John Dean – Crime Writer

People who read my posts will know that I am fascinated by the mixture of planning and organic development that goes into writing

What do I mean by organic development? Take a character in my latest DCI Jack Harris novel, which has just passed the 35,000 word mark. He was very much planned – I needed a taxi driver to take two of my characters from an airport to their hotel.

Once he had dropped them off, his role in the novel was over and he would not appear again. Except he disagreed and by the time the taxi had arrived at the hotel, his banter, appearance and demeanour, and the fact that he clearly had so much to give, meant that he not only stayed in the story but became a major character and opened up a central plotline that I had not considered at the planning stage.

That’s when you know that your writing really is working