Author Letter March 2012

Okay, okay, okay, so I lied. I promised to update the site more regularly giving you all the blow-by-blow progress on the latest book. And I haven’t. Well, I have on my facebook page, but it’s been more the occasional rant and protest than any real info.

There’s a reason for this. I’ve been on the book for two months now and, as is so often the case, it’s been a hit and miss, and up and down affair. I’ve changed the plot about six times in order to improve it and speed the story up, started the thing at least three times, and only now is it finally beginning to look okay (not great yet, but good enough that I think I’ll be able to turn it into something decent by the time I’m done). I’ve got 17,000 words on paper, and Tina Boyd has just made her arrival, which always adds energy to a book. I do love Tina. As soon as she’s on the page, I feel better about things, because I know that she’ll end up in some kind of serious trouble, and provide me with plenty of action scenes.

One of the problems I always have when I’m starting out on a new story, is confidence. Even twelve books in, I’m terrified that what I’m producing isn’t good, or pacy enough. Or is worse than the book before. Often, when I’m at my desk plugging, I’ll stop what I’m doing, stare at the screen and think: this isn’t going to work, I’m going to have to come up with a new idea, followed by a general panic which lasts anything from a minute to a few hours. It’s happened twice today already, although luckily neither panic lasted.

The key is to ignore the fear and keep going. The first draft of the book is never going to look great, and ideas for improving things come as you go along. But even knowing all this, the fear’s still there and it tends to remain with me right up to the point where I’m sitting on a full second or third draft, which right now is still some months away. My agent wants me to write two books a year- and I can understand his reasoning- but right now I’m finding it hard enough just to do one (even though I told her I’d be able to do it). And I’ve got a quick read to write before the summer too. It’s a 20,000 word story for general release which they’re aiming to release early next year. Thankfully, I’ve got a really good idea for that one. It’s going to be called ‘They come at Night’, and it’ll be a standalone thriller/horror with plenty of scares, and one very big twist, and which will potentially act as a prologue for book number 13- whenever I get round to starting that!

Right now, though, I’ve got to get back to the grindstone. I’m aiming to write a minimum of 2000 words a day at the moment (roughly eight pages of paperback), and I’m still a good 800 off the target today, and it’s already late afternoon.

I have a feeling I’m going to be burning the midnight oil tonight.

See you soon for the next update and in the meantime, if you fancy hearing more of my witterings, follow me on Twitter or my Facebook page.

Simon 13/03/12