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books I wanted a rest from police procedure so wrote a stand-alone for the first time in years. And since I intended to limit police presence to the minimum, it had to involve a cold case that wouldn’t tread on their toes, a past murder in the family that had never been solved. Families fascinate me, the dynamics between the different members, the tensions and unsuspected jealousies.

      After this book I wrote another stand-alone, but when I embarked on what was intended to be a third, I began to miss the comfortable familiarity of a series and decided to expand it into a new one, which became the first of the Rona Parish books. I didn’t want to return to police themes – in any case forensics had moved on in the past couple of years and I was out of date – but I wanted my protagonist to have a legitimate reason for repeatedly coming up against crime, so I made her a journalist and biographer. Both these seemingly harmless occupations led her, over the course of ten books, into considerable danger.

      I have continued to slot stand-alones in between the series books. There’s a sense of freedom in being able to visit an entirely different location with totally new characters who will obligingly tidy up their problems within the covers of that one book.

      A perennial question every writer faces is ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ They can, of course, come from anywhere – a snippet in the newspaper, an overheard conversation – and don’t discount dreams! I dreamed the idea for one novel and several short stories, so I keep a notebook and pen by my bed and make a quick note of any that might be useful before they fade.

      If the title comes to mind first, that’s a great advantage and points you in the right direction. There are various ways of choosing a suitable title. I occasionally use quotes – and was berated by no fewer than three fellow crime writers for choosing A Necessary End, when their own books, also under that title, were still at the proof stage.

      The title of Whistler’s Lane, one of the paranormal novels, actually evolved from looking at the portrait of Whistler’s Mother, when I toyed with the fantasy that the whistler referred to was not a proper name. Ghostly figures in a dark countryside came to mind, and the plot developed from there. Another time I heard someone on the radio refer to a Macbeth prophecy, i.e. a self-fulfilling one, and filed it away for future use.

      In terms of choosing titles, my easiest ride was with the Green Grow the Rushes series. The song itself has appeared in many forms in ancient and modern languages from Hebrew onwards, and the first time it was written down in English was in 1625. Whatever the original meaning of the verses – and they’ve become distorted over the years, like a game of Chinese Whispers – I’ve always thought they were most evocative. Who were the April Rainers, the Nine Bright Shiners, the Lily-White Boys?

      I’d originally intended to use two at most, but as I wrote, more ideas offered, until I realized I’d have to use them all. They weren’t written in order, but as ideas presented themselves. It was pure chance that the final three were Ten, Eleven and Twelve, and I have to admit Eleven that Went Up to Heaven was quite a challenge! Short of killing off an entire cricket side, it took me some time to come up with a hopefully convincing mass murder.

      I used to plan my books meticulously, knowing how far the plot would progress in every chapter, though obviously changes were made as I went along. (In one case an old lady was due to be murdered, but I became fond of her so I spared her and killed someone else!) Then the time came when I was in such a hurry to start writing that I couldn’t be bothered planning and jumped straight in, pushing the plot ahead of me chapter by chapter. It all worked out in the end, and that is basically the way I write now – a rough idea of what’s going to happen, but letting the details emerge as I go along. Unlike most of my fellow writers, I never do drafts. I prefer to stick to the original, though since I can’t read a page without making alterations, it will inevitably have changed considerably by the time I reach the end.

      It has been said that writing is 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration, and certainly it’s no good sitting back and waiting till you feel in the mood. If inspiration doesn’t come, I write anything, however unsatisfactory, like working in a new biro. Then, when the flow is re-established, I go back and polish it. And I always try to stop for the day at an interesting point, which will give me the impetus to get going the following day.

Putting Murder on the Page

       Ann Granger

      ‘How do you write a book?’ an earnest woman once asked me. I gave the usual reply: plots, characters, etc. A puzzled frown appeared on her brow. ‘No,’ she said, ‘I meant, how can you put it all together?’ She mimed writing with a pen.

      I had been expecting the often-asked ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ But she wasn’t worried about that. I realized she thought of ‘a book’ as a sort of mental Meccano structure. Perhaps, in some ways, it is. But I confess that, at the time, I was stumped as to how to reply in a single sentence.

      Writing crime fiction is a slippery subject to pin down. No two writers go about it in the same way. How can we? The books themselves vary so much. One of the attractions of writing mystery/crime has always been, for me, that it is an umbrella covering such a variety of topics, interests, historical periods, and so on.

      So, once our thought processes start jogging along, what happens next? Our books are all different. We are all different. We work in different ways.

      The only explanation that I can give as to how write a book is to say that it begins by growing in my mind. That does sound rather uncomfortable, if not downright dangerous. But what starts as a germ of a plot with its characters, theme, and so forth does finally threaten to take over and exclude all else. So discipline is very important. Be in charge of the book and don’t let the book become your master.

      I must add that writers tend to think a lot before they write anything. Some people might go for long walks, in order to be undisturbed when working out ideas or seeking the right turn of phrase. I’ve been told the poet Wordsworth (though not, of course, a crime writer) used this method, rushing back home to write down the resulting verse before he forgot it again. I’ve had some brilliant ideas in the middle of the night and forgotten them by morning. Or I’ve switched on the light and jotted them down, only to be disappointed when reading the scrawl by the cold light of day. Agatha Christie recommended doing the washing-up as a way of concentrating the mind. Or perhaps the creative activity takes place while staring into space – my own specialty.

      There is no guarantee some brilliant idea will come to mind. But, like Mr Micawber, I hope something will turn up.

      I have heard of writers who produce a minimum number of words each and every day, come rain or shine. If that is what works for them, excellent. It wouldn’t work for me. I should probably begin each day by binning every word I’d written the previous one.

      There are the meticulous planners, whom I admire greatly but couldn’t emulate. There are others who sketch out a plot in general terms, perhaps under headings. Then there are those who know where the starting point is and can see the finishing post in the distance, but don’t know exactly how they are going to get there and so scramble over the obstacles as they go along, in a sort of literary Grand National course.

      I start by jotting down a few general notes. I have a location in mind and a set of characters. I work on the principle that if a development in the plot comes as a surprise to me, then, with any luck, it will surprise the reader. I do know the identity of the victim when I begin, and I know the identity of the murderer. If you have created distinctive characters they will helpfully make their own contribution to the mix. ‘Distinctive’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘odd’. A few odd characters are nice, but a complete cast of oddities is confusing. Nor is it enough for a character simply to be eccentric. There has to be some