Creative Process

 One of my friends following this blog has asked me whether I can describe the creative process behind writing Mine to Avenge. This was one of the things I originally planned to write about when I started the blog. However, I’ve found it difficult to know where and how to start with this because the creative process was very much plot driven, in that the starting point of the story gave me the first plot element which led me to the second plot element and so on. If I write in depth about the process it will give away certain aspects of the plot.

I used my son as a sounding board to discuss this today, and he thinks it could be done with some creative and non-specific turns of phrase. So I thought I would have a go, rise to the challenge and make a start by trying to explain the genesis of the novel.

The creative process began with the tragedy of September 11, 2001. As I watched the drama unfold in the media over the ensuing days, a specific thought came to me, and it is this specific thought that I can’t reveal, as it’s a major plot spoiler. I knew at the time that the thought was a great concept for a story, but didn’t think seriously about it until I was on annual leave in January 2010. During that time I often mulled over the idea, but a story remained elusive.

So I sat down in January 2010 and started to give some concentrated attention to the concept, and also began to research the September 11 event in search of a story line. It took about 2 weeks of deliberately entertaining the thought and marrying it with some incidental data I discovered about September 11 to know which way the story was going.

So to briefly sum up - the origins of the novel began with a plot line, or concept, but the story line didn’t come until some eight years later when I sat down to look for it.