Murder She Wrought: a new start

This is an experiment. A study to answer the question, posed by this author: 'can a novel be written, step-by-step, completely in the open?' I am going to do just this to see if it works. By 'in the open' I mean I am going to go through the planning, writing and (to some extent) the editing of this draft work, publishing each step along the way, for all to see.

Each chapter of Murder She Wrought will be written and published on the Vocal platform in the Chapters community. Any planning, discussion or other such material will be posted to either in writers or fiction as the mood takes me.

Read the original short story: Murder she Wrought

I am hoping that some will see, read and comment on this work, providing useful and (I sincerely hope) critical comments to help me along the way. See what works, see what doesn't, perhaps get some suggestions for alternative storylines and approaches.

Why?

Why am I doing this? Well, as an author who writes short stories, articles and the occasional bit of verse (which some are kind enough to describe as poetry) I find spending longer than a few hours writing to be quite hard work. I find spending longer than a few hours sitting working, quietly, on my own, to be too dull, lacking in excitement and too lonely. I like working in a team, I like a bit of background noise to stimulate me, and I like to be able to chat about stuff irrelevant to the work, in order to make the working day more pleasant and sociable. This includes chatting on social media. Does this make me a bad person? More to the point, I am pretty much retired now, apart from a few odd jobs I still do to top up my meagre pension. Why should I commit myself to any project involving sustained hard work?

Writing isn't hard work to me, it's fun. A long time ago writing and editing were my profession but now it's just a hobby, at least until such time as I get a call from a publisher offering me £25,000+ advance for rights to my WIP. I enjoy writing stuff and just publishing it on Vocal. I get more readers doing this than I have so far for any of the books I have published. I'm still interested in publishing books, but in doing so want to make the most of online avenues such as Vocal too. Not least because the concept of the printed book must surely have a limited future?

Regardless of the future of book pulp, online is certainly going to continue to provide new formats and new opportunities to the reader and writer alike.

Serial short stories

I have only written one (shortish) novel and this started life as a single short story. Each time I started a new chapter, I just thought of it as a new short story starting where the previous chapter left off. This made the otherwise daunting prospect of writing a novel so much easier. If you are interested in seeing the result, you can either buy the book from Amazon, in paperback or Kindle (the latter for a mere US $0.99), or you can read it for free chapter by chapter.

Run With the Pack

Order now for $0.99 from Amazon

Read for free starting at Chapter One

Either way do please let me know what you think.

One advantage of writing a novel in this form is that it will give me an indication of where interest tails off. If the number of reads, likes and positive comments reduces to just a few, or even none, I will know it’s time for a rethink.

What do you think?

How do you like this approach? Why not try it yourself? You could take the characters and scenario from chapter one of Murder She Wrought and continue the story, if you want to, taking any other direction you choose. Be my guest.

Measuring success

I have always said that what can't be measured, cannot be managed. A creative writing project is no different. Did I say this was an experiment? I did, so, as such, I must apply some sort criteria for successful outcomes. These include (and I may add to the list) the following:

1. I complete the book and it finds some sort of popular, commercial or critical success.
2. I complete the book and it is not particularly successful.
3. At some point I decide that the work should not be completed for whatever reason I find at the time.
4. I learn from the process.

From the above, I am pretty sure that (4) will be true. I am bound to learn something from doing this. If the whole process turns out to be a complete farce or a waste of time, then I will know not to do it again. In fact I can't see any way that I will not learn something from exercising my brain and creative faculties on this. On which basis, even if the book is a complete failure, is never finished, or nobody reads any part of it, the 'experiment' will have proved useful, providing relevant data and insight. This is therefore a no-lose project.

I will of course be working towards outcome (1). As I said earlier, I am hoping that taking the approach set out in this article will help to achieve this. If outcomes (2) or (3) are the end result, I will still learn from the exercise.

There are of course risks, as there are with any project. There is a risk that nobody, or very few people, will read any of the chapters or supporting articles I write. My reputation might be harmed by something I write. I might upset someone. These are risks we all face whenever we post a piece on Vocal. Life is full of such risks but, as they used to say: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Onwards

The next part of my adventure will be to answer the question: What's the story Murder She Wrought all about?

The project continues: Plot summary so far.

Thanks for reading