The power of character in fiction

[John Dean]

I have written before about the way that some writers respond first and foremost to plots, ideas they hear or read which become the germ of a story. Others respond to characters. Maybe they see someone in the bus queue and an idea sparks to life featuring that person.

I have always thought that I am a writer who reacts primarily to places, as those who read my blogs will know, but I am coming to realise that that is not always so.

The latest DCI Jack Harris novel (The Killing Line published this week by The Book Folks) takes place in the world of drug-taking teenagers but was inspired not by the theme, rather an image of a person that flashed into my head one day as I was walking the dog through steep-sided woodland near my Dumfries and Galloway home. An image of someone with the animal about him, fleet of foot on the slope. No idea where it came from but it quickly came to dominate my thinking and led directly to the book.

The book starts like this: When he moves, he’s fast. Agile. Lithe. All muscle and sinew. He’s effortless when he scales the garden fence, then lands and squats on his haunches and pauses, his head erect, his nostrils quivering as he sniffs the air for the scent of danger. His ears strain for sounds that may indicate that he has been detected. Satisfied that no one is home, his hands move swiftly as he uses a screwdriver to force the lock on the back door and enters the house. He is into the property in seconds and stands in the kitchen for a few moments, his eyes bright, darting left and right for any sign of movement in the darkened house.

The book tackles many themes but above all it is his story and as a writer I find that idea intriguing.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KILLING-LINE-detective-difficult-Detective...