Adding more words to a novel, especially if you are one of the panster types of novelists, can bring interesting ideas to your work, that’s for sure. And even if you have a plan, instead of opting for the ‘by the seat of your pants’ method of novel writing, the story and your characters can still bring interesting new things to what you thought was going to happen.
Today I’ve had a great day of adding a lot of new words to my first Cosy Murder Mystery book, ‘Hot Winds of Death At Talloola’, and I seem to have moved slightly away from where I thought I was going. It still feels good though, and in keeping with the pain thrust of what the story has to be.
This image was from a truck rollover near the rail way crossing, just south of Mallala, but I could easily use some of the details in a storyline of a cosy murder mystery story … Who was driving? How did it happen? What were the real reasons?
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I’ve never written a novel in this genre before, but I feel like it’s something I’m capable of doing, and I love the idea of being a writer of that kind of book. I used to love Agatha Christie books as a child, and as an adult have explored other murder mystery stories, some Australian ones, and others from other countries.
The idea of creating this kind of stories, happening in a ‘village’ of my own devising appealed to me, and I’m enjoying learning more about my characters, as I write the story. Today, two of my characters began plotting something, but I have no idea what it is … They’re friends to my main character, so it should end up OK for her, but until I write about it, tomorrow, I hope, I don’t know what it might be.
Anyway, I have an idea on what it might be about, even if my amateur sleuth, Meredith, has no idea. This is what makes the pantster style so much fun, things pop into the book and you follow the path to where it leads. And if it heads off into a strange direction, well red herrings are all a part of writing murder mysteries. That, and subplots, to add depth to both characters and the story.
Today I added nearly two thousand words to the story, and that feels like a useful chunk of words. Will I write more tonight? Who knows, and will I write a similar number again tomorrow, again, who knows. There will be a few ‘real life’ things going on tomorrow, important things totally unrelated to this book. So life will go one, even if Winds of Death At Talloola doesn’t tomorrow.
Just half an hour is enough time to write, the time it takes for a forgotten cup of coffee to achieve lukewarm status, as it sometimes does, when I’m writing on my laptop, and the story is more important that the coffee. There’s always the microwave to heat up a cuppa, but those hot ideas, if they go lukewarm, may never be able to be warmed up again …
So I hope at least half an hour of my day, tomorrow will be spent on ‘Hot Winds …’ I’m enjoying the challenge of finding the story, here, very much. And if you enjoy the writing, it shows, I hope so anyway!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 