​I shall be taking a short break to enjoy the sun, catch up on my reading, and attempt to meet my deadline! 🩳🍦🍹

#TuesdayTips will return soon.

In the meantime, why not browse the archive?
See you soon!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an important interview scene for my current work in progress.
It came in at about 2,500 words. I was very pleased with it. There were key revelations that moved the story forwards. The dialogue between the interviewee and their interrogators flowed nicely. The suspect was emotional and, under pressure, finally revealed the truth that the police needed.
In the final book, the entire scene takes up little more than a paragraph, and is reported second-hand.
Now I know what you are thinking: we've all been there. The wordcount for the book has exploded out of control; tough decisions need to be made and this scene had to be cut. All that is true. But here's the thing.
I started writing that scene, knowing that it was never going to be more than a paragraph.
On the face of it, that seems mad! The original scene took me over a day to write. I can knock out a paragraph in less than an hour. So why would I waste a whole day writing something that I knew would never make the final cut?
Because that resulting paragraph is better than anything I could have written if I'd set out to write a scene of two hundred words or fewer from scratch.

I am not a big planner. When I set out to write an interview scene, I start with just a few lines to guide me. Essentially, what information needs to be imparted during the interrogation and a rough idea of whether the suspect is going to be honest from the outset or if the truth will need to be prised out of them. Will they have a solicitor present? Will they heed their solicitor's advice to no comment or will they be unable to keep their mouth shut?  
From then on, I write the scene as it comes to me and just allow the story to lead me where it wants to. In the process of writing it, unexpected revelations are made and new ideas come to mind that I jot down for later in the book.
Perhaps the characters say something that I hadn't considered? On more than one occasion, I've gone back and made changes to earlier scenes, because if the suspect claims that X happened, then I need to change the crime scene to match that admission. Perhaps they swear that they were at home that night? In which case, I need my investigators to verify their alibi - do I need to  have someone speak to their neighbours or get DS Mags Richardson to check CCTV or Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras to determine if their car was parked outside their house all night? Can Rachel Pymm look at the movements of their mobile phone to see if it was somewhere it shouldn't be?
It is the actual process of writing the scene that is more important than what eventually finds its way onto the page.
I refer to this as writing backwards: taking a lengthy scene and watching as the number of words actually shrinks, rather than expands (our usual goal!). It is a process of distillation.
Many authors do similar things. I know writers who will spend a day making a LEGO model of a key location. Doubtless this is a fun procrastination activity, but more importantly it allows them to visualise exactly where the event took place, so that when they describe what happens there in the story, they can see it clearly in their mind's eye. They place LEGO figurines around the model and then move them as the scene progresses. At any given point in time, they know who was doing what and where. Then it becomes akin to reportage, rather than having to make it up from scratch. The writer is omniscient and they simply choose what to share with the reader. It also allows them to avoid simple errors such as having a character in two places at the same time, and perhaps reminds them that character Y is still present and the reader will want to know what they were doing whilst the drama unfolded.   


Do you "Write Backwards"? Or do you spend large amounts of time doing things that, on the surface seem to be a waste of time, but are actually crucial to your writing process?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time, best wishes.
Paul

They say that you aren't a real writer until you've had your first 1 star review.
The emergence of Amazon two decades ago, followed by the launch of the Kindle, accelerated a shift in the way in which readers and writers connect, and rewrote the definition of what we mean by a book review.
Readers have always communicated with writers. Before the internet revolution, it was done the old-fashioned way by pen and paper. When the World Wide Web emerged in the nineties, anyone with an internet connection could track down an email address and let the writer know what they did (or didn't!) like about the book they had just read.
Similarly, prior to this a 'book review' was an opinion piece, written by a professional journalist or literary expert, and published in a newspaper, magazine or journal. The problem was that these 'gatekeepers' only had enough time and column inches to read and review a small number of books each month. With thousands of books published each year, authors and their agents needed the right connections to get their latest manuscript in front of these influential eyeballs.
A blockbuster author is all but guaranteed space on the books page of every national newspaper, whilst lesser-known writers have to fight it out for the few remaining paragraphs of space left over. In many ways, that hasn't really changed.
The changing of the guard.
However, the advent of Amazon helped catalyse the rise of the 'review society'. Now, anybody buying any product, or using any service, is exhorted to 'leave a review'. At the same time, the ease with which one can set up a simple blog to share your thoughts has led to an explosion in booklovers sharing their passion with the world (you can read my own small contribution to this by visiting my Recommended Read Blog).
The newest revolution is in social media. Facebook in particular is a fantastic platform for readers to talk about the books that they have finished. If you aren't already, I would recommend joining a few of the many Facebook book groups out there.
Democracy is a double-edged sword.
This democratisation of the review process has been, for the most part, positive. Traditional book reviews have sometimes been seen as elitist; the reviewers part of the book industry. What so many of us want is a good honest recommendation from a person just like us. I liken it to trying to choose a wine. You can read a detailed review by a wine connoisseur, or you can go with your best mate, who had a lovely bottle from Tesco last week and reckons you'll really enjoy it.
As writers, we really appreciate the effort that so many of our readers go to. It validates what we do, gives us valuable feedback and ultimately helps sales. For those of us typically locked out of the review pages of the national newspapers, a review on a blog, a post on Goodreads, or a star rating on Amazon is much appreciated.
So, with all that being said, what are the downsides?
The first question is should read your reviews? Not everyone does. That's not because we don't appreciate them- really we do - but because it can be a bit uncomfortable. For everyone who gets a warm, fuzzy feeling inside when a stranger writes about how much they loved their latest book, there are those that cringe with embarrassment. Any teacher will tell you that there are kids in their class that hate it when they tell them how pleased they are with their work. It's human nature.
Then there are the bad reviews.
Writing a book is emotionally demanding. I know it can sound a bit pretentious, but you really do put your heart and soul into it. Even those of us that aren't writing searing, honest memoirs about our heartbreakingly miserable childhood have still spent hundreds or thousands of hours plugging away, in solitude, doing the very best we can. For me, that finished book is the culmination of the previous year's work. Waiting to see what others think of it is like going into your boss' office for your end-of-year appraisal, having not had any previous feedback on whether you've been doing your job to the standard expected. It can be nerve-wracking. A bad review just confirms what you suspected all along - you're actually an imposter, who has no business foisting their meagre talents on the world at large.
Human nature is such that a writer can look at a list of thirty or forty 4 and 5 star reviews, and skip straight to the two 1 star reviews.
Trolls don't just live under bridges and on Twitter.
Another unintended consequence from this ubiquitous reviewing culture is that the pseudo-anonymity of social media has made bullying much easier. Once upon a time, if you stood toe-to-toe with somebody and told them they were useless and crap at their job, you ran the risk of a headbutt. Not anymore. And unfortunately, book review sites aren't immune to these keyboard warriors. Trolling is rife on review sites and whilst Amazon will remove personally offensive comments about the author, they won't touch reviews that are factually inaccurate or deliberately contain spoilers designed to ruin other customers' enjoyment of a book. They've also just removed the option to comment on posted reviews, or explain why you think a review should be taken down, leaving it to the 'judgement' of a faceless moderator (or more likely AI bot).
Goodreads (owned by Amazon) is another site with little or no moderation. Unlike Amazon, which at least blocks the ability to post reviews until after a book has been published, Goodreads allows reviews for any books listed on its site, including those not yet available. The reason is to allow reviewers with advanced copies to post their thoughts and 'generate buzz' before a book hits the shelves. It's not uncommon for publishers to create a holding page for a book a year ahead of publication; it is a useful way of letting fans of a series or author know to keep an eye out for their next book. I've got off pretty lightly, compared to some I know, but I did ask that a 3 star rating for a book that I hadn't even finished writing yet be removed...
Opinions are like ar$eholes; everyone has one.
You are not going to please everyone. Furthermore, it's probably best not to believe your own hype. Telling you not to place too much stock in your reviews is the easiest advice to give and the hardest advice to follow.
For a dose of realism, read the Amazon reviews of the 'big' authors. What you'll soon see is that in amongst the hundreds of gushing 5 star reviews there are middling 3 star reviews by readers who got bored halfway through. There are thoughtful dissections of why they feel this book isn't as good as their last - hard to read, but valuable sometimes. And there are excoriating 1 stars from readers who absolutely hated the book, or who have an axe to grind. And of course there are those who are clearly as mad as a box of frogs or who don't fully understand the system (nothing is more depressing than 'best book ever, I couldn't put it down' - 1 star.")
Similarly, a 1 star review for one of my books lamented that it never arrived. It was an eBook...🙄
Identifying the axe grinders.
A useful exercise is to click and see what else that person has reviewed. I have some brutal 1 stars from somebody who has read and hated everything I've ever published - seriously, maybe my books aren't to their taste and they should stop the self-flagellation? I will willingly forgo the royalties from those sales if it helps put this poor person out of their misery.
Another reader gave me a blistering 1 star that was so bad I wondered if they knew me personally! A look at their review history indicated that they don't actually seem to like crime fiction. Rather more tellingly they were similarly disappointed with a packet of lubricated suppositories. I wonder if they were perhaps sitting a little uncomfortably when they read my book?
However, my favourite review ever is this gem for my second book, No Smoke Without Fire:
"Good power ,and seems quite sturdy, have to make sure you don't leave it lying down full in the kitchen as it might leek and annoy the wife."
So with all that in mind, what do you think about reviews?
If you are a writer, do you read them?
As always, fell free to comment here or on social media.
In the meantime, I'm off to check the Amazon page for my latest, Out of Sight... please be kind...
Paul

