DEADLY WRITING

The Common Murders:

Over many years I toiled with the idea of writing a murder-mystery novel. However, due to my busy work schedule, I never found the time. That is, until I was recovering from the effects of breast cancer treatment. Then, having the time to write, I began my first novel.
Writing became therapeutic. It disassociated me from the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and focused my mind on what I had to do. Research was my main challenge at first. Not just the research about the subject area I had chosen, but how to write a novel. Once I’d achieved this, I developed a plan. Deciding to steer away from the stereotypical white male detective as my main protagonist, I decided on an Asian female, Superintendent Cadema Sharma. Building up her character, with her many issues at work and in her private life, meant that I could follow her life’s ups and downs through this first book. Using the same detective team, headed by Cadema, I subsequently wrote a second book. I am now researching for my third book in the series.    

The Autumn Murders: (fact versus fiction)

Over many years  I became interested in non-fiction cereal killers and why they murderd people. One of these was the Whitechapel murderer, known as Jack the Ripper. However, having no time to write, I shelved my interest in these murders, that is, until I was given a framed copy of the Illustrated Police News dated 1888. 
Finishing my first book, The Common Murders, It was time to start my second novel. In this, I deployed my detective team to re-investigate the Belton case. While doing so, D.S. Marriott would discover a wooden trunk in the police archives containing a blooded dress and police notebooks suggesting that they were linked to the Whitechapel murders. 

With the 130th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders approaching, this was the ideal opportunity for me to  consolidate my interests and investigate the murders in my second book. Here, I aimed discover where in the world lay the remains of Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper, is dead. We all know this. So why does he, if he was a he,* still stalk my mind one hundred and thirty years after he stalked the streets of the East End of London? Why are we always on a mission to discover who he was and why he murdered and mutilated those unfortunate women in 1888?  Where, in all our questions, does fact mutate on a spectrum into fiction? And why do we try to discover the truth when it has been hiding, like Jack himself, for such a long time? 

To answer these questions, I needed to examine the facts. The fundamental question is how many murders did he  commit? The consensus is five. 
There are tangible theories, that is if theories can be tangible. But to discover them I needed to draw a line between fact and fiction. I decided that facts must be correct to the best of my cognitive reasoning and interpretation after researching the available resources. 
I drew a spectrum. On the left, facts are the colour of blood, arterial, pulsing and alive. Fiction, on the right of this spectrum, is as dark as the veins of death. In-between there is a murky bubbling cauldron betwixt pure knowledge, speculation and probability. I submerged myself into this cauldron, examined the facts, speculations and the probabilities related to the Whitechapel murders and then assimilated them into fiction.  
 (* the male gender is here) 

Using the same detective team, headed by Superintendent Cadema Sharma, I am now researching my third novel in the series.    

Questions I’ve been asked:

1. Why do you write?

I enjoy reading, as many other people do, to escape from every-day life, to learn something new, to belong to another world, to feel the ups and downs of characters, and to indulge when I have the time. I write to meet people’s expectations and offer experiences of something different. I enjoy the challenge of focusing on specific areas to research, contacting professionals in the genre and visiting the places I am writing about. This enables me to enhance my knowledge and to authenticate the content of my novels. 

2. Why did I choose to write crime fiction?

I have an innate interest in discovering why people commit murder, where this originates from, I have no idea. With my interest in research, criminology, and forensics, I studied true crimes as a background for my first novel. Attending editing courses augmented my knowledge and enthusiasm to focus on this goal. With an interest in serial killers, my dreams and nightmares, current social and political issues, and media subjects all trigger off divergent thought processes until I am so overwhelmed that I must write about them.    

3. Why have I chosen an Asian woman as the main protagonist; SIO?

Women are underrepresented in crime fiction, both as the perpetrator and as senior detectives leading murder investigations. It is even rarer to see Asian women in these roles. I decided to stay clear of the male stereotypical SIO as my main protagonist. Instead, I chose a mainly tea total superintendent, who does not indulge in the decadent trivialities of her team. And, despite having issues of her own, is strong enough to manage her team and solve many complicated and convoluted murders cases.    

4. When do you write?

Instead of sitting from 9 to 5 at my office desk, I tend to wake in the middle of the night and write what I am thinking, planning and scheming, before returning to bed. The next time I it down to write it seems, as if by magic, the fairies have written what I intended to say. 
My answer to this question is that I write when I can. When I have the time. And when I cannot find the switch that turns off the cognitive function of my brain that prevents me from sleeping.   

5. How do you write a novel?

Planning and research are my key elements to writing a novel. Before planning, I read around the subject, make notes and identify sources and reference them correctly as they may need to be quoted or referred to in the text. Referencing correctly is a must to avoid plagiarism. 
My plan includes dates when I am likely to start and the number of words I intend to achieve in a given time frame. Timelines are also important in avoiding spatial errors overt time. For example, if the scene is set in the Autumn, and continues into the next year, I mustn’t forget about Christmas, or other festivities that may affect the characters. However, my plans are flexible so that, if more research is needed on a subject, then this is achievable before moving on.  

