THE BONES OF CHAPTER THREE

Chapter Three has begun but I haven't posted it because there's more work to do before I can call a first draft finished. It follows the (now improved chapter two) argument between Lou and her ex Neil, who asks for her help, and it revisits the running girl whose desperate bid for freedom opens the book, and who we later learn is Jo - the sister of Lou's love rival Jacqui.

We see Jo waking up to find herself back where she started, wanting to be defiant and not give in, but overwhelmed with complete despair. I'm trying to get inside her head so the chapter is filled with all that convoluted stuff as I work my way in to the crux of her dilemma.

There are some clues as to why she is there but I'm not sure yet how much I want to reveal about that. As I explained in the post below, it's still important to get it down and then I can think about where in the book I want to get it out.

I want readers to know Jo's alive but I also want them to feel her fear and sense of lost hope that she isn't going to escape from this. Jo is strong, so she won't give up easily in her fight for life, but I only want to give bits of the picture and build up the danger for Jo so the reader fears for her throughout the book as my flawed heroine Lou stumbles her way to solving the mystery.

Lou finds the old murders that have started again after a 10 year break, of mutilated women killed in their own fire ravaged homes, is relevant to Jo's disappearance. By following the plot thread from one end, Lou will take the reader to the other end of the book and find out whodunnit and why. Those things I know but what I don't know yet is how my characters will react to the journey ahead of them in finding that out too. Today's writing has been an exercise in testing what I have in store for Jo and what characteristics she needs to cope with that.

Real work beckons tomorrow and Friday so time for writing will no doubt be brief. My busy period is about to begin so I need a new writing routine. When I studied for my MA, I worked all day, came home, had tea and then worked all night. I think this book will take the same kind of dedication if I am to stick with it to the end and reach my June deadline but at least these skeletal chapters are helping me on the way.

Writing can be murder so it's no wonder that the crime genre fascinates me the most.