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I was wondering, how do you go about the business of writing? Do you set aside a certain amount of time each day to write, or do you just write when inspiration strikes?

 

If I waited for inspiration to strike, nothing would ever get written. :blush:

 

I learned from being a newspaper reporter that the only way I get anything done is to sit down at the keyboard and start typing. For me, that physical act seems to spark the creative process.

 

I'm not a very disciplined writer, though. I do know some writers who get up at 6am, write for two hours before breakfast, then two more hours before lunch, and take the rest of the day off. Or writers who produce exactly a thousand words each day, then stop. At least, that's what they say in interviews!

 

We're all different, but I've discovered that I'm not a 'morning person' when it comes to writing. I still write best in the evenings, as I did when I still had the day job. In fact, the later it gets, the more my mind is buzzing with ideas.

 

The other advantage to writing in the evening is that there are fewer distractions - no phone calls from my agent, editor, etc. It's easier to concentrate.

 

Also, there are different stages to writing a novel - at least, the way I do it. The early stages involve developing ideas and characters, doing research, and so on. That can seem very slow, and might not produce much in the way of actual paragraphs on the page. Later on, the writing speeds up and a large part of the book can be produced surprisingly quickly.

 

I'm sure you'd get a completely different answer from every other writer you ask!

 

Stephen

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That's very interesting. It is like doing a "project". I always thought writers rely on when "inspiration" strikes.

 

If you are going to recommend your best book to someone to read, which one would it be?

 

Edit: If sequence was not an issue, and you are just choosing on preference

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Do you enjoy the research side of things, Stephen? I know you had a lot to do with the police and crime investigations as a journalist, so a lot of the background information would already be there, but how much fresh research do you end up doing for a new novel?

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That's very interesting. It is like doing a "project". I always thought writers rely on when "inspiration" strikes.

Is Black Dog your favorite book in the series, as it got you published, or do you have a soft spot for one of the others?

 

I tend to think inspiration has to be worked for, Maureen. I can sit and stare out of the window and waste time as well as anyone else, but it wouldn't get a book written! Once I start exploring ideas and characters on the page, that's when inspiration comes. It might only be some small thing, perhaps a connection that I suddenly see between two ideas. It's a nice feeling when it happens. :blush:

 

I do have a soft spot for BLACK DOG for the reason you mention. But writers like to think they improve over time, and I know I wouldn't write BLACK DOG the same way if I was approaching it now.

 

None of my books is exactly perfect (I wish!). But I look back now and think there were some occasions when the things I was trying to achieve really did work, to some extent. BLOOD ON THE TONGUE I liked, and ONE LAST BREATH.

 

I set myself a major challenge with book 6, THE DEAD PLACE, and I wasn't sure what reaction it would get. But I'm delighted to say that it's been my most successful book to date in the UK (in the USA, it's due to be published in May this year). So I'm chuffed with that one!

 

I don't think I'm the best judge of my own books, anyway. It's up to the readers to decide which they like the best. People still write to me all the time to tell me how much they love BLACK DOG, so who am I to argue? :lol:

 

Stephen

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If you are going to recommend your best book to someone to read, which one would it be?

Edit: If sequence was not an issue, and you are just choosing on preference

 

If you're going to push me, Maureen, I'd settle for BLOOD ON THE TONGUE.

 

Or maybe ONE LAST BREATH...

 

This is really difficult! :blush:

 

Stephen

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Do you enjoy the research side of things, Stephen? I know you had a lot to do with the police and crime investigations as a journalist, so a lot of the background information would already be there, but how much fresh research do you end up doing for a new novel?

 

Yes, I do enjoy research. What I really like is to discover a subject that's completely new to me. Sometimes aspiring writers are advised to "write about what you know". I think that's bad advice. I find it much more interesting to write about something I don't know!

 

Research often turns up some intriguing angle that a whole story can turn on. A good example would be from the writing of BLOOD ON THE TONGUE. While walking in the Peak District, I stumbled across one of the many aircraft wrecks that lie around on the moors up there, a lot dating of them from the Second World War. My imagination was caught, and I began to research the wrecks, and the lives of the men who died in them. I discovered that many of the airmen weren't British, or even American, but all kinds of other nationalities, including many Poles, who came to Britain to continue fighting the Germans when their country was invaded.