6. Why write about crimes in London when you live in the Midlands?

Having set out to London some years ago, a bit like Dick Wittington, to find fortunes and to follow my dreams, instead I became homeless. Eventually finding accommodation in the East End, Cable Street, to be exact, I had the opportunity to experience how people lived there. Here, many lived in tenements from the Victorian era. Some families lived in one room with six children and only one double bed, without appropriate protection from the cold and drafts. The only place to cook food was on a couple of gas burners that was perched outside on the stairway of the metal fire-escape where the water tap was. In the yard, a couple of toilets were available. Always occupied – the stench overwhelming. 
When needing a bath, residents had to use the public bath-house. There, for a shilling (five pence now) or two, they could indulge themselves in an enormous bath-tub one or twice a month, when they had the money to do so. 
These were the environments where the victims in my second novel would have lived. And no doubt that the doss-houses they frequented were far worse than this. Thankfully these dwellings have all been demolished. 
Although my experiences of the East End were temporary, they left a lasting impression on me. Within a few weeks, I had moved from that area and settled in Enfield, North London. Having moved again, I spent a short time in Kingston upon Thames, and have visited London, through work and pleasure over the years. Therefore, I have developed an affinity for London and decided to base my detective team there. 

7. How did you get published?

As most writers appear to do, I sent off a covering letter, a synopsis and the first three chapters of my first novel to literary agents. Having received six refusals, some wishing me good luck, I decided to keep going. The last one I received, was very positive about my script. He said it was good, but that he was too busy to take on any more authors at that time. This, although disappointing, was encouraging enough to let me know that I wasn’t wasting my time. 
Instead of sending my manuscript for the first book again, I decided to start on my second one. Half-way though this, I met my first publisher at the writing group where I was a member. She, being a published author, asked to see the manuscript for my first book, The Common Murders. As a small publisher, she decided to publish it. 
By the time I had completed my second book, The Autumn Murders, my publisher decided to retire. Before doing so, she volunteered to edit the manuscript. I knew it would not be easy to find another publisher, as most prefer to start with an author at the beginning, however after one rejection, my novel was accepted by another publisher. Following this, I had two sets of editing for the one manuscript. Comparing the two edits, and making appropriate changes, it was finally published.  

8. What advice would you give to writers?

It is often said, write what you know. Having never murdered anyone, this advice is unhelpful to me as a crime writer where murders are inevitable in my novels. Instead, I believe you should write what you are interested in. If you have a passion for a specific subject area, all you need to do is research and read copiously until you are saturated with the subject. When this occurs, you know you are ready to write your short story or novel. 
This is when you make your writing plan. It should be as detailed as possible, with target word counts that you want to achieve. Achieve, is the main word here. Your plan should be as realistic as possible, but also be achievable. That is, it must fit in with your busy life and not take over to the detriment of everything else. If an unexpected life event occurs, then your plan should be flexible enough for you to take a break, and easy to return to, once the event has been dealt with. 
During the process of writing, you may find that you need to research something in more depth, to obtain the finer details. That’s fine, but make sure that you don’t get distracted by other subjects that sound interesting but are irrelevant to your work. 
Some of the information you have gained will not be included your story but stored for reference purposes. If you include all the research you have done, your novel will be more like an academic piece of work, rather than fiction. All that you need to do is to weave in the facts as appropriate. One of the best ways to do this is through dialogue. But take care with this, as you don’t want it to sound contrived. A few facts here and there, out of dialogue, is also okay. And remember, where possible, show don’t tell. 
An example of using facts without dialogue would be to let your character describe a real place as he or she experiences it. Use all the senses, what do they see, what do they here, are there specific smells. 
While one of my characters was waiting at a dawn stakeout. A spider ran up her leg. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. Think of how you might write this scene without dialogue. The all-knowing, all-seeing: the omniscient point of view. 

9. Researching:

All researchers know that it is easy to be distracted with items/issues that are nice to know about rather than things that must be known. To avoid distractions, I developed a list that were a must for my writing for each book. The list was comprehensive, but also flexible so that, if I came across an issue while writing, I could add it to the list and research it as appropriate. 
Having done a degree in the past, I was aware that it is best to identify and use primary sources where possible. Primary sources include original documents, government archives, Acts of Parliament and statutory instruments, the National Archives, statements from people, artefacts from museums and visiting places, for example old prisons and living museums. 
For my second book, the primary sources I used included the Black Country Museum, based in Dudley in the West Midlands, old newspapers, shipping documents from the National Maritime museum, London and the Crime Museum, London. These items were relevant as background information to help me understand the times and places people would have experienced. The details of these were used sparingly in my books. 

10. Characterisation:

As I sit drinking a cup of coffee in a busy café, or travel on a train, I people watch and listen. Noting their idiosyncrasies, their mannerisms, their attitude to 
surroundings and to the people they are with, I make mental or physical notes. This helps me to invent and write characters that are genuine, believable and acceptable to the reader in their chosen genre. 
My team of detectives come from many social and ethnic backgrounds. They have lives beyond their roles in the novels. Their behaviour or their background sometimes detrimentally effect their work and social relationships.
Some have exaggerated characteristics that in real life would be most probably be subdued. Many are likable, while others are just evil and take me to levels, some of which I do not really want to go. Nevertheless, I usually give them freedom to do this because of the plots, while sometimes holding the reins tighter than they would like me to do. 
As you can see from what I have just written, characters are real people, living in the time frame, and the situation, I have created for them. They must survive, react and move the story on. 
As a caution here, I never invent characters from the people I know. But I must admit that I did include myself as a character in my first novel. But this was exceptional, and I felt necessary, to do so.

11. Conclusion:

I hoped you found this interesting and helpful. If you would like to leave a message on my blog, or as an email, I will be delighted to hear from you.
In the past I have given talks to various groups, including the WI, retired health care professionals, and various local groups. If you would like me to give a talk to your group, please get in touch.
In the meantime, happy reading and sleep well…

S J Ridgway
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