Click here for more details about DCI Warren Jones 7, Out of Sight.
 Out in eBook on June 4th 2021 and paperback and audiobook on August 5th.
Amazon Link.
Consider buying paperbacks from Bookshop.org to support independent sellers.

Hello, and welcome to the latest #TuesdayTip.
This Friday sees the publication in eBook of the seventh full-length DCI Warren Jones, Out of Sight. And so I thought it would be interesting to relate the journey of this, the eleventh book in the series - a book created largely during one of the strangest years in my, or anyone's life.
It all started so well...
Officially, I started writing what would become Out of Sight during the first week of September 2019. I had just submitted the first complete draft of book six in the series, A Price to Pay, to my editor at HQ Digital, the imprint of HarperCollins that currently publishes my series. That book marked the completion of my latest contract - three novels and three shorter novellas published over the previous three years. I had pitched my latest ideas for another six books a couple of months previously and although I had not yet received confirmation that I would get another contract, I was keen to start work on the next instalment, which I intended to be a novella.
The basic premise, as is normal for me, was little more than a collection of loosely-linked ideas. I'm not a great plotter, and tend to write out of sequence, so the final product usually bears only a passing resemblance to the initial outline. However, HQ have always been generous enough to let me crack on and see where the book leads.
I had also started a new job, teaching science three days a week at a new school, so I had quite a lot on my plate!
By October, I had written about 15,000 words - and then my editor phoned to discuss my next contract and the future direction of the series. The upshot was, that for a number of (very good) reasons, it had been decided to stop publishing my novellas. Rather they wanted to concentrate on full-length novels.
My first thought was "what the hell am I going to do with this partially written novella?" Ditching 15k words and starting again seemed like a cruel blow.
But then a nagging worry that had been keeping me awake at night suddenly had a solution.
As stated earlier, I am not a plotter. And for the first time, this was proving to be a potential problem. You see, I kept on having really good ideas, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that they weren't all going to fit into a short novella. But suddenly, I had 120k words to play with. Ideas that I had reluctantly concluded wouldn't fit into the book could now be used.
It was as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
Immediately, I set about rewriting what I had already completed.
For the next few months, I happily juggled writing book seven with completing the edits for book six and the forthcoming novella, At First Glance.
Then March happened!
Suddenly I found myself installed on the kitchen table, our lovely office given over to my partner who needed its privacy more than I did. On top of that I, and thousands of teachers around the country, found themselves remote teaching with little notice. It's hard to overstate the size of that shift. My school was better equipped than many, with all learners having devices to use at home, and already versed in Google Classroom, nevertheless writing and rewriting resources for a practical-based subject such as science for students to use independently was a huge undertaking.
Experienced teachers such as myself may take 30-60 minutes to plan a typical lesson. Suddenly, each lesson was taking up to two hours to prepare. The need to track our learners' progress - normally done by walking around the classroom and interacting with students - became ever more important and time-consuming. I resigned myself to the fact that my jealously-guarded, two-day-a-week writing time was going to have to take a back seat. No longer needing to produce two books that year became an even bigger blessing. Then there was the small matter of having to reorganise a wedding (repeatedly)…
A faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
By June, I had found a new rhythm. Lessons that I and my colleagues had written in April could be tweaked and delivered again to a different class. Both of 2020's books had been published, and by the end of the summer term I had largely regained my two writing days. Now the challenge was to hit my September 1st deadline!
One of the biggest jobs at this stage, is to start putting my book into the correct order. I write out of sequence, and so, by the time I hit 90 to 100,000 words, I have scores of short sections that need placing in a logical order.
In July I moved all these fragments into 'working draft 2.0' and started identifying what sections needed rewriting, what chunks of text needed moving again (for example references to the forensic analysis of a piece of evidence needs to take place after the evidence been discovered!) and what needed writing from scratch.
At the end of July, school ended and I could become a full-time writer again. 2020 was the summer without a holiday, so there were no excuses there and I ploughed on, taking advantage of the nice weather to do some red-penning in the garden.
