Category Archives: Plot

Plotting Murder (again)

Posted on July 22, 2012 by

I’m at that point of trying to decide whether I should expand my manuscript for Hungry Ghosts into a trilogy. At 368 pages, it’s already a little long. The Beggar’s Opera was 311 pages, and The King’s Indian is 304. But right now … Continue reading →

Posted in Plot, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Stuck? Try writing badly.

Posted on October 13, 2011 by

It’s okay to write badly? You bet. This probably seems counter-intuitive; after all, if you want to be published, you have to write well, yes? True.  But you also have to write. You need 80,000 to 100,000 words of polished prose … Continue reading →

Posted in Getting Published, Plot, Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Going with the flow …

Posted on March 16, 2011 by

I’m in the process of writing a third novel which, like the second, has action set in two countries. This time, I have detectives working on parallel cases without realizing they’re related. It’s raised some interesting challenges because I wanted … Continue reading →

Posted in Characters, Plot, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Challenges of Writing a Series

Posted on January 14, 2011 by

Back to a post focussed on writing! For the last few weeks, this blog has meandered around a bit, probably because I’m in the midst of my own version of writer’s block. Hard to advise aspiring authors on how to … Continue reading →

Posted in Characters, Plot, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Another writer’s take on genre

Posted on December 31, 2010 by

I happen to hate Dan Brown’s books and like Stieg Larsson’s (Ibought all three of the girl who kicked butt and loved Salander, Blomqvist not so much). But here’s a novellist who says that all these books are amateurish and poorly written. Now, … Continue reading →

Posted in Genre, Plot, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Serial killers and Dexter

Posted on December 30, 2010 by

My first book, The Beggar’s Opera, is with my editor for revision notes. My second, The King’s Indian, is with my agents. And so over Christmas, with some downtime from work, I decided to continue working on a third, which involves … Continue reading →

Posted in Plot, Writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Plotting Murder

Posted on November 7, 2010 by

So far I’ve blogged about querying, character, dialogue, pretty much everything except plot. But plot is crucial to a good story. Great characters and sparkling dialogue move a plot forward. A weak plot won’t give them much to discuss. I start with … Continue reading →

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