Although I’ve made many references to my David Good books in my previous posts, I’ve never taken the opportunity to say why it is I write stories about this particular creation. Why David Good? What do I like so much about him that I keep writing new stories for him? It is, I feel, time to address this omission.

When I made the decision to get serious about my writing, I knew that I’d have to identify what type of stories it was I most wanted to write and, just as importantly, was suited to writing.

One summer, whilst on holiday, I started writing a vaguely Agatha Christie type of who-done-it, set in a West Country resort during the 1950s, and writing that book convinced me that the crime/mystery genre was the place to be. I enjoy reading books in the genre and I found I also liked writing such books.

Somewhere about this point, I read Greenwich Killing Time by Kinky Friedman. If you’ve read it, you’ll know it is crime with humour and features a P.I. with attitude; lots of it! I mulled things over for a while, trying to decide if there was something in that for me. I also decided at this time that I didn’t want to write gritty, violent stories nor those that go deep into the psychological aspects of crime.

I knew by now I wanted to write crime/mystery stories and that humour was going to be part of the recipe. It really goes without saying that my protagonist needed to be a strongly drawn character, who was capable of standing out in a large crowd. My preference was also for a private investigator, because I wanted the freedom that brings, particularly from the need to follow the procedure a police officer would need to stick to. Another piece of the jigsaw fell into place when I felt an urge to avoid the world of the internet and the mobile/cell phone. That last decision steered me towards the 1980s, which is a decade I know well.

At the same time, I knew pretty quickly I wanted to base the stories in south London. I lived there for a few years, on and off, and felt I could write believable characters and stories in such a setting. So, that was the location sorted.

By now I was nearly there. Just lacking one crucial piece, the P.I. himself. I do recall wanting to have a P.I. who is pretty normal and very definitely not one with an alcohol problem and an estranged wife. But he needed to be interesting, of course, and maybe a little naughty, from time-to-time. Flitting from woman to woman was appealing for several reasons, not the least of which was that I didn’t want him fixed in one on-going relationship. Humour, perhaps an often cynical take on things, was a given.

Next? Well, if you’ve read any of my other posts you’ll know that I don’t plot. I just get on with the writing. And this is exactly what I did with the first David Good story, ‘Good Investigations’. I started writing and I developed the character as I went. It did mean a lot of re-writing but it worked and pretty soon I found I had a character that just grew and grew.

So, there it is, that’s how I got to where I am. I absolutely love the character of David Good. He’s not me and I’m not him, but I do find it a joy to be there with him as he sets off on another journey and these stories now flow through my finger-tips almost as naturally as does eating and drinking. I feel lucky to have arrived at this point and, now I’m here, long may it last!


For the full version of this post please see http://www.benwesterham.com/a-writers....

Get a free copy of the novel ‘Good Investigations’ here http://www.benwesterham.com/.
Crime fiction with attitude and humour from 1980s London.