I don’t know about other writers but I try to write something every day. Sometimes it’s only a few lines and at others it just seems to come gushing out. This weekend has been like the second of those states and I am pleased to say I have passed two milestones with the first draft of “Innocent?”

The first of these milestones was the 50,000 word one. That target was not only met but surpassed this morning and I’ve managed nearly another thousand words since then. Those words may seem like arrant nonsense when I come to read over them for the second draft but at least the ideas will be there.

I have my own system for the first drafts of any new writing. On day one I just get it down on paper…or rather into the laptop. Then, the next day or when I come to start writing again, I start by reading from the beginning of the last session, correcting and editing as I go.  Sometimes this means I get very little new stuff written on day two but at least I know that what I wrote on day one now makes some sort of sense and most of the typos have already been fixed. It’s a system that seems to work for me so I’m not planning to make any changes to it, but others of course are free to choose their own methods.

I said earlier I’d achieved two milestones with this new novel. The second of these is that I now know who did it. You’ll have to wait for the book to be finished before you find out exactly what it was that was done and who did it to who but I’m happy that I now know the perpetrator.

You may be surprised that it’s taken me 50,000 words to decide who the crook is but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I’ve had an idea all along of course. When I started writing I knew how the novel would end and I had several contenders for the title of the bad guy but, as usual, the characters have taken on a life of their own as the book has progressed. Those who started out being the good guys have developed some bad traits while some of the nasties have shown they do have good sides to their characters. Now however, one stands out as being much more evil than the rest and I can see that he, or she, is the guilty party.

It’s strange how people who are nothing but figments of my imagination can seemingly come alive and go their own way but they always do and this phenomenon is not just true for my novels, other writers have told me it happens to them too. We try to create a world and populate it with characters we conjure from the depths of our sub consciousness I think it’s a signal of our success when these characters come alive on the page, start to create their own roads and to go off in unfathomed of directions.

On the odd occasion when a character is dull and lifeless and has no depth or personality I know it’s time to either ditch the character or to start again with another storyline. So far occurrences like this are very rare, let’s hope they remain so. Happy reading.