“Don’t get it right, get it written.”
CRIME AUTHORS SPILL THEIR GUTS ABOUT WRITING. Every fortnight topnotch authors of psychological thrillers and crime fiction share their writing secrets – and the secrets to their success – with you and me.
This week: NICKY BLACK, aka crime-writing duo Nicky Doherty and Julie Blackie, authors of The Prodigy.
Tell us about yourself…
Nicky Black is a combination of me, Nicky Doherty, and my friend, Julie Blackie. Julie
wrote The Prodigal as a TV script for ITV some sixteen years ago. It didn’t get green lit in the end and a few years ago, I asked Julie if I could adapt it into a novel. She agreed, and here we are. Julie is from Newcastle and I’m a Northumbrian (basically a posh Geordie), but I spent many years working on run down council estates just like Valley Park throughout the nineties. I live in London now, and have a job as a director of a Social Enterprise. I write in my spare time, though that’s proving difficult and I’m considering my options right now (#watchthisspace).
How do you go about plotting your book?
I have been lucky with The Prodigal (and the next book, Heads) to have Julie’s scripts to work from. So there is a plot structure there already. But just as a film or TV adaptation of a novel cuts out story, minor characters (and often their characteristics and motivations), I do the reverse and write it back in. I am a planner. I create … TO READ INTERVIEW IN FULL, CLICK HERE
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