Giving up the Ghost – the Agony of an Unfinished Novel

Like many writers, I’m a big fan of Stephen King, and have taken on board most of his advice about storytelling, character development and the routine of writing. However, his suggestion that ‘Stopping a piece of writing just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea,’ doesn’t always work for me.

Having written and published thirty-four books, I rarely have trouble finishing anything. The time it takes me to write a novel from start to finish can be anywhere from three weeks to seven years, though it’s most often between two and three months. My most recent work in progress was intended to be book six in the Terry Bell Mysteries but having struggled to create a story that makes sense, isn’t overly contrived, and lives up to my hero’s recent adventures, I’ve had to admit defeat.  

As a ‘pantser’ I don’t plan my novels and sometimes find myself at a point where I’ve no idea where the story is going. Usually, this isn’t a problem—I simply force myself to continue writing, and the sticking point works itself out. This happened with the first book in my Relic Black thriller series (Terminal Black), which took me seven years to finish. In that case, I created so many characters I didn’t know what to do with them. In the end I realised I had a story with an ensemble cast, rather than a central figure and various secondary characters. I still had a hero, but he ended up being no more important than any of the others.

So, what happened this time?

In the words of a well-known song, the phrase ‘Rip it up and start again’ (by Orange Juice) might be a way of dealing with my dilemma, but I’m not in the habit of rewriting novels completely, and I can’t see any possibility of fixing the plot as it stands. It’s true to say that most novels (to a certain extent) are contrived, but the trick is to make them read as if they’re totally original and believable. So, with this one, the only solution seems to be to put it on the back burner. Indefinitely.

On the plus side, I have plenty of ideas for other books and am about to start the first in a brand-new series of thrillers, called Metropolis.