 

One day around this time, I was walking down a street in Chesterfield (a large town neighbouring the Peak District), when I noticed a sign on a doorway, and I had to go back to read it. It said 'Dom Kombatanta', which I knew from my research was the Polish ex-servicemen's club. It was only then I realised that many of the surviving Polish airmen and soldiers had remained in the area after the war was over, and were still living in Derbyshire with their families, second and third generation Polish migrants.

 

When those two things connected in my mind, the story of BLOOD ON THE TONGUE was born.

 

Second World War Lancaster bombers and the Polish community were two things I knew absolutely nothing about when I started writing that book - but I'd become an expert by the end of it! I even managed to get a ride (on the ground, I hasten to add!) on one of the last surviving Lancaster bombers, and I sat in all the crew positions that the men would have occupied at the time of the crash which the story of BLOOD ON THE TONGUE centres around.

 

I had no idea until then how claustrophobic and frightening it must have been for those young men. The tail gunner's position was particularly scary and dangerous. Since he was facing backwards, he couldn't even see where the aircraft was going. I recall one reader writing to me to say that the tail gunner of my fictional Lancaster bomber was the character she most sympathised with - even though he's been dead nearly 60 years by the time the novel starts!

 

As for police procedure, it changes all the time, and forensic science has become more and more important (DNA etc). So from that point of view, there's nothing like a few helpful police officers. And Derbyshire Constabulary have been very helpful to me.

 

Stephen

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I know it's a strange question.....but.........Is it difficult to "name" your characters? Do you go out of your way to use names that have nothing to do with friends and family?Or is it perhaps the case that some of the characters remind you of real people, hence the name?

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I know it's a strange question.....but.........Is it difficult to "name" your characters? Do you go out of your way to use names that have nothing to do with friends and family?Or is it perhaps the case that some of the characters remind you of real people, hence the name?

 

Interesting! I don't usually think about friends and family when I'm naming characters. Having said that, if they have an unusual name I don't think I'd ever use it, since it would look like an obvious reference. Common names are different, though. I have no problem calling a character Jim or Tom (my father and father-in-law respectively!), if the name fits.

 

Generally speaking, some characters seem to name themselves. A name pops into my head and I can immediately see the person who goes with it. Others can be quite difficult, and a name might change several times during the course of writing a novel, until it feels right.

 

There are other factors involved, too - for example, I try to avoid similar sounding names, or too many that start with the same letter, so that the reader doesn't get confused.

 

I also like my local characters to have local names, where possible. I even hang around in village churchyards looking for the names that occur most often on gravestones. This was how DC Gavin Murfin got his name. Murfin is quite unusual, and distinctively Derbyshire in origin. I've had emails from Murfins in other parts of the world, whose ancestors emigrated from Derbyshire, wondering how I hit on it!

 

Stephen

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First of all I wish to thank you for answering my questions!

 

I try to avoid similar sounding names, or too many that start with the same letter, so that the reader doesn't get confused.

That is a great idea. Usually when the writer is using strange/difficult-to-read names I just read the first 2/3 letters of the name, and if they all start with the same characters, it does get confusing.

 

I even hang around in village churchyards looking for the names that occur most often on gravestones. Stephen

The business of writing is far more complex than what I used to imagine!
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Guest fireball

Hi it's me..again 08.gif a bit of a difficult question, both for me to ask and quite possibly equally hard for you to answer, how or never here goes...

 

Of all of your books even the one not yet published, which was the hardest one to write in realation to Fry and Cooper, was the most difficult, and can you say why without blowing possible future stories about same.?

 

I'm a pain I know, but there's something about your creations I can't put my hand on but there's a feeling, God knows where it came from, but I can't explain it but should I feel.. concerned?

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Stephen, if you could have written any book that's been published, which would it be and why?

 

It's a funny question this one, Kell. Because, whatever book I name, I know perfectly well that it wouldn't have been as good if it had been written by me!

 

Having said that, Reginald Hill's 'On Beulah Height' is a fantastic book. And not just one of the best crime novels I've read, but one of the most powerful novels of any kind. But Reg Hill is much more cultured and erudite than me, so I could never have written that one. :)

 

One book I think I was trying to write for a long time is 'The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. I still like to believe I could have written that, if I'd kept trying! I seemed to be so tuned in to Douglas Adams' sense of humour. In fact, there are a few copies of this book around that have been signed by me, after Adams died. Collector's items, surely...

