So, I keep my promises and said I’d blog a bit about my process of writing a new book, so here goes. Everyone will have their own process of course, and every book is different, but when I have a new idea, my most common first step is ‘just write’, without too much planning I’ll create 5 – 20,000 words, seeing where they take me. If there are parts I can’t fill in yet I’ll make a note of what is due to go in that slot, and pick up the story afterwards.
It is only at this stage, when I’m fairly sure I’m going to proceed with the story, that I take a step back and create a new document. This would contain very basic biographies and timeline, and notes of anything that needs researching. This gives me a break and some distance from what I’ve written so far, lets me look objectively at how it’s fitting together, and to identify. For the purposes of following my argument more easily, I’ll show how I’m currently applying this to one of the pieces in my sampler, the ‘Brief Encounter’ one. In the absence of votes, this is the one I think I’ll take forward next, as it will be a nice change of tone and perspective from my last two novels, and will let me write in a female voice with a far more sympathetic protagonist than the gits who took centre stage in my last two.
So I have about 10,000 words already, but haven’t revisited them for a while. My first job was to work out the timeline, and as the Nokia 3310 plays a central role, a bit of initial research to confirm that the dates I had in mind fit with when it came out and was popular. So 2000 it is, which is a good year to set the central action as it would have been an important time for my characters. On first run through I didn’t know exactly how old my characters were, beyond it needing to be post University, some time into a marriage, but still young enough to be believable to readers. I had a vague idea Tiffany would be late twenties or early thirties when the action happened, so I worked back and forward from there to work out when she was born.
Looking at what I already had down, and knowing the mix of demographics who might read, I already had an intro paragraph explaining the text emoticons that phone (and more extensively computer) users had to work with at the time, as an understanding of these is central to the flirtation and misunderstandings in some of the conversations. I added a few lines and found the best way for Tiffany to get across the differences in time periods, what was acceptable, and the fact that sexting started a long time back, was to give her a daughter in the present day. So Chloe was born and added to my bios. This fitted fantastically with my timeline as I could make her just 18 in the current day, and I have a vague idea she may appear at the end, or this may even be written for her to read in the future, maybe when she reaches Tiffany’s age. But I’m getting ahead of myself, and this is the wonderful and hugely fun part of creation: words exist on the page, nothing is tied down, but literally anything can happen. I just created a human being on a whim after all.
So the stage we’re at is the first block of text is written, and I’m fleshing out my plans and characters in broad strokes. Stay tuned.
Stay safe,
Kit