So, the plan is to write four blogs in February to tell you a bit about the creation of the four novels that I have written thus far. I have written about some of this before, but I’ll try and add some new interesting titbits if I can along the way. We start at the very beginning of my writing journey with my debut, standalone thriller – ‘Alive’.
The year was 2011 and I had been reading a number of crime fiction books and fancied writing one of my own. Before I started, I knew I wanted to come up with something different, perhaps an unusual slant on the genre. All I had at that point was the title, ‘Alive’, named after my favourite song by Pearl Jam. I quickly dismissed the idea of the usual police detective (that would come later), the private detective or, as has been done, from a murder perspective. I then arrived at my big idea, write it from the point of view of the target of the crime.
Fine, great idea (I thought), but how would I do this? Next was the thought that the target (Steve Hamilton), would receive a note stating that he was going to be killed. My next challenge was how could I write it without the reader knowing the outcome of that attack. I’m not sure where the idea came from, but I think my subconscious took me back to a book I read, and loved, as a teenager – Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Perfect, I would write it in diary form. My ‘Whodunnet’ was now also a ‘Would they do it?’ and ‘Why are they doing it?’. The next big question – would I be able to write it.
Readers of my previous blogs will know all about Craig ‘Brodie’ Simpson, but in summary, I wouldn’t be a writer had I not met him. I wrote the first month (January to be completely unoriginal) and let him read it. His response was exceptionally kind and made me persevere. He now reads everything I write before anyone else. It’s an agreement, a bond, a tradition and a pleasure.
As I continued with the WIP, I had no plan, no idea what would happen, who was doing this and why. I was just enjoying the process, writing a few diary dates on the bus home from work and typing it up on my lunch hour the next day. Craig was giving me his thoughts, always on the story, never on the spelling or grammar errors – they could be sorted later. I was around three quarters through the book, when I finally decided how it was going to end. I then did something I have not done since, I jumped ahead and wrote the ending. This gave me the end goal, and the final quarter was easy to write as I filled in the gap.
Craig read the final section as we took the bus into Edinburgh City Centre and we went to our usual haunt of the Filmhouse cafe to discuss the completed book. He was most complementary, but this was just a hobby and I was just happy to have completed it. It took around 18 months to write and would stay as a printed out manuscript, occasionally being passed to other colleagues to read before I finally self published it in 2016.
Since then, many more have read it and I sometimes get asked if I should try and get it published traditionally for the chance for it to be wider read. Perhaps one day, I’ll re-visit it, bring it up to date and see if there is any interest. But, until then, it remains the starting point of my writer’s journey and a book I’m exceptionally proud of.
Thanks for reading the first of the four book blogs. Let me know what you think of ‘Alive’ if you’ve read it. If you haven’t, you can still buy the eBook for less than a decent coffee or treat yourself to the paperback. The links are at the ‘Books’ tab of this website.
Ross Alexander Writer 