 

Stephen

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Hi it's me..again 08.gif a bit of a difficult question, both for me to ask and quite possibly equally hard for you to answer, how or never here goes...

 

Of all of your books even the one not yet published, which was the hardest one to write in realation to Fry and Cooper, was the most difficult, and can you say why without blowing possible future stories about same.?

 

I'm a pain I know, but there's something about your creations I can't put my hand on but there's a feeling, God knows where it came from, but I can't explain it but should I feel.. concerned?

 

Hi, fireball. Well, I'm not quite sure what you're concerned about, so it's definitely hard for me to answer!

 

Are you concerned about what's going to happen to the characters some time in the future? If so, then you probably have a reason for it...

 

Both of the main series characters - i.e. Ben Cooper & Diane Fry - have lurking issues in their pasts which could come to the fore one day. If that happened, it would certainly knock the character's life off course, one way or another. This situation hasn't been spelled out in the books so far, but I think readers who become involved with Cooper & Fry will be aware of that shadow, without perhaps being able to put it into words. Do you think that might be the cause of your unease?

 

You can see that I'm trying to answer your question without giving too much away. :)

 

Anyway, if I find myself dealing with these issues some time (and I don't plan the series ahead, so I don't know when it will happen), that will certainly be the hardest book in relation to the characters. In fact, there could be two very hard books! They're challenging issues, and not to be tackled lightly.

 

Hope that makes sense!

 

Stephen

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Guest fireball
Are you concerned about what's going to happen to the characters some time in the future? If so, then you probably have a reason for it
Yes. And as the series progress, partly one part of me is wondering about Cooper, but then I look at Fry (now there is a troubled, very, past), and yes Angie makes things...complicated in more ways then one.!
Both of the main series characters - i.e. Ben Cooper & Diane Fry - have lurking issues in their pasts which could come to the fore one day.
you've hinted at those things very nicely too :D .

 

but I think readers who become involved with Cooper & Fry will be aware of that shadow, without perhaps being able to put it into words. Do you think that might be the cause of your unease?
Yes sort off, but one or other is seriously going to be hurt, mentally and somewhat, I think, physically too. A deadly scarring methinks...is coming.

 

In fact, there could be two very hard books! They're challenging issues, and not to be tackled lightly
'nuff said.

 

Hope that makes sense!
....Perfectly.!
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Stephen, thank you so much for your time with us. I have one more for you.. if it was decided to finish the series, what would you prefer to do to the characters.. would you let the final book just finish as it naturally would, you you find a happy ending for them all, or maybe kill someone off?

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Maureen, here here.! He could though, put one or other in a coma.

 

As for Angie...The devil looks after his own, so to speak.!

 

Michelle, I'd hate to @!ss you off.! I wouldn't stand a chance in hell.:D :D

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I have one more for you.. if it was decided to finish the series, what would you prefer to do to the characters.. would you let the final book just finish as it naturally would, you you find a happy ending for them all, or maybe kill someone off?

 

At the moment, I can't imagine killing off either Ben Cooper or Diane Fry. It would be like murdering an old friend! Hope that pleases Maureen. :D

 

However, I think there are other ways in which the series could come to a natural conclusion - for example, Ben might leave the police service, and Diane could decide she'd had enough of the Peak District and go back to Birmingham. (This is just off the top of my head, you understand! It's not a plan!).

 

Of course, that assumes I'll actually know when I'm writing the last book in the series. From an author's point of view, it's much more satisfactory to be able to decide whether you want to end the series, or leave open the possibility of coming back to the characters later. But a fact of life in the publishing world is that it might not be my choice!

 

Stephen

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Stephen, thank you so much for your time with us.

 

Just realised that my month is already over, and I want to say a big 'thank you' to Michelle, Kell, and everyone else for inviting me to be the featured author in April. I've had a wonderful time on the forum - and I really appreciated all the interesting questions!

 

Best regards,

 

Stephen

 

http://www.stephen-booth.com

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We've enjoyed having you here, Stephen. And hope we'll still see you from time to time - you'll always be welcome as a member here. :D

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  • 1 month later...
If you're going to push me, Maureen, I'd settle for BLOOD ON THE TONGUE.

 

Or maybe ONE LAST BREATH...

 

This is really difficult! :(

 

Stephen

 

That was close. I just started my first Stephen Booth book, One Last Breath. Happened to be the only one in the library.

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