My paltry scribbles

I’ve mentioned before – probably several times, that when I start writing something new, I usually have at least several characters who are already having some sort of adventure in my head, or are in a bit of a pickle, or have something unexpected happen to them. At the same time, I have absolutely no idea what will happen next to them, how they relate, if they relate, and how they are going to unpick or solve the situation they find themselves in. They stay in my head until I start to write them.

I know some writers plan everything to the nth degree, laying out what happens in each chapter etc before even beginning to write; well, I can’t do that, and also to  me it sounds very dull. My writing is like a journey – often without much of a map and I have no idea what awaits around the next corner.  Characters appear and sometimes they leave, sometimes they arrive in what should have been a walk-on part and  they storm in and become a major player.  Occasionally I feel a little defensive about this, especially when other writers mention their character studies, descriptions, lists of physical attributes and personality traits – but I respond that when I meet new people in real life I don’t know all about them within a few minutes. It’s the same when someone pops into my head with something I’m working on.

I was mightily cheered when I attended a talk by the wonderful Ann Cleeves and she said she never knows where her plots are going and things occur as she is writing. I was further cheered today,  when someone on social media posted this quote from a letter by J.R.R.Tolkien  about ‘Lord of the Rings’: