And no one asked me!!!

[John Dean]

As I have said in previous blogs, you can create the most remarkable writing but you cannot make your stories live unless you have vivid characters. And that includes being prepared to let minor characters develop into someone more important.

That is happening to me (and not for the first time) as I write the latest DCI Jack Harris crime novel for those good people at The Book Folks.

The character in question did not even figure in my planning of the novel nor, as I reached page 100, had he featured in the 99 pages that preceded it.

Then one of the characters mentioned him in passing in a conversation and the impact was instantaneous. Suddenly my mind was whirring, the piece of plot I had felt was missing had emerged, and I had a prime candidate for responsibility for the  murder at the beginning of the book (I very often do not know the identity of the killer when I start to write a novel, an idea of what’s behind it, yes, but an identity, no). My ‘minor’ character has become someone to be developed as the narrative builds.

And all from a character mentioned in passing by another character without anyone checking with me as the author! Isn’t the writing process strange?