The Unknown Mystery
The first scenes usually breed a story for me, but this time they’re just staring at me, daring me… They’re tapping their fingers. I wonder if they want a pay rise.
It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post, and because of that absence I was quite worried about writing this one. Don’t really know why, but perhaps it’s something to do with lack of writing skill or fear of being rejected by you. After all, you must be feeling neglected (again) by me?
Anyway, enough waffle. What’s this post about? It’s about that most peculiar of pastimes, that most unreachable sensation – writing. I tend to write a lot about writing, don’t I?
I’ve belted out four books in the last couple of years. These were the DS Regan Carter books. I’m quite hard on myself and my writing, but even I have to admit they are quite good. But it’s time to put Regan to bed for now before that other plate I’ve got spinning falls off the pole.
That other plate is called the CSI Eddie Collins plate.
The CSI Eddie Collins novels to-date
I’m around 10,000 words into the book and still don’t have a clue what it’s about. If you know anything about me and my writing, you’ll know that I generally begin a book by writing about a scene that has been ricocheting around my mind for a while. Once that’s done, and I’ve written any other scene that interests me, I try to grow a story and a book from them.
I’ve been writing Eddie Collins 8 for about two months on and off while I do battle with a website (now up and running!), and so I finally get to concentrate on my passion: writing crime thrillers. Except it’s not going to plan at all. I’ve written the scenes that interest me and guess what? Nothing… There’s no magic coalescence of them, no instant story as they got together to procreate. Nothing.
Am I worried? Well of course I bastard am! Have I inadvertently killed off my writing method by dedicating myself to Regan Carter? I don’t know. Has Eddie simply packed his bags and buggered off? Possibly.
A part of me suggested I put Eddie 8 to one side and write a short story. You’ll know I write those (the Eddie ones, at least) in first person, and doing that might help me to revive him and get him sitting comfortably back in his accustomed seat in the centre of my imagination. Trouble is, I don’t have any ideas for a short story.
Oh woe is me! What’s happened to me?
Wait! I know what I can do. All the scenes I’ve written so far in Eddie 8 have been from his point of view. I haven’t written any from the baddies’ point of view. I wonder if I might spark the book to life if I do just that and write the first killing scene from his/her point of view.
Yes, that’s it. I’ll do just that. All I have to do is figure out why they killed their victim in the first place. Leave it with me, eh?
How do you go about writing? Do you plan everything or do you dive in and see where things take you? Once I get over the initial confusion and the initial frustration of not knowing how things fit together, I really enjoy building the story.
A Random Kill
A Random Kill is the first book in the DS Regan Carter series. I began writing it in March of 2023. Back then I had a choice to make: write another CSI Eddie Collins novel or challenge myself to write something I’ve never written before.
First published 1st May 2025
A Random Kill is the first book in the DS Regan Carter series. I began writing it in March of 2023. Back then I had a choice to make: write another CSI Eddie Collins novel or challenge myself to write something I’ve never written before. I chose the latter, not because the former was too easy – it’s really not. I might be comfortable writing Eddie Collins (extremely comfortable, actually), but there’s still a lot of work involved. I’ve written seven Eddie novels so far, and each one is different not only from anything I’ve ever read, but different from each other. And that’s because I don’t use a formula or a plot device to write my books. I write them organically, as they occur to me. And yes, that’s quite dangerous sometimes because I run the risk of stalling halfway through or writing myself into an impossible situation. But that’s the beauty of it, you see; it’s spontaneous, it’s organic, as I’ve said, and it evolves as real life does.
I have written a female lead character before (The End of Lies), and it was in first person. But I’ve never written a female lead in third person, nor have I written a detective story before. Two firsts, eh? There’s value for money for you.
Was it hard to do? Yes.
I had to put thoughts of Eddie Collins aside – even though he has a couple of cameo appearances in the trilogy. I had to put that other main character of mine aside: forensic science. This was a detective book, and though there are references to scene examinations and DNA results and the like, anything forensic takes a back seat. Here we rely on detective power, not CSI power, to achieve our goals, and it’s a lot harder than I’d imagined it would be.
She wasn’t the perfect character right off the bat. No, there was a lot of bum-shuffling, a lot of head-scratching, and more than a few trips to the tailor to gets things tucked in or let out. But she eventually became coherent and believable. She became someone I was glad to spend time with, someone who I didn’t begrudge being with because I’d rather be with Eddie. He understood, and he waited patiently. Regan got it too, she knew Eddie was tapping his feet, and his author was keen to get back to a new story. But instead of rushing through all three books to climb back on the Eddie horse again, I took my time, and I sank into the stories and was completely absorbed by them.
By the end of the third book, I had learned something new. It’s possible to have more than one best friend.