The Unknown Mystery

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.