‘On Creating a Series…’

Creating a new series is a bit of a challenge for any author – not only must you come up with a bunch of brand-new characters, but you also need to know where they live, what work they do and any interesting pasts they’ve had before appearing fully-formed in a new adventure. I’m not a plotter so never have any kind of outline to work from before I start writing. However, I do need to have a clear idea of the main character. With Metropolis, book one in the Finlay MacBeth series, I spent a lot of time working out who MacBeth might be, where he came from, what skills he might have and what (if any) issues might continue to throw up problems for him (such as being continually haunted by a dead man).

I decided that while MacBeth should be intelligent in an academic way (Professor of English), it would be nice if he already had a reputation for solving crimes. As can be seen in Metropolis, his ability to solve a well-publicised murder in London granted him a degree of notoriety by the time he arrives in Edinburgh.

One thing I like to do, is to start each book with a bit of a bang. While Metropolis begins with a man in a coffin who appears to be a victim, Overkill jumps straight in with a strange, white-faced killer breaking into a house. At first, MacBeth and his policeman pal are disturbed by the clues – white power and greasepaint seem to point in a specific direction. But of course, that could be a bit of a red herring.

Not knowing what’s going to happen to my characters is exciting and a little scary, since they tend to do things that take me by surprise. I’m currently working on the third book in the series, Hellraiser, where one of the main characters turns out to have had some sort of relationship with a villain – a relationship that puts them in danger.

In one respect, I’m a tad unusual in that I prefer to have the book title and cover finished before I get down to writing, that way I have a clear image in my head of where I’m going (even though I don’t know where I’m going!) Another little quirk of mine is to use book titles that are meaningful to me, so the Finlay MacBeth books are all named after songs. If you can guess what the connection is, it’ll give you a clue to the sort of music I like.

I’m not a big fan of romance, but I do like my characters to have some kind of romantic attachments – something to add a little frisson to their lives. With MacBeth, the romance comes in the form of his red-haired landlady. The only problem with that is MacBeth’s tendency to lie about his past. No doubt that’s an issue that’ll come back to plague him.

For now, I’m working towards a six-book series, though as with everything, I never know what’s going to happen next. And that’s just the way I like it.

Read an excerpt on ‘Hellraiser’ here.

NB This post first appeared on Novel Kicks, as part of the Blog Tour for Overkill.