I wrote the first draft of Nothing to Gain quite quickly – it took me about a month. When I finished I knew it needed a bit of work as it’s a romantic suspense and was definitely more romance than suspense. So I did a round of edits, clarified my characters some more and yet still something was missing. Something vitally important – a villain.
I had written a whole romantic suspense without a concrete bad guy – bad things happened, but they weren’t really connected. So this week I sat down and brainstormed who my villain could be.
It was so much fun!
I had a couple of options and the more I played around with them, the more I could see that one would be better than the other. So I took the character and I wrote his/her journal. It’s not a technique I’ve used before and I got it from How to Write A Damn Good Thriller by James N Frey. He suggests it’s a
good way to get into your villain’s head – and he was right. I spent about an hour while I was on the train writing from my villain’s point of view and it was delicious. I got to know him/her well and find out what made him/her tick (no spoilers here!). My only concern was that someone might be reading over my shoulder and think I was a complete psychopath! But I got off the train without being arrested. 🙂
So now I have my delicious villain I need to add in all of his/her hijinks. It will mean a couple of new scenes, and rewriting another few to make them stronger but that’s OK. I think it’s going to be fun causing mayhem and my story will be so much better for it.
I can’t wait!
