personally I don't think someone on line telling other people who to vote for does any good. We all have our own minds and should decide what issues are important to us, read up what the parties offer (and discount about 90% of it which won't happen) and then vote accordingly.

Having someone say, "If you vote for <-----> you're a XXXX" isn't particularly helpful; although it would raise a few eyebrows written down the side of one of the campaign buses.

The whole of the election in England just seems to be about three people as far as I can make out. We have Jeremey Corbyn and Diane Abbot for Labour; who both remind me of school teachers; he teaching Geography and she trying to teach maths but all the kids mess about in her class and they confuse her; and Theresa May for the Conservatives; a woman whose naughtiest things she's ever done are to trespass through cornfields as a child, and to name her breasts 'Strong' & 'Stable.' (or have I got that a bit mixed up?)

Anyway, by this time tomorrow it will be over and we can all move on with whatever the result is.

I'm getting on well with my first draft of CRIME & NOURISHMENT. I'm about 20k words in and there's still so much that's got to happen. I don't think I'll have any trouble with length (ooh Vicar). It's so much easier to take bits out of a story than add them in. I was short on my first novel, DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION and had to add a couple of days to the holiday and create a few more characters. With hindsight I can't believe Colin or the wine-tasting excursion weren't in the first draft.

I'm enjoying writing the third novel even though I've given myself quite a challenge; trying to combine the mysteries of the crime story with the humour of my first two books.

'Maggie Reynolds left the police force eighteen months ago after she was knocked down in a hit and run accident. With the death of her mother, Maggie took over the running of the family café.

When the man found guilty of the last murder case she worked on is himself killed in prison, Maggie finds herself plunged back into the world of investigation. Was Robert Flowers the killer of his girlfriend or did the police put an innocent man behind bars? Maggie had her doubts at the time, but who else could have killed Samantha and is that person ready to kill again?

As an ex-copper, Maggie has contacts but not access to all of the case information. For that she'll have to start her own investigation which puts her own life in danger. Was her accident, eighteen months ago, really an accident after all?'

Hopefully that's whetted your appetite. The humour comes from other characters in Maggie's world; especially her best friend and work colleague; Sarah; who's currently suffering side effects from her medication and is feeling horny all of the time.

I received a lovely, five star review on Goodreads today for NOTHING VENTURED. That always perks up my day. Goodreads advises not to respond to reviews; which makes sense. If you respond to one you have to respond to all; even the bad; but it's difficult not to when someone has taken the trouble to write. I'd just like to say here that I appreciate every review/rating I receive. It always helps highlight the books, so thank you very much.

The new book, CRIME & NOURISHMENT, hasn't progressed as much as I'd have liked it too in the past week but I am pleased with the scene I've just written set at a Retirement Home where local Baronet, Sir Jasper is a resident. He's a bit of a dirty, old man really but gets away with it due to his age. He pretends to be sweet and innocent so that young ladies give him a hug or a kiss on the cheek which he really gets off on. He's the type of man that thinks a smack on the bum should be a compliment to a woman.

I only mention him and the Retirement Home here because they were both going to feature in my sequel to DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION before I decided to shelve the project. In that story Margaret, whom Derek met on the coach trip, has moved to Tenhamshire and runs the Home where Derek is gardener and her mother, Dora reigns supreme. Sir Jasper was going to be Dora's partner in crime.

Although I felt the book wasn't going to work after writing the first draft, the entire experience was by no means wasted and here I am using the main setting and one of the main characters of that story in another one. It pays to keep notes of things that may prove to be useful in the future.

I have a notebook where I write down ideas I have for stories and I also note down amusing situations or even just funny one-liners that may prove useful someday. If someone tells me about a funny situation they found themselves in and it resonates with me, it goes in the notebook. If I use it I will embellish the story and change it about.

Off the top of my head, Lauren's waxing stories in DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION came from a friend and the horse riding incident was basically my own experience. In NOTHING VENTURED, Diana getting club card points from paying for her husband's funeral with her supermarket credit card was also originally a friend's story.

I'd never use something that could potentially hurt or embarrass somebody but still, I'm guessing after reading this; my friends may be telling me a lot less in the future...or worse; want a percentage of my sales!

