Crime authors spill their guts about writing…
This week: SE Lynes
Being a writer is a bit like having no skin. Feeling things intensely is something most writers have had to learn to live with and writing can help with that.
Tell us about yourself…
My name is Susie Lynes and I mostly write psychological thrillers as S E Lynes. I am married to Paul, who I met when I was eighteen and have three kids and a miniature schnauzer called Lola. I am originally from the north of England but settled near London after living in Scotland and Italy. To relax, I like reading and cooking for my family and my pals.
How do you go about plotting your book?
I have a central event, usually the inciting incident or the reversal and then I plot backwards and forwards from that, usually on one sheet of paper with an arc drawn across it. I try and think of a twist or two but often a better twist comes to me later on and, weirdly, there’s never too much in the way of backfitting it into the book … as if it was there all along dern dern derrrrrrrn. I hand write character notes, a few pages for each person – much of it doesn’t go in but it informs everything they say and do. The rest is in my head, no wonder my husband can’t get a word of sense out of me. The characterisation comes from what I need to happen and how I need the character to react, and that comes from their backstory, their childhood, their motivations. In my…[TO READ IN FULL, CLICK HERE]
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