A Writer's Tale

Second tip. Make “character notes.” Whether writing a small novel or a monstrosity, it’s a very good idea to keep a page of notes about each character. I don’t work out sketches of my characters in advance; I let them develop as I create them in the course of writing. But while I’m creating them, I take a few moments to jot down their hair color and style, their age (if it matters), what they’re wearing, and other details such as unusual traits or mannerisms. But here’s a trick don’t just make a note of each detail write down the number of the manuscript page on which it appears. That way, you’ll have an easy time finding it again. Later on, you may want to double-check what you wrote there, or even change it. Having the page number handy can save you a lot of time and frustration.

Third tip. Draw rough diagrams and maps of any settings that might be revisted later in the book. It’s very easy to forget the layout of a house or a neighborhood or a section of wilderness (where was that lake again?). Maps and diagrams can make your life easier. I suggest you do the drawings as you go along, based on what you’ve just written.

Fourth tip. Create a “log book” for your novel. This is something completely different from your working outline.” You should create the log book as you go along. It is your record of what you’ve written labeled by chapter and page numbers. Here is a sample of my “log book” for Quake.

PLOT

Chapt. 1 Stan pov. Earthquake hits. 8:20 a.m. Friday. June. Afterward, he murders his mother.

2 Clint pov. Quake hits. Runs from office. Car accident. He joins up with Mary Davis. They’ll drive together.

3 Barb & others at time of quake. Driver’s ed. Teacher heads downtown speeding dangerously.

4 p. 50. Stanley goes over and finds Sheila. They talk, but she is still covered & out of sight.

The purpose of the log book is to give you a quick reminder of what happened and where, and to provide an easy way for you to relocate passages that you may have written months earlier. It can be a major help.

Quake was published by Headline in January, 1995. It was chosen to be the main selection of World Book Club, which ordered 24,000 copies.

In the U.S., it was published by Thomas Dunne, St. Martin’s Press, in June, 1995. It was given no publicity by the publisher. A couple of copies ended up in some stores.

Other stores received no copies at all.

Like Savage and The Stake, Quake was a novel that “coulda been a contenda.” I feel that those three books in particular, treated properly by a publisher, would have sold extremely well in the U.S. I think they could have been bestsellers here, just as they were bestsellers in Great Britain.

Instead, they were flops in this country.

They never had a chance of selling in the U.S. because most readers never had a chance to find out that they existed. Even if I had done something to bring attention to the books, they had been printed in such limited quantities that interested readers would’ve had a terrible time finding a place to buy them.

Authors are always taking it on the chin.

But one of the worst blows of all is to write a book, sell it to a reputable publisher, wait for its publication date, then make the rounds of the bookstores and find that very few are carrying it or ever will.

After discovering that some of the major U.S. chain bookstores had ordered no copies whatsoever of Quake, I decided that I would no longer play the game.

I make enough money from the U.K. and the rest of the world that I don’t need money from America.

I don’t need it badly enough to put myself through the agonies involved in watching my novels get “thrown away” by one publisher after another.

Quake was my last novel to be published in the United States, and I intend for it to remain the last.

At least until a publisher makes me an offer I can’t refuse.

So far, that hasn’t happened.

ISLAND

I didn’t get started on Island until May 25, 1994, about two months after finishing Quake.

What led me to write Island?

I suppose that I’ve always had an urge to write about people who have been marooned on a tropical island. It’s a naturally great setup. The people are isolated. They are reduced to the basics of survival. And they are on their own with no easy way out.

On top of that, who knows what dangers may be lurking elsewhere on the island?

The problem, of course, is that almost everyone is familiar with Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver’s Travels, Lord of the Flies, “The Most Dangerous Game,” and Gilligan’s Island. Plus a ton of lesser-known books, short stories, movies and television shows about people who get stranded on islands and in other desolate areas.

Writing a “marooned” story is a bit like writing a vampire story. At first glance, it might seem that just about everything has already been done.