Having written last week’s story “If, Never”, I started reading it through for the final proof, and wondered not only why Jenkins was murdered, but how. And so the idea of writing the story again, this time from the view of the murderer, started to take shape in my head.
It was actually easier to write this one than the original story, as I had the outline already written. I came up with most of the major plot points over the week, but during the actual writing on Friday and Saturday, I had to be careful to make sure that the dialogue matched exactly between the two, although the reactions to the same dialogue across the two stories are quite different, which was fun.
My big question was how the trick was achieved, how they deceived Carson enough to be able to use him as a fall guy for their crime. Even if he didn’t seem to be unhinged enough to commit the crime, the fake blood was designed to make it look like he was thinking about murder
One of the things that surprised me is that I seem to find it easier now to write fiction in the present tense. Having written my first story in present tense a couple of weeks ago, I tried to write this one in the past tense again and was shocked to find that it just didn’t feel as expressive as the present tense any more. If anything, it felt restrictive. So, weirdly, something that felt alien and difficult two weeks ago now feels more normal than the way I’ve been writing for most of my life, which feels odd.
Anyway, the questions that remain to be resolved are few: what mistakes Francesca and Kevin have made in the commission of their otherwise perfect crime are about to be exposed. Because there’s still the main question: who was blackmailing them?
The post “Behind The Scenes: Jenkins Is The Problem” first appeared on simoncollis.com and is Copyright © Simon Collis 2018. All rights reserved.