The Trials Of A Crime Writer: Percolating Ideas

THE TRIALS OF A CRIME WRITER: PERCOLATING IDEAS

I've had a lot of time to think during the eight months I was off work following sepsis that almost killed me, and even then left me with some not so nice affect effects. While in hospital, though to be clear, I only have very vague memories of the last three days of my stay, and nothing of the ten days before that. But anyway, what I was able to spend my time, when I wasn't sleeping or the like, was percolating a whole bunch of ideas.

For those who don't know I took time away from drafting in the middle of 2024 to try and revisit other first drafts that I knew would need more work before we got to the editing cycle. It really helped me get those books into shape, but also allowed some of those ideas I'd had at other times to sprout up and go where they needed to. 

I didn't, at that time, have the ability to type, and because of everything that happened during the hospital stay, I wasn't yet at a point where I could be understood with voice notes. So all I was left with was hoping I remembered them when I got to a point where I could type them out. However, I will say that because they both completely gripped my thoughts, I did remember them fully, I had also, because I'd just let them ruminate around in the back of my mind, developed them to a point where I could probably have started drafting even without doing the minimal plan I usually do with drafting!

Being a writer, being an author, it's such a core part of myself. I know I've written a variety of genres, but I got my start in thriller/crime/mystery, and I adore that both of these new ideas fall into that genre. Crime writing has always interested me, but at the same time, I have always gone where the ideas take me. It feels fitting though that for my 49th and 50th books, I will, once again, be dipping back into where I started. I'd say it feels like coming full circle, but that, to me at least, sounds like I'm saying these will be the last new books I plan to write, and I don't think that's true.

I don't yet know when I will be able to get into drafting again. I'm hoping that next year, I will be in a place where I can, somewhat, juggling drafting with revision, but I just don't know at this point. Sometimes we have to put things off, and pick them up when we're able, and that's okay, that's both part of being a writer, an author, and also part of being chronically ill and disabled. 

I know I want to tell these stories, and so I will continue to feed them, to allow them to grow, to percolate them at the back of my mind, and wait for the time when they can be brought into the light and are able to fully exist, but until then, it helps me to know they are just there ready for me when I need them. 

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