Listen, I'm talking to you...!

[John Dean]

As I have said in previous blogs, you can create the finest landscapes, the greatest stories, the most remarkable writing but you can not make your stories live unless you have vivid characters. And that includes being prepared to let minor characters develop if they are telling you that they have a story to tell.

That is happening to me as I start the next DCI Jack Harris crime novel for those good people at The Book Folks.

The novel deals, as they all do, with DCI Harris and his CID team working in a remote North Pennines valley but, again as usual, it brings in criminals from other parts of the north, reflecting the cross-border nature of crime.

In this case, I had the idea for what started out as a minor character living well outside the North Pennines but who, it quickly became obvious, would play a key role in the story.

As I began to develop this character it also became clear that he would need a police officer to handle him. The idea was for that officer to be a minor character who would hand him over to Harris and the team. Job done. The minor character could step back into the shadows. However, that character has grown and grown to such an extent that a minor character has fast become a major character. All of which shows why writers should listen to their creations!

The first six Harris novels are now out in boxset form on Kindle and you can find the second of the two boxsets, which was recently published, at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=john+dean&i=stripbooks&crid=JI...