By the beginning of August, the book was ready for its next stage. It had been through several drafts and it was time for a fresh set of eyes. By now, Public Health England were inviting people at random to take home tests for Covid-19 to monitor its prevalence in the community. My partner and I were fortunate enough to be selected; the timing couldn't have been better. Since the very first book, The Last Straw, was completed, my father has been a beta reader, alongside my partner. And so, armed with our recent negative tests, we took advantage of the relaxation in the rules to surprise my Mum for her birthday (they were shielding, as were we, so our negative tests meant that we could be confident that it was safe to do so). Alongside her gift, I also presented them with a bulging lever-arch file...
Some new eyeballs.
Now it's time to wait! What would they and my partner think? I emailed my editor to explain that the book was completed, but that pandemic logistics meant that I might not quite hit my September deadline. My editor values the input of my beta readers almost as much as I do and so was more than happy to give me a bit of leeway.
A few days later, my partner finished her read-through. Lots of red pen, but she liked it! And importantly, hadn't spotted any significant errors that would necessitate a big rewrite. I worked my way through her edits, then had my first ever editorial meeting by video, with my Dad! He had spotted many of the same errors as my partner, plus some others, and had some interesting ideas which he read out, and I either corrected there and then on my laptop or noted for later. He then suggested that as Mum (a former teacher) was at a loose end, she could have another go at it. Needless to say, the following week's meeting had even more corrections!
Barely a fortnight after my initial deadline, I emailed my editor the most polished submission of my career!
The waiting game.
Of course that's only the first stage, but I could now start writing book eight, summer 2022's novel. At the end of October, my editor sent her initial feedback. It was positive! She liked it. But I needed to lose about 8,000 words and make some changes. She suggested a deadline of December and so I placed book eight on hold, printed out a copy of the manuscript and her editorial letter, and wielded the red pen again. I've written before about the editorial process (#Tip 48), so won't go over it again, suffice to say, some darlings were killed, some new ideas incorporated, and what emerged was meaner, 4,000 words leaner, and all the better for it.
Then some wonderful news - my editor was leaving to have a baby! I was disappointed that we wouldn't be working together for the next book, but she handed me over to Dushi, who had worked on the series previously so was familiar with the characters. I knew I was in good hands.
Christmas came and went, and mid-January, Dushi sent back her thoughts. This is the first time that I have had two editors go through a manuscript and it was a fantastic experience. Dushi did a brilliant job, and so I printed it again and spent the next week or so incorporating her suggestions. It was now even tighter, with a further 2,000 odd words ditched. We also finally settled on Out of Sight as the title.
Mid-February, the manuscript came back from Dushi with her line edits.
This time, there was no need to print. These are done on Word, using the 'track changes' feature. Dushi had corrected my spelling and grammar, rigorously applied the HarperCollins style guide, tightened some sentences and used the comment function to suggest some more tweaks and request clarifications. That took two full days, largely consisting of me clicking the 'accept change' button, adding or removing a few sentences, as per Dushi's suggestions, and writing my own response to some of her comments. Remarkably, it was now three hundred words shorter!
Amusingly, despite dozens of passes by me, three beta readers and two editors, it was only then that I noticed a character picked his daughter up from school on a Sunday... A hasty correction fixed that problem before I received emails from bemused readers, and snarky comments from Amazon reviewers - bullet dodged!
The final push.
I submitted this draft on February 23rd, along with my acknowledgments and dedication. I always leave this to the very end. Last year I was nearly caught out when I referenced events that should have taken place in May but were cancelled, so had to rewrite my acknowledgements just before publication. Lesson learned!
A final set of edits came back from the copy editor, with some more tweaks and then it was off to the proof reader. By now we had a fantastic cover, and the team at HQ had written a nice, punchy jacket blurb.
April the 8th was set for my cover reveal, neatly coinciding with my self-declared 'DCI Warren Jones Day' a few days later. The book became available for pre-order on all the major eBook sites, and the paperback and audio release dates set for August the 5th. I am going to write a separate post detailing my interactions with my long-standing audio narrator, so keep an eye out for that later this summer.
Marketing a book is always interesting. My publisher does a lot of work behind the scenes of course, but I'm no Richard Osman so much of the hard work falls to me. I actually quite enjoy making my own graphics and videos, it's a creative process that I never realised was so much fun. You may have seen some of my posts on social media. There will be plenty more to come, particularly in the run up to the audio and paperback releases.
Now it's just a case of sitting back and waiting for the glowing reviews and multi-million dollar royalty cheques to come rolling in... And finishing book eight.
I hope you enjoyed this insight into the creation of a book, particularly in a year that threw up unique challenges.
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time,
Best wishes.
Paul