Pulling the threads together

[John Dean]

I am hard at work on the final stages of the latest DCI John Blizzard murder-mystery novel for my publisher The Book Folks and crucial to a process which has sometimes  been problematic is threads.

Threads run through every story and the trick for the writer is to pull them all together. In the case of this novel, I found myself running into blockages in the plot, which I removed by searching back through the narrative for the threads of the story.

For example, in this novel that has meant pulling together several major investigations as well as developing and completing elements of characters’ stories to make connections between them that the reader might not have suspected.

Those threads will have first appeared earlier in the story, mentioned often just in passing reference, something in a character’s life maybe, something which at first appears of little importance but assumes it as the story develops.

And each time I pull a thread, the story opens up and I am heading once more towards the authors’ favourite words – The End!

 

Picture: Suzy Hazelwood, used courtesy of https://www.pexels.com