A Quick Update

It’s been a while since I set this blog up, but I think now there is actually enough going on  to give me something to post about.

On the writing front – I have two projects currently in progress. The first is technically in its first draft, although there were a few false starts. This one has no name of yet. To be honest, it’s the first book for ages where I’ve had no idea even for a working title. It’s a historical crime fiction novel, set in 1821 in the north of France, and has involved an awful lot of research, but having a background in history, that’s part of the appeal for me.

My setting is a small town in the Pas-de-Calais called Montreuil-Sur-Mer, which some might recognise as it’s the setting for part of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. That is, in fact, what made me choose it as a setting. Les Misérables is one of my favourite works of literature and has been since high school. The very first book I ever tried to write, on A4 lined paper in a ring binder in between classes, was based on it. Now, I don’t have that original story any more and I’m kind of glad as it probably would need killed with fire. However, a year or so ago, I had a conversation with a friend about it and thought, well, I’m a little bit more advanced now in terms of writing – could I actually make the idea work?

At the moment, it’s far too long, running at 90,000 words and it’s barely two thirds finished, so editing is going to be fun, to say the least.

The best thing about it, though, has been going to Montreuil for research. The town is beautiful, and you don’t need a lot of imagination to picture Valjean and Javert still wandering around there. Every time I’ve visited, moreover, I’ve had such an amazing welcome. The very first time I went there, I stayed in a small hotel just outside the town, and as soon as the owner found out why I was there, she actually fished out newspaper articles, books and pamphlets on the history of the town.

 

Second project is currently being edited, and is a modern day crime novel set in Paris, New York and Prague. It started off with a random idea I had after reading the premise of a film a friend of mine was making, and ended up going off from there, with no outline or notes. That’s not the usual way I work, and after a while, I set the thing aside thinking it was getting to twisted and not making much sense, because I wasn’t plotting it as meticulously as I would normally. When I fished out the old Scrivener file, though, I found that yes, the plot needed work but I really liked the POV character, enough to go through it again and rewrite large parts so that it made sense. So now I’m going through again to tidy it up.

I’ve actually sent the first 5,000 words off to the Crime Writers’ Association for their critique service, something I’ve never done before, although I have been on the receiving end of feedback from the CWA before. That previous experience has me wondering what I was thinking, actually asking them to tear my work to shreds, but hopefully it’ll prove more useful than hurtful. They say it takes three weeks for them to send their report. I’m a terrible judge of my own work, though, so I need an objective opinion to see whether this project is worth putting more effort into or if it is just drivel.

So that’s that. I’m back on track again now, I think, after a really hard few months over Autumn and Winter last year, so hopefully 2019 will bring some writing success.