How did this novel come about?
I still find myself reflecting on that question. Writing has been something that I have always done in the background to my daily grind of employment. Since the early 1990’s, during my time in the Navy, I have felt the urge to scribble down sights, sounds, smells and the emotions of the events around me. Hoping that one day I would find the time to transform the chaotic words into an organised and completed manuscript.
My eleventh draft manuscript, The Leader Files; DELTA, came to me as an idea fragment. During my very first meditation session in Bali, I tried to clear my mind and in it popped. The fragment was simply; a guy who was confused about his memories during sleep. Was he sleepwalking, active dreaming or was it something else. He needed to understand the déjà vu memories. Before too long, the idea developed as I explored the world I was creating on the page.
I have since learnt that this method of storytelling is the Snowflake Method. Starting with a central idea then building out from it with more ideas; characters, plot, environment, scenes. Then keeping the branches of this snowflake growing until a full novel emerges. DELTA certainly wasn’t written A to Z; instead it evolved from a random scatter of ideas that were shifted and shaped until they eventually fell into the right order. A computer app called Scrivener helped me in this process. Once I had scenes, I could then develop them from ideas into sentences and then paragraphs. From there, I was able to split them into the chapters and blend the character reveals.
The bulk of the 100,000 words were achieved in just over two weeks. The time consuming and tougher task came next; self-editing. To make logical sense of all the pages was tougher than I anticipated. Ensuring the character reveals occurred in the right order after chopping and changing the fragments. Also; making sure my narrative didn’t change from first person to third person within the same scene
My protagonist, Phil Leader soon felt like a real person, who I could see and relate to. The world that I had created in The Leader Files, was getting bigger. The sequel GAMMA was already 40,000 words strong as DELTA went to print. Now as GAMMA has reached its final word count and is undergoing the editing process; the Leader Files world continues to grow. The more I build the world, the more questions that I find need to be explored and answered. An additional two books are already in draft and more are threatening to spill over, where will it stop.
The areas that I still need to develop are the advertising and sales funnels. I have this story that needs to find its audience. Maybe even one day find its way to the big screen! When I find the time; the other unfinished manuscripts will also be sent to the editors and to print. Id better get back to editing GAMMA.