I googled then sifted the results, gathered reports, opinions, financial data  (from the sycophantic [...]]]> Two years ago, I wrote a post on research, setting out five steps to getting a best result. During the past two weeks, I’ve been following that same methodology to assess service suppliers and have narrowed my search to two possibilities.

I googled then sifted the results, gathered reports, opinions, financial data  (from the sycophantic to the ranting) and filed the source URLs of the most valuable. (Note to self and others: never, ever fail to copy the URL to somewhere safe. You will forget the site name and you won’t be able to find it again. And you’ll kick yourself raw.  Emailing it you yourself is pretty solid.)

But then you have to get down to the dirty stuff.

I used the net to dig out clients of the two suppliers and then wrote to them in confidence. If you do this, you have to keep that promise. Whatever the temptation. You cannot blat out what you have been told all over the web. Well, you could, but you mustn’t.

Why? Because one day, when you have become the Great Wise One, somebody might do it to you.

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So, book4. Yes, I’m acquainted with the main character and I want to tell her story. But that’s it. I need to let her [...]]]> Now I’ve finished the first run through of edits on book3, I’ve finished my heroine’s story. I’ll leave her for 6-8 weeks at least until I even glance at her again.

So, book4. Yes, I’m acquainted with the main character and I want to tell her story. But that’s it. I need to let her run around in my head a bit, to have some adventures, get into trouble, struggle to get out, land in more – you know the rest. More than anything, I have to get to know her, to find out what she wants, what’s stopping her, what she has to do, or GMC, as creative tutors call it.*

My way of doing this is to write down 30 lines of plot. Less an outline, more of a wireframe as I like the 3D analogy better.

Line 1: The beginning – the initiating incident
Line 2: Impact and realisation
Line 3: The plan
Line 6: First enormous set-back (turning point 1)
Line 15: First glimmer of light (turning point 2)
Line 21: Gritting on in face of terrible odds and sacrifice (turning point 3)
Line 25: Despite developments, we might be getting there – the false dawn
Line 28: Catastrophe/black moment – do or die
Line 30: The end – the resolution and loose-end-tying-up

Not all there, but you get the idea.

Off now to fill in the missing lines and to release the muse…

Picture: My photo taken in the Naples Archeological Museum. More here

*Goal, Motivation, Conflict

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I’ve lived with my heroine [...]]]> I didn’t know I’d feel so bereft. Now I’ve done the first run edits on fiction book3, the last in the trilogy, I’ve finished my heroine’s  story. No, really finished. After the relief of completing the red-pen exercise, sadness crept up on me and now has me in its grip.

I’ve lived with my heroine for two and a half years, written over 300,000 words about her, sweated hours over her adventures, her troubles, her victories, her fears, her doubts, her joy. It’s like I’ve lost a dear friend, a small death.

Now I have to pick myself up, stop wimping and get on with the next book.  It’s a spin-off, the story of one of the secondary characters. Once I have my 30-line outline and set my brain to thinking while I sort the airing cupboard, wash up or dust the furniture, I’ll be off. We will glimpse my heroine, but only as a small child. Or perhaps I’ll sneak her in somewhere else…

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Over the three years I accumulated and read every book I could find on the subject, I [...]]]> A lovely person who bought my non-fiction history ebook  Military or Civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War was (in her words) blown away by the resources I had collected.

Over the three years I accumulated and read every book I could find on the subject, I merely added each one to the list after finishing it and went searching for the next one.

Maybe we don’t give ourseves enough credit for the research we do, whether writing historic and alternate historic fiction, historical biography or traditional history.

If you haven’t downloaded Military or Civilians? yet, here’s the  resource list, or more properly, the bibliography.  But most of it’s in German. If you want to othe untold story of 500,000 women in the Second World War, you’ll have to buy my book!

Military or Civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War is available as an ebook on amazon.co.uk (link below in box), amazon.com, amazon.de

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