The Dead
2 September 2007
Crime
writing almost always needs a death. Greg spent the whole weekend discussing
motivations for murder, teaching a creative writing course at West Dean
College.
Anyone who has entered the Sepulchre short story competition will know that I once developed a plotline in which a murder was committed with a hatpin. But I didn't use it.
Obviously it's fascinating to discover how authors build their plots, but it is also illuminating to find out what they leave out and what they cut. There was a passage in Labyrinth that survived to the third draft before I cut it. In the end, the scene failed to live on the page.
Sometimes when you make a cut, you are devastated. It is easy to become blindly attached to a piece of writing which - whatever its quality - doesn't fit. Then there are the details that worry you late into the night.
One such was a list of names on a monument in the churchyard at Rennes-les-Bains. For one of my characters, the discovery of a particular surname on the honour roll of the dead of World War I would completely change her motivation. But for some reason I could not find the research photos I took of the engraved marble.
I thought I could quite easily locate the data on line, but I was wrong. I made searches through genealogical research sites, but found nothing that could confirm the name's absence - and nothing else would do. I was beginning to imagine myself obliged to make a 2000km round trip to put my mind at rest.
Some might say: 'What does it matter. If you say the name isn't on the list, it isn't. It's a book!'
In a way, I wish I could think like that. But, then again, it matters to me. Although I write fiction, the elements of truth - of historical or geographical fact - must be right.
Greg rang the town hall in Rennes-les-Bains and, two days later, we were delighted and grateful to receive a photograph of the monument.
Thankfully, the name was not there.
I'm looking forward to asking the invited authors to the second Chichester Writing Festival if they have had any similar nail-biting experiences.
Welcome to the Sepulchre.