I've never been more glad to work from home than I have this week in this hot weather. The thought of the commute into London on hot, stuffy trains while wearing a suit; I really don't miss that.

I'm not one of those people who complain that it's not hot enough in England because this is what you end up with when the temperature rises; a hot, stuffy, damp heat. I'm much happier when it's about 12 to 15 degrees and you can wear a jacket. That's always the other thing. When it's this hot and I don't need a jacket then I have to find somewhere else for my wallet, phone & asthma pump and end up with large bulges in the trouser area...and not in a sexy way!

I'm sitting in my office now with the window and door open and a fan on. It's still hot but at least I can wear shorts and t-shirt and know that the fridge and cold beer aren't too far away.

I've just been reading through what I've written so far of my first draft of CRIME & NOURISHMENT. Most of the advice out there says to just keep writing the first draft until you've finished before checking it and I did that for my first two novels, but now I find I like to do a bit of editing as I go along. I've just added a new opening to the book so it seemed silly not to read through and amend parts that I've now written about in the prologue.

I must admit I'm very pleased with the result. I've found that the humour has taken over from the crime side of the story and I'm quite happy that it has. The story is still a murder mystery but now the main character gets into a lot of funny scrapes as she investigates it. I reached one point and for a split second thought to myself, 'I wonder how that bits going to pan out' before remembering that really; how it pans out is up to me.

I like not knowing where some bits are going. Usually I prefer to be in control but if a character wants to go down a different path then I let them go that way and see what happens. I'm introducing a new character in the next chapter (14) and having read through the draft, I've realised I've been building her up all the way through so now she needs a big entrance.

I guess I need something more than just writing "Ta-Dah!" when she appears.

I know, the heading doesn't bode well for the content of this blog. Sometimes the weeks pass by so quickly and it's a shock to realise it's been seven days since the last entry.

I start asking myself questions as I ponder the previous week: -

So what's new?
Well there are lots of things.

Okay, so what's been of interest?
Hmm, interesting does narrow it down. There's the dentist appointment tomorrow with the possible dead nerve in the tooth. How about that?

Surely you want to save that exciting nugget for next week?
Sarcasm?
Of course it is!

I'm really enjoying writing the first draft of novel number 3; CRIME & NOURISHMENT. There's nothing better than coming up with a new idea that will create more intrigue or move the story along a different path.

I'm pleased that it's now become a humorous crime novel, rather than a crime novel with humour. It's helped me get to know the characters better and the book will sit nicely with the first two.

The strangest thing I've found with this novel is that I'm not consulting my notes as I write it. With the first two I kept going back to the notes to ensure I'd put in everything I wanted but this one (which undoubtedly has a more complicated plot line with a murderer to find) my brain seems to have retained the information. It's amazing really as yesterday I went to put dirty plates into the washing machine rather than the dishwasher!

Perhaps it's because I spent more time at the planning stage and researching different aspects of the story. I'll keep that in mind when I start writing number 4. I like that I still learn so much from each new book.

Actually, mentioning number 4 (sorry I can't be blasé about this - Number 4?! I'm talking about a fourth novel?!! Wow! - Okay, I'm back in the room) it's quite possible that I'll go straight on to another crime one featuring the characters in CRIME & NOURISHMENT. I've mentioned a crime series before but that was for a previous idea that I shelved. When I began writing this I was looking at it as a one off. Now that I'm further in I've found myself thinking how certain characters could develop in the future. I was going to have a rather scary detective sergeant in this novel; Helen Cheung; a woman her inspector describes as being turned down by the Marines for being too aggressive. I've decided she'd be better appearing in the next one instead, where I can develop a very frosty relationship between her and my protagonist, Maggie.

For me, thinking about a sequel already means I know I'm on the right track with the current novel. A lot has happened already and there's still so much left to play out. It's all here in my head. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to put a Ready Meal in the tumble dryer.

I read some useful information this week about using HTML codes in my online book descriptions. I'm no genius when it comes to the latest technology. (A phone is something to make and answer calls on and a Tablet is something you pop in your mouth when you're not well) but I've used computers for many years.

The coding is actually pretty simple. It's just a case of putting the right letter between the 'less than' and 'greater than' symbols. For example, placing 'i' between '<>' at the start of the text and '/i' at the end of it will turn it into italics on Amazon. Using 'b' will make it bold etc.

