Tell everyone, then you’re committed

Ever since the very first person read “Fatal Forgery”, I have heard the same question: “Are you writing another Sam Plank adventure?”  This is very flattering and encouraging, of course, but it does need an answer.  At first I flannelled and fudged; maybe, I said, or do you think I should?  But that’s just giving myself wriggle room, when the plain truth is that I really do want to write another one.  While writing “Fatal Forgery” I committed the usual sin of falling in love with my own hero – not in romantic love, as I’m not sure I could cope with being (his wife) Martha, but I just like him so much that I miss him when he is not around.

So now I have taken a new tack: when anyone asks about the next adventure, I tell them that yes, there will be another, and moreover that I have already started writing it.  And so now I feel fraudulent if I don’t carry on writing – and I learnt last time that doing pretty flowcharts of the plot (in several colours, and multiple versions) and tootling around the library picking up other people’s books about police history or the Regency period is NOT the same as actually writing, which takes away my other hiding places.  So if you’re looking for a way to motivate yourself, tell others what you are doing – use the present tense, and then you’re committed.  As they say, my mama didn’t raise no liars – and I’m sure yours didn’t either.