Today’s work in progress update is to let you know that I am now over halfway through the first draft of ‘Thirteen’ (working title, and it’s book 11 in the series), and had just had my midway twist. The trouble is, I wrote it a couple of days ago, and have had a day off in between, and now, I can’t remember what I wrote, so today will start with reading back. I turn to my notes, and find them of some help, although, as you can see, they may baffle some people, including myself.

That is one page of 11 so far on this story alone. As I write the chapters, I jot down important facts for later, and then, when the mood hits, I filter the notes and write up a file that I can edit as I go. Here, for example, is a chart I made up to keep track of the murders in ‘Acts of Faith.’

In the case of ‘Thirteen’, I have a file called ‘Tie ups’, which is where I note plot points, conversations, clues and questions that I must come back to and answer later in the book. I can’t show you that or tell you too much as that would give away spoilers.

Do all authors do this? I don’t know. I do know that some authors plot and plan their entire story before starting out. They make up lengthy backstories about their characters, they, as they do when making a film, will have a character ‘bible’, and list all their traits and mannerisms, loves and hates and so on ad infinitum. Then, they will so the same with the plot, and draw grids with action lines and other grids with emotional throughlines, great big red arrows for twists and, beneath, a rough wordcount. Then, they will start writing.

I have tried that approach, and it’s not for me. In the case of Delamere Eleven, I was reading a newspaper from 1893, looking for ideas, when I came across a mention of the Thirteen Club. I’d not heard about them before, so I did some research, and later that day, started writing the book. I had a rough idea where the story would end up, and nothing else. That’s the fun part about making it up as you go – I only know as much as my characters know. I write, mainly, from the point of view of my leads, Jack and Will Merrit, and now, Ben Baxter (sometimes others). These are the investigators, and they have no idea what they are investigating until they begin, and neither do I.

When starting a new story, I set a scene for something to come, and near the start of the story/scene, I make sure the ‘domestic’ matters are up to date. (I have a nasty habit of placing characters and keeping readers informed of their lives. Example: in this book, Simeon is learning to drive. Is that relevant to the plot? It might turn out to be, I don’t know yet.) How the scene/story will end, I can’t tell you, not at the start because Jack and Co don’t know what’s coming their way either.

Therefore, I make notes as I go. Notes and ideas. They drop into my head as I’m bashing the keyboard, and I take a hurried moment to write something down, which is why my handwriting is so messy. Later, after reading back what I have written, I will adjust them or file them in the Tie Ups file. Also, when an idea occurs, I note it at the start of the next chapter. I finish, say, Chapter Nine, reread it and type up a list of where the story is going next. This I do under a new document, in this case, ‘Chapter Ten.’ Not only does this remind me of what I was thinking, but it usually gives me a PoC. A Point of Chapter, as I call it. Every sequence, section, scene, needs a point of some sort, and if you set off on a new chapter with the PoC in mind, you can’t go wrong.

Where you go wrong is when you forget to make notes and rely on your characters to remember what they were going to do, talk about, or discover. Sadly, without you knowing, they don’t know, so all you can do is knuckle down and see what they are going to throw at you next.

Yesterday, when setting up today’s writing, I prepared Chapter Fifteen, and the first few notes read:

Friday morning
Jack bad night worrying about Larkin
Catch up on hotel visit
Ned’s findings

There you go. That’s what we can expect to find in the next chapter, except there are 540 words of notes and reminders, so who knows what Jack is plotting. Not me!

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