It's a small and quite simple thing to do but it makes a big difference. Personally I think my book descriptions look a lot more professional on Amazon now that I've added in bold headings and quotes in italics.

My first novel's been on Amazon for fifteen months and only now do I realise I can adjust the text.

This is where information can help a writer. I must admit I've got pretty fed up recently of reading articles with titles that say, 'Ten ways to improve sales' and realising I've already tried all of the items on it but there are still bit and pieces out there that prove to be useful and writing & marketing is a continual learning process.

When it comes to marketing my third novel, CRIME & NOURISHMENT I'll be trying something that's new for me and will start advertising it before it's available for sale. I might even splash out on having a professional design the cover for me and perhaps get them to redesign covers for the first two as well so that all three link together (hopefully that would be a special deal!)

Anyway that's a bit of a way off yet although the first draft is coming along nicely. Maggie Reynolds is deeply involved in the investigation of the murder of Samantha Jacobs, but is the killer responsible for another two murders; or possibly even three? And just maybe there's about to be one more...

I was writing a scene for CRIME & NOURISHMENT this week that saw the introduction of a new character. He was needed as he had to shed some light on the personality of the first murder victim where there were no witnesses to the crime. I wasn't actually sure how the scene was going to develop so I just kept writing it to find out.

Sometimes that's the best position to be in and it proved so this time too. When the scene was over I'd managed to introduce some blackmail and implicated another character as a possible murder suspect. The news of this has also caused friction between two main characters and they can no longer continue investigating the crime together.

This certainly wasn't in my initial plans for the novel but I love that a story can shift and move about. Just by creating this new scene I now have a friendship in jeopardy and it will be interesting to see if it can be saved.

I suppose for some people the thought of sitting in front of a computer screen all day, in a room on your own; just typing away, writing descriptive scenes and conversations would be a nightmare but I absolutely love it.

I'm already looking forward to the rewrites of the second draft. At the moment I know the story has become a little random in places but the point of the first draft is to get everything into the story and then start cutting and amending later on and streamlining the text down into a solid, easy to follow novel.

I'm hoping I'll have this first draft finished by the middle of August and then I'll take a break and start the rewrites at the beginning of September. My Twitter profile mentions a publication date of early 2018 and I'm going to do my best to stick to that.

At least I know who the murderer is at this stage of the story. I just hope the reader won't have guessed!

Today's my first day back working on the latest novel after a week off. I didn't go away on holiday but I managed some time to myself and also time spent with friends I haven't seen in a while which was lovely.

I hadn't realised quite how much I needed some time off. Doing something I love doing as a job is great and it's easy to take a few hours off here and there when I need to do other things but it's been a long time since I took a complete break from it. It is work, at the end of the day (even though when people ask me about returning to an employed job they ask, "Are you working yet?) and we all need a break from the daily routine.

Just before I took the time off I made a few changes to CRIME & NOURISHMENT after reaching the halfway stage on the first draft. A couple of things weren't working but unfortunately the changes meant I was pretty much going to rewrite the whole thing again. I rewrote three chapters before I took the week off so now I'm raring to go to continue on with that.

I do find I like to test myself with each new novel. With NOTHING VENTURED I had to intertwine four stories to ensure they flowed well together. I think this latest one is an extension of that; coming up with a complicated plot to ensure no one can guess who the killer is until the end; while also trying to make the story easy to follow.

A crime novel needs a large cast of characters, whether they be suspects or just someone that helps the protagonist with the case and they need to be remembered by the reader. There's nothing worse than coming across a name and thinking, "Who was that again?"

One of the problems I found with my first draft was that I was halfway through before some of the suspects had even been mentioned, which I think was a mistake. I realised that I needed them there at the beginning with possible motives and perhaps, something else to hide. That's one of the main reasons why the whole thing needed adjusting.

While I've resurrected one character and brought in another murder from a previous idea, I've also changed Maggie, the protagonist. She's now running her own detective agency from an office above the café that she part owns but doesn't run. It makes more sense for her to be able to work on a case full time and this way, I can still keep the title.

So, it's nose to the grindstone time again. I'm also working on another writing project which I hope will generate some income but more on that as and when (or if) it takes off.

Right, chapter four...