Unusual
11 September 2007
Usually I post this home page diary on a Monday. It is - therefore - unusual that I should post on a Tuesday.
In a thriller or a murder mystery story, this would be important. But how?
Well, first of all the author would have to establish normality - otherwise the abnormal event isn't noticed. This is not as easy as it sounds. In my own writing, I sometimes find myself rushing towards the dramatic moment. Only when I am editing do I allow the text to relax, slow the progress down and inch my characters forward towards the crisis.
A colleague who teaches film told me the other day that he is convinced that good writing needs adrenaline. Perhaps that is why many authors have a tendency to rush the action in their first draft. They need the excitement of discovery and invention to give their fictional world energy.
Discovery is also the driving force of research - and the adrenaline kick comes when you find some historical sequence that fits your imaginary story.
I won't give away any that I have recently used - Sepulchre publishes on 31 October - but I'll just give you an example I didn't.
When the Prussian army, led by Bismark, destroyed the French at Sedan, the Emperor Napoléon III, a milksop descendant of an illustrious forebear, was sent into exile. The Prussians marched on Paris, uncertain what they would do when they reached the well-defended and partially fortified city.
A Parisian politician, Léon Gambetta, aware of their approach, fled the city in a hot air balloon, heading - I suppose because the winds were that way that day - for Tours on the Loire. Then he set about raising an army of national defence to harry Bismark's troops.
What a wonderful sequence that would be. Perhaps, inspired by my movie writer colleague, it's actually a cinematic sequence ... But, whatever the medium, the real trick, the absolute essential writerly knack, is patiently, composedly, bringing the action moment by moment towards its crisis.
The story is in the approach to the Sepulchre.
