K.I.S.S.

As regular visitors will know, I have a new novella in the pipeline that is not a romantic suspense. It has been there for much longer than was ever intended. The pipeline is most of the way to Australia by now, but... life happens.

I am trying hard to get a new romantic suspense off the starting blocks - not for want of ideas, just want of time and perhaps more important, concentration. But I am getting there. I think.

I keep telling myself that as long as it is romantic suspense it doesn't have to be a full length book. It could be another novella - a K.I.S.S project to get me on the wavelength again.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Simple, scary, sexy and maybe short - or as long as it wants to be. What more do you need? But it ain't happening.

I don't know whether it is just the way my mind works - I suspect that it is - but I can't do simple.  I have the plot arc - you can't go wrong with a serial killer and a heroine in danger. But then there is the heroine. And the hero. And the first thing I ask the pair of them when they wander out of the mist (in this case a sea mist - did I mention the setting was the Welsh coast?) is 'What's your problem?' Because they have to have issues, or they're not interesting. And if they don't interest me then they certainly won't interest you. So they both have arcs. Which will probably intersect at some point. This is beginning to sound like a geometry lesson. In school I used to like geometry. Not that I can remember any of it now. Then there's the villain's arc. I know his problem - he's an evil serial killer, but he still has to develop over the course of the story. And then I had an idea for another character, who will make the thing more 'interesting'. And I want to  introduce a few of the hero's friends, who are nagging for their own stories in due course.

At least I have an idea what the setting looks like. 

And then there's the partly fictionalised setting, based on the area where I live, and some research involving folklore and Celtic myths. Which reminds me I need to research somewhere suitable in London  to leave a body  ... you see what I mean? I can't do simple how ever hard I intend to.

I'm just going to have to do the best I can to unravel all that lot. At least my mind is working. Overtime, as far as I can tell. I really do want to make this work.

I'll keep you posted.