The Book
Finished work and at home with my laptop ready to go. Calm outside, a storm in my head.
The idea. A novel. About three old blokes in the East End of London. Yeah, not a thriller. Avoid that. Write a normal life story. They lose their jobs. Have to find a new way to survive.
Nah, crap. Folks won’t want to read that. Don’t write it. Come up with a thriller. Yeah, but I’ve got the three guys. It can have laughs. As well as be real life.
Sod it. I’ll write the thing. Why? Because the story lived. I could feel it. And when I started writing? Yeah, there it was, flowing fast. Dialogue driven. But normal life. I thought I’d start with a basic story of survival. I got a bit more than that.
Now, here’s the thing. I write by the seat of my pants. No plotting. Let the story out. Get each scene tidy. Move on to the next. No editing after that. Keep raw and fresh.
I wrote the whole book like that. And it’s follow up. I let the characters tell me their story. It’s a powerful way to write. And dodgy . It can go wrong. But it beats knowing the ending.
I sat there that night. Tapping away on my laptop. I had no idea what I was taking on. But I’m glad I did.
I’m not the sort to bother you with links. But both books are on Amazon. Off The Cuff and The Cafe.