Just a quick half-term update to mention a new review of 'The Trespass'. If you connect to www.scott-hunter.net and click the link on the home page:
And thanks to Bella for this review: Latest review
or perhaps even click the link above :)
You'll find another very positive review.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Does this count?
Another problem of course in having a blog is that while I am writing this blog I could be advancing the novel. Perhaps I'm getting too analytical about this.. . . or is that paranoid?
The important thing when writing, I believe, is to always have a view of that golden thread running through the story, never losing sight of it: the goal, the revelation, the quest, whatever. In Moran's case, it is a twofold quest: solving the murder and solving his persnal problems. So, a scene map is a good idea. I find that if I map out the scenes I never end up in the dreaded place - the blank sheet of paper. Even if you're not 100% sure of what's coming up (and characters regularly surprise me with their actions) outlining the basis and reason for the next scene or two is a great help and incentive. It's a good checker as well. Does this scene move the plot forward? If not, what's it doing there? It might be well written, but if it's not adding to the story you have to grit your teeth and let it go.
So scene mapping is a device to protect yourself from this painful purging process. I mean, come on guys, we have to edit out enough as it is, without wasting hours committing a dead-end scene to paper or PC just for the sake of moving on.
Speaking of which, I must move on.
Laterz.
The important thing when writing, I believe, is to always have a view of that golden thread running through the story, never losing sight of it: the goal, the revelation, the quest, whatever. In Moran's case, it is a twofold quest: solving the murder and solving his persnal problems. So, a scene map is a good idea. I find that if I map out the scenes I never end up in the dreaded place - the blank sheet of paper. Even if you're not 100% sure of what's coming up (and characters regularly surprise me with their actions) outlining the basis and reason for the next scene or two is a great help and incentive. It's a good checker as well. Does this scene move the plot forward? If not, what's it doing there? It might be well written, but if it's not adding to the story you have to grit your teeth and let it go.
So scene mapping is a device to protect yourself from this painful purging process. I mean, come on guys, we have to edit out enough as it is, without wasting hours committing a dead-end scene to paper or PC just for the sake of moving on.
Speaking of which, I must move on.
Laterz.
Friday, 15 October 2010
The Pressure's on
Of course, now I've taken the trouble to actually create this blog thingy, I have to keep it updated so that you lot don't get bored, right?
OK, so this works both ways. I need you lot (non-disparaging term) to encourage me to complete the current work in progress, which is tentatively entitled 'Silent Order'. It's an adult crime thriller, starring DCI Brendan Moran of 'The Trespass' fame, but a few years before the events related in 'The Trespass' take place.
The crime scene is a modern monastery, Winfield Abbey, which bears no resemblance at all to a monastery school I once attended in the rolling Berkshire Downs...(I never saw them roll..). The victim is a monk, whose body is discovered beneath the old chapel, in a hidden vault. Moran, who is recovering from a serious road accident, find the monks of Winfield less than forthcoming. Obstructive actually, and evasive to boot.
Not only that, but Moran's alcoholic brother has muscled in on Moran's recent love interest, Kay Kempster and the Chief Constable has replaced Moran's trusted Sergeant Phelps with an ascetic young man called Eddie Stringer. Stringer is the chief's man through and through, intent not on solving the crime, but in finding enough evidence to get Moran retired on medical grounds.
I'm almost half way, facing the usual challenges of being too far from the beginning to turn back and too far from the end to stop. So, exhortations of encouragement due round about now, manifesting themselves in a vast number of followers hanging on my every word.
Over to you lot :)
BFN.
OK, so this works both ways. I need you lot (non-disparaging term) to encourage me to complete the current work in progress, which is tentatively entitled 'Silent Order'. It's an adult crime thriller, starring DCI Brendan Moran of 'The Trespass' fame, but a few years before the events related in 'The Trespass' take place.
The crime scene is a modern monastery, Winfield Abbey, which bears no resemblance at all to a monastery school I once attended in the rolling Berkshire Downs...(I never saw them roll..). The victim is a monk, whose body is discovered beneath the old chapel, in a hidden vault. Moran, who is recovering from a serious road accident, find the monks of Winfield less than forthcoming. Obstructive actually, and evasive to boot.
Not only that, but Moran's alcoholic brother has muscled in on Moran's recent love interest, Kay Kempster and the Chief Constable has replaced Moran's trusted Sergeant Phelps with an ascetic young man called Eddie Stringer. Stringer is the chief's man through and through, intent not on solving the crime, but in finding enough evidence to get Moran retired on medical grounds.
I'm almost half way, facing the usual challenges of being too far from the beginning to turn back and too far from the end to stop. So, exhortations of encouragement due round about now, manifesting themselves in a vast number of followers hanging on my every word.
Over to you lot :)
BFN.
A world of make-believe?
Hi. I've created this blog to bring you up to date with my writing - what I've written, where you can find it, and what's coming next...
I hope you enjoy your journey into my world.
I hope you enjoy your journey into my world.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)