31,000 words in

I hope Pitkirtly fans will be pleased to hear I’m now well into the 5th novel in my mystery series. Already the vague plot that was in my head has mutated into something rather different, and I am slightly dreading but also looking forward to the next scene I have to write, which looks like being a bit darker than some of the things I write about.  But that’s probably only because I’ve unexpectedly formed a sentimental attachment to a new character who has just arrived in town.

But I mustn’t say any more for now. I don’t like to say too much about works in progress to anyone, not because of fear of jinxing anything, but because actually I am unbelievably lazy by nature and if I tell someone what I’m writing I will feel as if I’ve written it already and I won’t want to do it again for real. I do occasionally discuss writing topics with my son who is just on the verge of being an English graduate, but we don’t usually go into detail unless we are writing together, which hasn’t happened for a long time. We did write plays together ages ago for a young people’s drama group. It was fun to collaborate, particularly on a drama script, because we could try out the lines together as we went along, and because it was all dialogue and we didn’t have to fill in the descriptive bits in between, I was in my element! It used to take us a long time to write the final version because my son is a perfectionist and I’m not (to put it mildly) so we had to dissect each line and we couldn’t progress until we were both in agreement.  We usually had to start giving one scene at a time to the cast, otherwise we wouldn’t have had time for rehearsals. In the case of my own novels I just get the chance to rush on ahead and find out what happens in the end, and only afterwards do I go back and do the fine-tuning.

I can’t edit at the same time as I’m writing a first draft, but in the gaps between writing at the moment I’m doing some research into the 1950s for something else I’ve been vaguely planning. If you look at my boards on Pinterest you can share what I’ve done so far.

http://pinterest.com/sheilamcperry/