From Idea to Full Length Novel

How it all began

When I’m not writing crime novels I write a monthly column for the UK magazine, Writers’ Forum and have done so for the last eleven years. Called “Ideas Store”, I get to ask other writers the question every writer is said to dread: “Where did you get that idea from?”

It’s got me thinking about my own recently published crime novel, Murder Served Cold and the idea that sparked first a short story, then a two part serial and finally a full length novel.

They say a writer’s mind works a bit differently from everyone else’s. (At least, that’s what my friends and family say of me). And they’re quite right. Certainly, I’ve been known to drift off if something catches my attention and the little ‘what if?’ bell starts ringing in my head.

This particular ‘what if?” moment came in my local pub, when the conversation around me was … now, how can I put this? Let’s just say, I’m not really that interested in England’s chances in the Third Test or whether a certain rugby player deserved his red card.

It was a busy Friday night and the bar was buzzing with conversation. Then there was one of those sudden lulls that sometimes happens and into the quiet, one voice rang out.

“Well,” he announced, his voice shrill with indignation. “Everyone knows it was Marjorie Hampton* who killed the farm shop.” (*not her real name, obviously!)

The sad reality was that the local supermarket killed the farm shop, not one well meaning villager who’d arranged a minibus to take the local pensioners into the nearest town to collect their pensions.

But it got me thinking of how feelings can run high in a small village – and how grudges can be carried over from one generation to the next. I worked for several years as a village correspondent for my local newspaper, and it never ceased to amaze me the length of time a feud could last.  

So, while the conversation around me was still moaning on about cricket and rugby, I began to plot poor Marjorie’s untimely demise. By the end of the evening, I had the big three Ms – murderer, method and motivation – all clearly thought out in my head.

But what got me really excited was the voice that was telling me the story. It was unlike any voice I’d heard in my head before (gulp! Am I the only writer whose characters talk to them?). This feisty 23 year old, called Kat, a victim of the boomerang generation,  just didn’t let up.

At the time I was a short story writer but my plot was far too complicated for a short story, which, for the magazine I was writing for at the time (Woman’s Weekly) was either 1k or 2k in length. So I wrote it as a two part, 8000 word serial which was published in Woman’s Weekly.

So how did this end up as a full length, 75k word novel?

It was another ten years before I went back to Kat and her world in Much Winchmoor. I’d always wanted to write a full length crime novel and as I was looking around for an idea, I remembered how excited I’d been when Kat had first started talking to me.

I knew from the reaction to the serial that the plot worked and that readers liked it but could I turn the story from 8k to 75k without padding and waffling?

The first thing I needed to do was introduce a sub-plot. The original story dealt with the murder and its solution and nothing more. I used the subplot to add another murder and another couple of red herrings to the mix.

The writing process was a joy! I was able to relax and dig deeper into the lives and loves of my characters and make the setting (a small Somerset village which bears an uncanny resemblance to the one I live in) much more important.

I can only liken that wonderful sense of freedom to ‘loosening your corsets’, not that I’ve ever worn corsets, you understand. I’ve written over 300 short stories and serials for magazines and the rigid word count is a fine discipline.  But it was wonderful to be able to write without it and I enjoyed every step of the process.

Decisions, decisions!

One of the first decisions I had to make (and I’m a typical Libran and absolutely rubbish at making decisions) was whether to write in the first or third person. Third person is the safer bet, as a lot of people don’t like first person.

But Kat has such a strong personality, much of which comes from her often snippy comments and asides, that I felt the character would lose a lot by writing it in the third person. I did try it for a while but knew there was something missing and that I’d have to take a chance.

Writing in the first person brings more than its share of problems, not the least being that you never get the chance to put another character’s viewpoint and that everything has to be seen through that one person’s eyes.

I think it worked. Certainly Murder Served Cold has picked up some very nice 4 and 5 star reviews since its publication in October. And Kat is still talking at me! I’m contracted to write the second book in the series (Rough and Deadly) and my deadline is  21st December!

After which, I’m hoping she’ll leave me in peace for a while.  But not for too long! I’ve got plans for her in 2019 so I’m sure she’ll be back.

—

Paula Williams is living her dream. She’s written all her life – her earliest efforts involved blackmailing her unfortunate younger brothers into appearing in her plays and pageants. But it’s only in recent years that she discovered to her surprise that people with better judgement than her brothers actually liked what she wrote and were prepared to pay her for it.

Now, she writes every day in a lovely, book-lined study in her home in Somerset, where she lives with her husband and a handsome but not always obedient rescue Dalmatian called Duke. But, as with the best of dreams, she worries that one day she’s going to wake up and find she still has to bully her brothers into reading ‘the play what she wrote’.

About MURDER SERVED COLD

After her boyfriend runs out on her with the contents of her bank account, Kat Latcham has no choice but to return to the tiny Somerset village of Much Winchmoor, where she grew up. A place, she reckons, that’s  not so much sleepy as comatose and she longs for something exciting to happen to lessen the boredom of having to return to live with her parents.

But when she and her childhood friend, Will Manning discover a body and Will’s father John is arrested for the murder, Kat suddenly realises she should have heeded the saying” Be careful what you wish for” as she sets out to prove John’s innocence.  But before she can do so, there is a second murder and Kat finds herself in danger of becoming victim number three.

Readers of Sue Grafton might enjoy this, the first in the Much Winchmoor series of cosy murder mysteries spiked with humour and sprinkled with romance.

Website.  paulawilliamswriter.co.uk

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Category: On Writing