This is the “Behind The Scenes” post for the story “Killing Christmas“. Please read the story first if you want to avoid spoilers…
I’ve had the idea of this one for ages – years, in fact. It originally came to me while living alone in a flat some years ago, and wondering what would happen if it were haunted. Would you fall in love with a ghost? Needless to say, the flat itself wasn’t haunted, but the idea stuck with me, until I felt I was finally ready to try writing it.
One of the things that I’m trying to do is to work out where the nub of the story is, and to arrive as late as I can in the story and tell the relevant parts as succinctly as possible. This isn’t my idea, but comes from the books of the recently departed William Goldman. It sounded sensible to me, and it’s advice that I’m trying to follow.
I could, I suppose, have made this into a novel, but the first part would be a romance. Then I’d have to have them finding someone who was dying – all of this I skip over here, in favour of trying to convey what’s happened for them.
I’m still trying to write first person, as well, because I find that I seem to be more effective that way. A certain cynicism doesn’t seem to hurt the writing, but it’s something I wanted to keep out of this one, as it didn’t fit.
In all, I don’t think this is too bad. I’ve written better this year, but with writing fifty-three stories in a year, they can’t all be the best.
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