Continuing our series of Behind the Books features, I’m sharing the slightly unusual method I used to continue the story through Seeing Red and Code Yellow in Gretna Green.
I’ve no idea how real authors do it … but here are some beads I made earlier 😂
That might be a joke that US readers will miss, but we’ve discussed it before.
If the phrase ‘Here’s one I made earlier’ doesn’t conjure up memories of coat hangers, sticky-back plastic, washing-up liquid bottles and toilet roll middles, here’s a 45-second video for a taste of it. It was a children’s TV show and dreadful, but we loved it for about 50 years. Anyone else got a Blue Peter badge too?
Lots of readers email or ask in my Facebook group how the process of writing a book goes for me. I usually don’t have time to answer at any length. So today I thought I’d talk about plotting.
I have quite a visual brain when I’m planning. So looking at a bunch of notes is fine once I get into the details of each part. Then I mostly just let Niki chat away to me.
But initially, I need to see a bigger picture than the mere words.
I use mood boards, charts, both digital and scrapbook-ish and inspiration items.
Because I want the ‘wide-screen’ view of the current book in the context of the surrounding books before I can bring the pieces together.
For the first book, Midlife in Gretna Green, it was a shockingly bad, hand-drawn map that helped me make sense of it all.
Blues was my problem child for the longest time. It all fell into place when I was planting up my summer flower pots for the garden. I moved those planters around for several weeks. I tried them in various combinations, but it didn’t help with my plotting problem with Blues …
Finally, as we were building a small rockery in one corner of the garden, the last remaining pieces of the puzzle of Breanna’s problem and how I could both explain it (and hide parts of it) fell into place. I was so startled when it all clicked I actually went hip first into the new rockery and landed on some solid chunks of local red sandstone – Ouch! The bruises were impressive, though!
Ties that Bond in Gretna Green was the easiest because the entire book was just like one of those old Peanuts cartoon strips in my head.
The issue with Red and Yellow is that these two books fit quite tightly together, which made it harder to write either of them. After the mess of the unintended cliffhanger, I couldn’t afford to delay getting Code Yellow published 🤦♀️
I needed some way to see both books at the same time.
I wanted to compare the linked parts of the plots and SEE exactly how they fitted together.
When all else fails, why not create a DNA double helix in glass beads?!
I’d like to apologise to any Beaders who might read this. Yes, I know what I did and I’m sorry. It’s a travesty. 🤦♀️
But on the other hand, when I twisted the copper wire to make it a double helix, it allowed me to check all my plot points … so … Beading for the win 😂
The dominant colours relate to the book/realm involved. So you’ll see plenty of red and yellow beads. But while the Red and Yellow realms are the focus of the books, there are also minor diversions, and they represent the other realms. The more interestingly shaped beads are for the more important plot points or significant characters.
Depending on how well you know the books, and how loose your connection to reality is, you could probably match them all up yourself. If you did this (and I don’t recommend it unless you have all the time in the world), you might be puzzled why some quirky beads appear in places that don’t seem to have any special relevance to anything … but remember, the series isn’t complete yet and I’ve hidden all sorts in plain sight. 😈
The Books
Seeing Red in Gretna Green and Code Yellow in Gretna Green are books 4 and 5 of the Midlife Recorder Series. Click here for a full reading order.
They are available on Amazon in ebook and paperback now.
Seeing Red in Gretna Green on Amazon
Code Yellow in Gretna Green on Amazon
What’s your opinion?
Have you ever used an item, not for its intended purpose, to help you work through a problem?
Feel free to share your thoughts with us all in the comments.
Want more Behind the Books?
This is only a single part of the Behind the Books series. You can find the main index page here
Leave a Reply