On my last cruise I was asked to host a lunch for a small group of passengers who wanted to ask me questions. My lectures were about Moorish history and architecture, but almost all the questions were about my writing. Several of them were avid readers of crime fiction – some had even read my books – and there were comments about how it must take a certain kind of mind to work out the complex plots of the whodunnit in advance. They were astonished when I said that I never plan my novels – that I’m what I call an organic writer. (I hate the word ‘pantser’.) I simply start with a scene and see what happens shaping things as I go.
It’s not quite so haphazard as that sounds. Because I write travel crime, my starting point is the setting – the holiday. That always comes first. It gives me the itinerary on which to pin my plot. If it’s a coach tour or possibly a river cruise in a European country, I will write a Fiona Mason Mystery; a land tour in a somewhat more exotic location will be the basis for an Aunt Jessica and Harry novel; and a cruise, a Murder at Sea.
I rarely have much of an idea of the theme of the novel beforehand – smuggling, politics, revenge etc until an idea strikes me as I travel around. A visit to a diamond cutting factory in Amsterdam on our coach tour of Holland gave me the idea of diamond smuggling, but it was research back home after I got back that I learnt smuggled diamonds are usually conflict diamonds often carried out by terrorist groups that lead to Blood on the Bulb Fields but, both the plot and the characters only began to take shape as the chapters began to build.
The ‘holiday’ (I prefer to call them my research trips – sounds a little more professional!) can be the source of other ideas – the labyrinth of underground tunnels on our visit to a wine cellar in the Rhine valley was the perfect place for someone to get lost (Blood in the Wine); the moment I stepped into our hotel in Belin, I knew my victim would be pushed from the third floor balcony to the marble atrium floor (Blood Hits the Wall); and a twisted ankle leaving our overnight hotel gave me a great idea for all sorts of clues and red herrings (Blood in the Wine).
Another question I was asked was about characters. Strangers are often worried that they may end up as characters in my next book but that is never ever the case. Though I need to picture my locations in detail before I can make a scene come alive, characters always come entirely from my imagination. How else could I get them to do the things I want them to? Mind you, characters do take on a life of their own and simply refuse to do what you want them to, which leads to having to work out an alternative – always for the better. Peter Montgomery-Jones is a case in point. He was only ever intended as a minor character and not only did he demand a larger role in Blood on the Bulb Fields, he insisted on coming back in all the other Fiona Mason Mysteries.
The character who turned out to be the biggest surprise was Harry. I knew I wanted to call the series the Aunt Jessica Mysteries (she started out as Jemima, but my American beta readers soon put a stop to that idea!) so she would need to have a nephew or niece to go with her. I don’t even remember making a conscious decision to write in the first person. I wrote the first few sentences, and the story just took over. I think Harry’s character came about as a foil to Aunt Maud’s strong personality.
Writing to find out to see what happens is what keeps me going. I once spent three months planning a plot in detail as all the pundits say you should. After a chapter and a half, I was so bored with it all, that I abandoned it.
Not only the plot but the characters grow. I never know who my murderer is until the penultimate chapter. If I do get an idea halfway through, I often make a major change right at the end because they seem too obvious a killer. I don’t subscribe to the idea of making the least likely suspect the murderer. As a writer, you cannot cheat. The clues were there all along if you look back. I may add a few more at the end or take a bit more care trying to hide them. Adding a few red herrings is all part of the first rewrite.
With another lecture cruise planned over Easter at the end of this month, I’ve been busy writing new presentations, so I’ve not yet begun the next novel. I’m torn between ‘In the Shadow of the Pyramid’ the next Aunt Jessica mystery (opening scene written in my head for some time now) and another Murder at Sea based on our January cruise for which I have a few more ideas. Decision time. I’d like to get it started in the next couple of days before we go away but life has a nasty habit of taking over.
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