Golden Pen Relay 2012

A Pen that's a Little like a Sword 

Stuck in a Stone

This post is going to start off by stating the obvious. In fact, if you haven't picked up on this already and you've read more than just this blog post, you probably need to brush up on your literacy skills. On the other hand, you may have skipped over this hardly monumental revelation because it's quite boring, self-serving and gratuitous. So, if you have something better to do with your time like reading up for your dissertation, finishing your portrait of a head-brain-monster, cleaning the fridge or eating cheese, I urge you to go do that instead. This is a post is likely so dull you'll curl your toes in fear for your ability to ever feel anything but boredom again. Ok, final warning: turn off your screen now. 

So here we go, now that we've rid ourselves of those less hardy than we are. 

Most of you know that I'm a bit of a writer - a scribbler by my own definition. I've turned my hand to other things: music - we all can see how that turned out; art - well Zoe and Lorenzo both have canvases with my attempts at painting; acting - let's pretend that didn't happen; it always comes back to words and writing and the lovely way that stories can be put down in ink. Or in this case, typed out on a screen mightily in need of a wash. Anyway, every year since 2007/8, I've taken part in National Novel Writing Month - a competition/challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I've completed it twice and done all the jottings more times than I can count. Now, with just over a month before it begins (it's every November for those who don't know), I'm thinking... maybe I should start jotting ahead of time - start the planning, plot the course before letting the bunnies out to ruin all my vague ideas with garbled garden gnomes and cabbage patch kids and general nonsense. That sentence was general nonsense. They're already everywhere. 

This time I want to write a crime novel. You see, I live in Edinburgh only a couple blocks away from Arden Street and the origins of Rankin's Rebus - actually, I didn't even put that little fact together until a friend pointed it out to me the other day (I'm clearly not a super sleuth). I reckon I could do it, despite my lack of experience in the genre. I guess I need to more reading and stuff, tricky since I've already around forty hours a week of reading for class and that's before analysis and everything else like that.  I have the idea in my head, I know why my killer kills and I know who my detectives are but need to flesh them out, figure out how to organise myself etc.

Thus I thought I'd ask any of you readers if you had any suggestions - for example, do I start with a funeral, a murder or the banal day-to-day of my protagonists? Do you have any pet hates in crime fiction? Anything you really love about crime fiction? What do you think about supernatural elements creeping in (at least on the surface)? And do you think two post-grads and a chap that builds shacks could track down a serial killer? Do you like to know your serial killer or do you enjoy the thrill of suspense the whole way through? 

Let me know.

That's all. I did say it was boring. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER