Here we are chatting about killing off characters, the voices in your head and what we look at when we look out the window when the voices in our heads are telling us what characters to kill..... oh the power...
Have you ever killed off a character and wished that you could have kept them? Do some of your ensemble characters make a takeover bid in the novel, trying to get centre stage?
Peter
a) Killing off a character: only one. I enjoyed writing my gangster in the Last King of Brighton – he’s an example of a main character I didn’t respect for some of the things he did – but, although I did toy with the idea of making him an irregular regular – spoiler alert – I knew he had to go.
There are some characters I wish I could kill off. And in fact in Brighton 9 – which I’m two thirds of the way through – I am having a small clear out. Butcher’s Wood is a pre-virus story and I didn’t want to set Brighton 9 in these terrible times but I also didn’t want to ignore what has been going on so I’ve set it immediately post-virus (the first wave anyway). That has made the virus a believable deus ex machina for several people (not necessarily killing them off but certainly changing their circumstances).
b) Re: takeover bid. I was lucky enough to spend a bit of time with the late great Reg Hill and I liked the way that he did move away from his main characters, Dalziel and Pascoe, to give others in his ensemble some time centre stage. One novel is pretty much from Pascoe’s wife Ellie’s point of view. (Although he partly did it because the TV version’s producers had ditched Ellie from the series and he was cheesed off about it. ‘Let them try and film this,’ he said to me gleefully.)
I was also lucky enough to have a drink or two with the late Ed McBain on his UK visits and I liked the fact that he too brought different members of his 87th precinct ensemble to the front book to book. ‘It keeps me interested,’ he told me. ‘And that transfers to the reader, I think.’
Bellamy Heap kind of pushed himself to the front. As I said he arrived pretty much as a fully formed character in Brighton 4 just as a bobby on the beat but he wouldn’t stay out of that story and then he and Sarah Gilchrist have both elbowed Bob Watts out of the way as the series goes on.
There’s a young DC called Sylvia Wade who has been pushing herself forward in the last couple of books and in Brighton 9 is now Gilchrist’s sidekick whilst Bellamy is out of action for a couple of weeks. (He’s not ill, just self-isolating because on the last day of the lockdown someone spat in his face – that’s only a tiny spoiler! He’s still working though, following up on a cold case online and in the files.)
c) I think a good team is simply all kinds of different people but there needs to be newcomers every so often. I think there could be tensions between some of them (on the grounds that ‘drama is conflict’) but I’ve gone the camaraderie and watching out for each other route. And in Lady of the Lake and Butcher’s Wood that ensemble includes the actress Nimue Grace because I really enjoyed creating her and didn’t want to lose her quite yet. (I think I’ll have her waiting in the wings ready to take centre stage at some point again.)
Joy
I’ve never killed off anyone that I wanted to keep for a later story-line. Stephen King said something along the lines of... never be frightened to injure, maim or kill off your characters! I reckon if you are tough enough to withstand the barrage of Facebook messages expressing horror, (and sometimes sympathy and condolences!) at what you’ve done to your character, then go for it! To be honest that’s only happened to me once, and the ‘victim’ was a dog. Maybe that is my one regret, even though the alternative would have been worse. Say no more! I actually allow, and actively encourage, my ensemble characters to have their fifteen minutes of fame. As the series progresses I think it’s good to let them shine for a while, as it allows the reader to become much more au fait with their personal histories and what makes them tick from their point of view. The team evolves as you write, and I think it’s very important to let them gel, love, laugh and fall out, just as all humans working together do. Make them real, make them believable, make your reader care about them, and you’ll have a good team.
Sarah
I
always agonise over killing off any character, possibly because I was
scarred
at a young age by the utter carnage at the end of my favourite TV series,
Blake’s 7. I always think of the repercussions for the other characters, and
what a death will do to their journey.
Keen
students of my series will have spotted that Marnie and Noah’s arcs are almost
identically reversed over the course of the six books. Marnie begins from a
place of darkness (the off-page murders of her parents by her stepbrother) and
must find her way to the light. Noah begins from a place of comparative light
and finds the darkness crowding in, threatening to destroy him.
For me,
the interest always lies in how much of ourselves and our humanity we can
retain in the face of conflict and loss. Marnie and Noah complement one another
in that regard. They have each other’s backs at key points in the series, while
sometimes hitting rocks in the road, and it makes for a good team.
Do you plan the arc of the relationship and the careers of Gilchrist and Heap, Rome and Jake, Jackman and Evans at the start of the series or do you feel you have use their experiences at the end of the previous book as the starting point for the next in the series. (No spoilers in those questions!)
Peter
No planning at all, even within whichever novel I’m writing. The relationship evolves with the narrative – and I’m never sure what that arc is going to be until I’m halfway through! I had no idea until I started Brighton 9 that I was going to split up Gilchrist and Heap in this one. It wasn’t entirely impulsive though, partly it was plot-led because I’ve wanted to tell this cold-case story for a while but couldn’t quite figure out how to do it.
(The reason I’m quite a way into Brighton 9 is because the cold-case was one of the plots in Butcher’s Wood but I decided it didn’t really fit there and there was quite enough already going on in that one.)
Anyway, I’m assuming Gilchrist and Heap will be back together in Brighton 10, though who knows whether Sylvia Wade will allow that?
Joy
I work organically. I never know what’s going to happen from one moment to the next, so no clever plotting in advance from me. I think the end of the last book will always affect the beginning of the next, as it’s usually traumatic in some way and I like continuity. People don’t shake off a major emotional experience in a matter of days or weeks, so neither do my characters.
Sarah
I
didn’t plan any of it, really. I’ve never figured out how to plot in advance,
so I let the characters lead the action. I did know that I wanted them to
change over the course of the series. But the direction that change took –
especially in terms of Marnie’s relationship with her stepbrother, Stephen –
was a genuine surprise to me. It’s made me realise that giving your characters
what they (think they) want is far less important than giving them what they
need.
Some of you have changed series, one is starting a new series and one is continuing a successful series. Is there a time to break away? Why change? Do you ever feel you are stuck in that groove or do you feel a new book is like meeting up with new friends? Have you had an idea that you couldn’t fit into your series? And what did you do with it?
Peter
I think when the characters get stale for you it’s time to stop. (I used to be a huge fan of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series but I got bored with Robicheaux never changing, always having the same problems with violence and hotheadedness.)
To be honest I stopped
writing my comic crime series at six because I stopped writing altogether for a
while because of Life. When I started
writing again I didn’t feel like writing humour so I moved to the (very) Dark
Side, which suited my mood at the time.
As my mood improved I wanted
to go back to the comic-crime series and my characters, Bridget Frost and Nick
Madrid. I dipped my toe in the water
with a short story for CrimeFest’s Ten Year Stretch anthology a couple of years
back featuring them. However, around that time I realised that in a way Gilchrist
and Heap, with their continuing affectionate badinage, had kind of replaced
them. (One American critic said the
dialogue in Lady of The Lake was like Noel Coward – high praise indeed.) And when I suddenly found myself making an
ostrich a murder suspect in Lady of The Lake I realised that the darkness of
this series was brightening by the novel.
Having said that, I think 10
novels in the Brighton trilogy may be enough – but who knows since, yes, I do
still love meeting up with these old friends and making new ones when I start
the next novel? I do have other ideas
that won’t fit into this series, or necessarily the crime format (see question
14 for more on non-crime). I have published a standalone thriller – Paradise
Island – and I’m shortly to publish a comic-crime novella (not featuring Nick
and Bridget) called A Hole In The Head. I also have an outline for another
series featuring a customs man on the south coast embedded among smugglers.
Joy
Now this is complicated question. I have three series running. I am at present working on book #12, in my DI Nikki Galena, The Fen Series novels. I keep in constant contact with my lovely publisher regarding their longevity, and oddly, we both agree she has built up such a following, I can’t write fast enough. It’s an odd thing but right now, I really believe that she has a lot more mileage in her than I ever dreamed she would. It is a little like writing a long running police procedural soap, but I’m very comfortable with her and her team and sometimes feel almost relief when I know that it’s another Nikki book up next. I feel that I will know exactly when it’s time to call it a day, and I do hope that is the case. I would hate to take her one book too far. Jackman and Evans have been extraordinarily popular with Audible and I’ve written the last two as Exclusives for them. This means they cannot be published as books until Audible have had them for four months exclusively. I have just completed book # 7 and know that Jackman is far from over. The Matt Ballard series (have just completed book #3) are my ‘step outside the box’ books, and they give me scope for those books that you mentioned, the ‘don’t fit into my other series’ books. I firmly believe that you should waste nothing, so my avant garde ideas go into Matt Ballard.
Sarah
I’m
‘resting’ my Marnie Rome series, after six books. My next book, Fragile,
is a standalone, without a single police officer or detective in sight. The
story couldn’t be told within the series, and nor is it a story that can grow
into a series. It’s complete, in one book. I do have an idea for a new series,
some way down the line, but it’s on the back burner for now. I want to try and
master the standalone first.
I think most audiences are a bit too sophisticated to accept a ‘will they/won’t they’ tension between the two main characters, but how would you describe the dynamic between your two main characters? And how has that developed over a series of novels?
Peter
I think I’ve said in earlier answers they are mutually supportive and respect each other – Gilchrist immediately decks the man who spits in Bellamy’s face in Brighton 9. No sexual tension – that will they/won’t they occasionally surfaces with Gilchrist and Bob Watts. I guess the evolution is mostly Gilchrist recognising she increasingly relies on Gilchrist’s acumen to see the way forward. For a couple of books Heap has been living as a couple with Gilchrist’s best friend, Kate Simpson, so that has affected the relationship of all three of them in complicated ways.
Joy
There has never been a real love interest between Jackman and Marie, but they freely admit they love each other as dearest friends and respected colleagues. They would quite simply walk over hot coals for each other. Marie has always wanted Jackman to find a woman who would appreciate and tolerate both him and his fierce loyalty to crime fighting. She even stoops to match-making on one occasion! Jackman has a very strong protective feeling towards Marie, and when he finally meets a partner, his dearest wish is that Marie does too. As a matter of interest, sophisticated or not, in the Fen series, Nikki and her DS Joseph Easter’s relationship was been a constant cause of tension that is hugely approved of by their ‘fans’! I never in a month of Sundays planned it like that, but ‘public demand’ sent them into a situation where they did become ‘close’. I now find it a way of ramping up tension even more, as working together and keeping their relationship away from their senior officers and the mess-room gossips is very difficult, so I am using it to advantage.
Sarah
I
circumvented the whole ‘will they, won’t they’ by Noah being gay, although
Marnie does have a few competing passions over the course of the series. One of
these is with a colleague, Harry Kennedy, the man Noah blames for his brother’s
death. The dynamic between Marnie and Noah becomes correspondingly tense in Never
Be Broken as Noah struggles with feelings of grief, guilt and vengeance.
At the
start of the series, Noah (a Detective Sergeant) is in awe of Marnie (a
Detective Inspector) but as the series unfolds, they become much closer. One of
the ways they work a crime scene is by Noah taking the role of the killer as
Marnie interrogates his motives. I enjoyed writing those scenes between them.
While The Lady Of The Lake is reminiscent of the golden age, Never Be Broken and Their Lost Daughters, approach similar subject matter in very different way - both books are grounded in a huge sense of loss. Is there anything that is too emotionally difficult to write about or is it more about the approach and handling of the subject matter? (A vague question I know but no plot spoilers)
Peter
I think it’s all about approach and handling of the subject matter. Actually, I was always aware that my comic novels skated over true emotion because I didn’t quite know how to write about them. One of the reasons I wanted write more serious crime fiction was to explore deep emotions and the dark parts of the psyche.
Because of where I was in my
life I was ready to write about guilt, remorse, retribution, sadness and loss -
all powerful tropes in crime fiction.
And I wanted to explore – well, get my main character to explore – the
question: ‘Am I good man capable of doing bad things or a bad man capable of
doing good things?’
Joy
I think your handling of the subject matter is everything, but even so, certain things are not palatable to some readers and you have to be prepared to understand that. We do tap into some very delicate, upsetting and difficult crimes, and some of our readers have been unlucky enough to have either have actually experienced similar things, or possible worked with such victims. Handle with care. Personally, I cannot and will not write about terrorist bombings. My partner was involved in such an incident and has suffered ever since... over forty years of hell.
Sarah
As a
reader, I seek out emotionally truthful stories that resonate. It’s the same
when I’m writing. If it hurts, if it makes me cry, I know I’m doing my best
work. Given the times we’re living through, I don’t see how I can write
truthfully without addressing the chaos, trauma and tragedy that’s all around
us. Damn, that’s a depressing answer. My books aren’t all doom and gloom – I
take care to have warmth and humour and hope in the mix, too.
How have you found the writing process during lockdown?
Peter
At first, amazingly productive. Completed an enormous amount of work. Now, I’m struggling. I have had two edits back, a Jackman and a Ballard, whilst writing a Fen series, and suddenly I found juggling three sets of characters and diving from one series to another, rather mind-boggling! I’m now in a, hopefully short-lived, state of lethargy! Gardening has a stronger pull than writing and I’m having some very interesting conversations about future plotlines with my tomato plants. I blame the lockdown, of course.
Joy
Although lockdown has made little difference to my daily life I was quite sluggish for a few weeks. I was expecting to finish Butcher’s Wood at the end of February but it took me six weeks more. Having said that, I haven’t found lockdown mentally fraught, as I know some have. I think like most writers I can be very convivial but I’m also perfectly happy with my own company.
Sarah
If
you’d asked me that a month ago, I’d have cried actual tears. I wasn’t able to
write, for a long time. But about a month ago, I hit my stride with a new
story, and now I’m storming through at a rate of 2,000 words a day and you know
what? It feels fantastic to be in control of something, to be able to bring
about happy endings or chase my characters up trees before giving them the
tools they need to get themselves back down again.
If you had to write another genre what would it be?
Peter
Historical novels. I’m about 50,000 words into a novel about 16th century piracy and about the same number into an early 19th century story set in Gloucestershire and Australia.
Joy
Paranormal, without a doubt. Had already written three many years ago, but they will no doubt see out their years in a dusty box file in the attic.
Sarah
I’m
writing a Japanese ghost story, on the side. I’d love to do more of that kind
of thing.
A picture from Joy
If you look out the window of your writing space, what do you see – that’s my Grayson Perry lockdown question.
Peter
Sarah Gilchrist and Bellamy Heap chatting away as they drive by, Sylvia Wade at her desk tapping away at her computer, Bob Watts standing on the balcony of his Brighton penthouse looking across to France and Jimmy Tingley (who I’ve scarcely mentioned here because he comes and goes) sitting in the Cricketers drinking a rum and pep, his cigarette packet and mobile phone lined up neatly in front of him.
Joy
I live on the outskirts of a fen village and from my upstairs office window look out across an arable field to a distant tree line. In summer, when the trees are in leaf, the view is obscured by a row of lovely old sycamore trees and hawthorns with an edging of reeds that run along the ditch that flanks the road. I love it!
Sarah
Sunshine,
seagull shit, shadows.
The view from my writing room.
What’s next for you?
Peter
My intention is to finish Brighton 9 (I haven’t got a title yet – that’s why I keep calling it that) by mid-July then spend the rest of the year on the two historical novels in parallel. By which time I’ll be ready for Brighton 10.
Joy
Fen Series. Matt Ballard. Jackman and Marie. Then more of the same, as long as the brain and the body holds out!
Sarah
Fragile, my
first standalone, comes out in April 2021 from Pan Macmillan. It’s a
psychological thriller, in the vein of Patricia Highsmith, with shades of Rebecca
meets The Handmaid’s Tale. I’m very excited to see what readers think
about it.
Peter
Hmmm. Very interesting question that I’ve never really thought about. They don’t actually talk to me, they talk to each other and, I guess they are therefore a bunch of actors since they have their own voices.
A new character doesn’t have
any voice at all at first – he or she speaks but not in a distinct voice - that
develops as the character develops.
Sometimes I do slip with Gilchrist in first draft – I put words in her
mouth (usually long ones) and expressions that she just wouldn’t use. I kind of know it at the time but I want to
get on with the story. Touch wood I
always pick up on them.
Joy
That’s hard to answer. I rather ‘see’ them, as if watching a tv drama, so I suppose I do hear their own voices. I know that I work in a very specific way, I would find using voice activation very hard I’m sure, as I seem to just channel through the keyboard exactly what I’m watching in my head. Curious, but it’s not like reading a book at all, more like describing a visual happening.
Sarah
Interesting
question! I’d never really thought about it, but in their own voices,
definitely. Each one distinctly different.
Caro Ramsay
Caro Ramsay
