Avril Joy

While I wait to discover the fate of my first crime novel (some very encouraging developments so far but nothing concrete yet ) I’ve found it difficult to write. The waiting game is not easy but there is only one way to play it and that is to start work on the next novel. So far I’ve had a number of false starts and I’ve held off because it seemed presumptuous to begin a second novel with the same character- Private Investigator Danny Beck – at the center when the first has yet to be accepted. But the thing is I believe in him, and if I don’t believe in myself and my characters then who will?

There is much more to say about Danny Beck and a new story to explore, but most important of all it’s what I want to write, what I feel excited about and inspired by and its no good embarking on the long haul if you don’t feel fired-up. Which brings me to fire and ice and to volcanoes.

I have decided to open the novel (working title Fire and Ice) against the backdrop of the volcanic eruption beneath the glacier in Iceland, at the point at which it brings european air space to a standstill. This decision has sparked off a whole train of ideas and I have since been playing with the properties of fire and ice, both physical and metaphorical.

I like to have abstract themes underneath of what I write, for me this is one of the more playful aspects of writing. Today I have been thinking about which of my characters are fire: hot-headed, quick, angry and which ice: emotionally detached, slippery, lethal which of course applies to both elements. But more importantly I have been writing and sketching out the first ten chapters- and all of this is where the joy and pleasure of writing reside – and not in the waiting.

Writing Tip - What will it be about? I have learned that it’s a very useful exercise to write down in a matter of sentences and certainly no more than a paragraph what your novel is about – you can do this at any stage of the writing, it is always useful. It is not as easy as it sounds. It is not about telling the story but about capturing the essence, its heart, more like the blurb you read on the back of published novels. For instance I might begin – Fire and Ice is about one man’s quest for justice…

You need to be able to do this because if you don’t know what the  novel is about how can you expect your reader to know.