I have mentioned my debut novel from time to time on this blog, but it’s been a while so in preparation for my upcoming weekly updates, I thought it might be an idea to bring you up to speed with what it is and where I am.
“Cracking a safe doesn’t mean dynamite. No oxecetyline torch. And definitely no fucking stethoscope. It’s laying your hands on cold steel, feeling the tingle in your fingertips, caressing out each part of the combination.” – MICKEY BLAKE, SAFE HANDS.
Told in first person, ‘Safe Hands’ is a crime novel about an ageing safe-cracker, Mickey Blake. For the sake of his dying wife and a son that hates his guts, Mickey is forced out of retirement to rob a run down casino in Skegness. Between Chinese and Russian gangsters and a crooked undercover cop . . . it’s going to be a tough week.
How it came together . . .
What began as a short story, has wound up being a messy first draft of over a hundred thousand words, with a few too many plot complications, an under-used character or two and some obvious structural issues. The good news is the rewrite is underway and I’m beginning to see the wood for the trees. Using Scrivener has meant that I can easily move around my scenes and chapters and anything I ‘throw away’ can be saved for another project or re-used somewhere else in the book.
I completed the first draft back in the spring of 2017. Since then, I’ve transferred my chapters onto index cards. Yes, it’s a little ‘old school’ and I could do this digitally in Scrivener, but I wanted to employ techniques learned from my experience in scriptwriting and doing it the old fashioned way has necessitated a much deeper analysis of my story. Structural issues became obvious and the inconsistency of my antagonist stood out as something that needed to be resolved. On that last point, I decided to write a character monologue from the perspective of my antagonist. It was a rambling couple of thousand words but left me in no doubt as to who my character was and what he really wants. It also created at least one new plot development that will definitely improve the story.
This week . . .
This week I’ve written a new scene between Mickey and his wife and have re-written a number of later scenes in the book. The plan for the coming week will be to introduce a new sub-plot that arose from the character work I’ve been doing with my antagonist.
I’ll report back on my progress next week, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear how you’re progressing with your own WIP. At what stage of the process are you? Have you discovered new techniques? Perhaps you are struggling and would like some help? In this week’s episode of The Joined Up Writing Podcast, ex-policeman and now writer, Matt Johnson has lots of help and inspiration for new writers.
As always, I’d love to hear from you, so do leave a comment below.
Enjoyed this post Wayne. I’m also old school when it comes to chapter planning. Index cards are tried, tested and work. There are times when cards and paper have a clear edge over modern technology. The sheets, prompts and diagrams in your ‘Screenwriting Tips for Novelists’ workshop are invaluable. I’m using your structure template diagram for the whole story arc and building process of my novel. My strategy has been to summarise and write a short synopsis of every chapter and fit it in the diagram. This is before I commit to any actual formal writing of the chapters. This way, I can gauge if the whole story arc and narrative fits and the plot has the ‘legs’.
Yes, Keith – sometimes pen and paper are the best tools to solidify our thoughts. Glad the prompts and diagrams for my workshop have proved useful too. Can’t wait to hear more about your novel.