Spit-balling: a novel approach to writing?
Genesis
So, what random thought process created the inspiration for a 125,000 word novel with a violent psychopath and a guilt ridden, alcoholic criminal profiler battling it out?
Well, you may have read my introduction to writing in which I explained that spit-balling is an idea Stephen King uses. This really appealed to me, so much so that it became the genesis spark that resulted in the two novels I have published.
To the left you can see the inspiration for Remorseless in all it's detailed glory...
The key was the first line (the asterix comment was added later):
GET INSIDE THE MIND OF A PSYCHOPATH.
I have read many novels and very few really give you any insight into the workings of the mind of a full blown psychopath. American Psycho did, but I found that such hard going due to the nature of the content that I ended up not finishing the book. I wanted to create something a little more accessible to people like myself.
To make this happen I decided to spend a fair amount of time writing from Leech's point of view (POV). For mainstream publishers and literary agents this was a no go: the usual approach is to use POV for characters the reader will identify with or sympathise with, and write more objectively, in the third person, when dealing with villains. But I wanted a novel that helped people understand the nature of the beast, without the Hollywood bull that demands everyone demonstrates some redeeming feature, or like Dexter, impossibly distorts this supposed psychopath's character by giving him a conscience!
This has led to some amazing feedback from readers - some found the experience uncomfortable while others found it thrilling, like being terrified on a roller-coaster, but you know you're safe really! One Amazon reviewer, who said you should keep antacids handy while reading, was very disturbed by Leech's antics but still gave me 4 stars.
That Doc character
The second line gave me Doc's character in a nutshell so I immediately had the protagonist and villain with ideas for potential conflict growing in my mind.
You'll see from the document that I also mentioned Dr Hare in quotes - he was the inspiration that created my character's profession, and I needed little else to bring him to life. More on Doc can be found here.
Things don't necessarily go according to plan though: when Leech was developing into a fully fledged character, as I wrote his story, he refused to abide by my spit-balling so the 'expert in staging' element never made it to the draft, let alone the final edition - at least, as far as Peter Leech was concerned...
Well, you may have read my introduction to writing in which I explained that spit-balling is an idea Stephen King uses. This really appealed to me, so much so that it became the genesis spark that resulted in the two novels I have published.
To the left you can see the inspiration for Remorseless in all it's detailed glory...
The key was the first line (the asterix comment was added later):
GET INSIDE THE MIND OF A PSYCHOPATH.
I have read many novels and very few really give you any insight into the workings of the mind of a full blown psychopath. American Psycho did, but I found that such hard going due to the nature of the content that I ended up not finishing the book. I wanted to create something a little more accessible to people like myself.
To make this happen I decided to spend a fair amount of time writing from Leech's point of view (POV). For mainstream publishers and literary agents this was a no go: the usual approach is to use POV for characters the reader will identify with or sympathise with, and write more objectively, in the third person, when dealing with villains. But I wanted a novel that helped people understand the nature of the beast, without the Hollywood bull that demands everyone demonstrates some redeeming feature, or like Dexter, impossibly distorts this supposed psychopath's character by giving him a conscience!
This has led to some amazing feedback from readers - some found the experience uncomfortable while others found it thrilling, like being terrified on a roller-coaster, but you know you're safe really! One Amazon reviewer, who said you should keep antacids handy while reading, was very disturbed by Leech's antics but still gave me 4 stars.
That Doc character
The second line gave me Doc's character in a nutshell so I immediately had the protagonist and villain with ideas for potential conflict growing in my mind.
You'll see from the document that I also mentioned Dr Hare in quotes - he was the inspiration that created my character's profession, and I needed little else to bring him to life. More on Doc can be found here.
Things don't necessarily go according to plan though: when Leech was developing into a fully fledged character, as I wrote his story, he refused to abide by my spit-balling so the 'expert in staging' element never made it to the draft, let alone the final edition - at least, as far as Peter Leech was concerned...
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Author's comments on Remorseless
Do you have experience of this approach to writing?
Or are you struggling with a highly structured approach, yet don't know why you aren't able to get that first draft finished? Maybe trying King's technique would work for you too? Let me know what you think! Will Patching |