Writing your big idea

There are lot of different approaches to writing.  My own way is to find a plot first and then characters to fit it.  That’s not quite as mechanical as it may sound.  The question I ask myself is, “What sort of person will act like this?”  Naturally, in a detective story, there has to be at least someone who isn’t what they seem and, as this is always fun, some other characters with secrets to uncover.

However, that’s not the only way, by any manner of means. I’ve just read a cracking book by my friend, Sue Jackson.  Sue’s unpublished as yet, but I hope it’s only a matter of time.  The book’s set in a science-fantasy medieval-type world but the characters are really believable and you do want to know what happens to them all.

However, even if you as a writer or reader, veer more to plot than characters, characters are key, even in the most highly-plotted book.  Not everyone can be a Jane Austen or a Tolstoy, where the whole book is the character, but just think for a moment of one of the most classic of adventure stories, The Odyssey. I chose The Odyssey because no-one, as far as I know, has ever been snooty about Homer.  Ulysses goes from adventure to adventure, taking in marvels on the way (and talking about Homer, isn’t the Simpsons’ version of The Odyssey great?)  but, despite his undoubted status, Ulysses isn’t someone you’d recognize.  Old, wise, resourceful, wily – yup;  but he isn’t Mr Darcy.

If he was a Mr Darcy, if he was drawn with the same depth, he’d just get in the way.  What he is, of course, is consistent, and that’s what a character has to be.  Otherwise, they have a cardboard quality, something that detective-story writers have to guard against.  (After all, some of the people are there to be red herrings; but they mustn’t smell too obvious!)

So what do you do, if you have a good idea that you’d love to write as a book?  Eighty to a hundred thousand words or so is a lot of typing, to say nothing of the other hundred thousand words or thereabouts that you’ll discard along the way.  How do you turn a good idea into a novel?

Some people just can;  Mark Twain never plotted anything, and Huckleberry Finn is a stunner.  I asked Sue Jackson and she, apparently, just sat down and wrote it; gosh.  I can’t resist this picture of a dragon, by the way;  Sue’s got a wonderful dragon in her book and Jack’s next adventure (out in May) is called A Hundred Thousand Dragons.



But – and this applies to a lot of people, including me – some of us can’t just sit down and write.  We need a plot, a guide, a road map. Don’t worry if you’re stuck – help is at hand!  One way of finding out how to turn your brilliant murder into a full-length book is to find out how others did it.  After all, there’s no point in re-inventing the wheel.  So take about four or five of your top favourite books, preferably in the genre you want to write, sit down with a pad of paper and analyse them.  By that, all I mean is write a précis of the various events, to see how one leads onto the other, and all sorts of details will start to come through.  For instance, why, in Mrs McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie, is Mrs Upward in a wheelchair?  Because if she’s in a wheelchair, she can’t run round murdering charladies.  And who does murder the charlady?  Well, it’s a gripping book, so I suggest you read it if you don’t know, but Agatha Christie knew before she began, that’s for sure!

So if you’re stuck, do a bit of homework.  You won’t, if you analyse enough books, be tempted to copy them, but it’s like having a master-class in how to put a plot together.