When an idea takes hold of a writer

[John Dean]

I have talked to quite a few aspiring writers lately, who although loving short stories have decided to have a crack at producing a novel as well.

It is a big decision, there is a lot of work involved in a novel, so my question to them is always what makes you decide to write one?

Me? I just love the fact that, for all I work hard to tighten my writing to inject pace, I still have many thousands of words to explore characters and themes.

I think it is also crucial that I have an idea that can sustain my interest. Take Strange Little Girl as an example. It was inspired by an unsolved murder that I covered in my days as a newspaper crime reporter.

I became fascinated by the emerging evidence that someone important was protecting the killer, which led me to create my own fictional story based on the idea.

To develop the themes, the story needed the length afforded by a novel but, just as importantly, the idea was strong enough to sustain me throughout the hundreds of hours it takes to write a novel.

You can find the result of all that effort at https://www.amazon.co.uk/STRANGE-LITTLE-GIRL-Blizzard-mystery-ebook...