SO. DAMN. CLOSE.

  State of Play – Autumn 2024

So, this happened. But before I give myself a high five, I need to say something, IT’S NOT FINISHED!

I have had some incredible help from the brilliant Angela C Nurse.

A few months ago, I was staring at a tangle of story threads. There was so much I wanted to tell, to say, but it had completely overwhelmed the story structure. It wasn’t flowing and there was too much going on.

The history of Prince of Wessex school, the wider South African landscape of the 1990s and Davey and the boys generated so many story ideas and I wanted to tell them all.

So what to do? Write a War and Peace-esque tome? Scrap all the arcs outside of the central story? No. The answer was simple, if daunting: This is a series.

Archimedean breakthrough that this was, it posed as many questions as it answered.

Mostly these were internal self-critical questions like: Does this tale really have three or even five books in it? Have I created an interesting enough world and characters? And do I have it in me? Do I have five books worth of ideas and if so, where am I going to find the time? Working full time as a specialist doctor in acute medicine, have two young children and being a world-class procrastinator don’t exactly align with all the work and time needed to write a series.

Here are the questions it answered and the freedom creating a series gave me:

• Move the history of the founding of the school to the second book.

• Further explore the story of the summa cum laude boy and Vic.

• Explore the boys’ journey as they go from 14 year old boys to 18 year old young men.

• Show the journey South Africa goes through from the ‘94 elections, through the world cup win in 95 and on into the difficult Mbeki years (look, this is not a book or series about politics or race or idealogy, yes it happens in the background, but this is world building, rather than centrally thematic).

But hey, scroll up and look at the picture: I wrote a book. Or, at this point, a book worth of words. Can I do that five times? I write slowly: 700-800 words an hour when I’m doing well.

4 books x 90 000 words = 360 000 words in the remaining books.

360 000/800 =   450 hours

Let's say I write 5 days a week (which I don’t, but I’m being optimistic) and about an hour per session. That’s 90 weeks, a little under two years. Then add 50% for editing time and cover design. Add it a time-cushion and we end up at three years.

Three years for five books? Piece of piss. I’d be more than happy with a book a year. That gives Netflix or Amazon plenty of time to engage in a bidding war for the TV and film rights.

UP next:

1. Finish the first draft.

2. Give it a rest in a drawer

3. Read through

4. Self-edit ONE – story structure

5. Self-edit TWO – place holders edit

6. Spelling and grammar

7. Send to Beta readers (fancy being one – drop me a line via the website)

8. Make any edits suggested by the beta readers

9. Send out to professional editor x 2

10. Put it up for sale

11. Sell enough to practice medicine part-time and write more.

12. …Repeat four more times…

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Check out the ‘Footsteps of Heroes’ playlist on Spotify. (click the cover)