What would I do?

[John Dean]

I am working on the latest DCI Jack Harris novel for my publisher The Book Folks but, with 27,000 words having been written, I had run into a brick wall.

I had the plot mapped out in pretty decent detail in advance (for me, that’s crucial as I start on a novel) but, as usual, there were still gaps to fill and questions to be answered as I wrote. This time that had put the brakes on the process.

So how did I get round it? Well, the solution was to go back to the basics of writing. If as an author you wish to engage the reader, one of the ways to do it is to make them think of times when they were in similar situations to the one you are depicting in your writing. To trigger memories of times when they were scared, excited, intrigued etc etc.

I did the same and thought about my characters and thought ‘what would I do if it was me in the situation in which they find themselves? How would I react? What would I think?’

The result? Fresh insights into their personalities and the emergence of new threads to the story, which got me through the block and infused the narrative with new energy and impetus.