My Poirot parody for Captain Hastings’ fans everywhere – Hide & Seek – approaches the climax of the traditional ‘big reveal’ and before writing the final post I thought it might be a good idea to read through all the chapters first. Having made great efforts to place clues and red herrings all the way through, I didn’t want to miss out any when the great Belgian detective announces his verdict. As it happens, this turned out to be a very good idea. Not only had I forgotten some rather crucial elements of the story, I had also completely omitted all trace of one of the characters who was lined up as a possible suspect early on.
The big risk you take with blogging a story – especially something complex like a murder mystery – is you don’t get the opportunity to go back and amend mistakes, fill in plot holes or (in my case) revive neglected characters. What you are essentially presenting to the world is the first draft of something that might, one day, be a fully-fledged work of literature. Obviously, this is not going to happen with this series as the Agatha Christie Estate might get the pip about it. In fact, they would almost certainly get the pip. Which is a great shame as I enjoy writing Poirot adventures immensely. Had it not been for the fact I am supposed to be writing my own book, I might very well take Hide & Seek (and Never A Cross Word, for that matter) and polish it up into novel-worthy shape. I cannot deny that Poirot has rather hampered progress on the next PorterGirl novel, but it has not been an entirely unproductive summer. In fact, Poirot and his little grey cells have been of great service.
PorterGirl – The Vanishing Lord was published in June and I began the next novel, Sinister Dexter, within hours of its release. Whilst it was great to get a sketchy draft down while things were still fresh, it doesn’t hurt to have a break between books to ‘rest’ the characters for a little while. I would be in danger of writing something that had become a parody of itself otherwise.
Writing Poirot makes me a better writer. It is quite the responsibility to take charge of such acclaimed characters and anything less that my absolute best would be an insult. I wrote Never A Cross Word in between books and it definitely improved my writing. This time around, I wrote against type of my usual characters. There were several genuinely unpleasant characters and the nicest ones were killed off. I learned that everyone loves a villain (especially ones that get their comeuppance) and that it’s alright to break readers’ hearts once in a while.
Never mind characters having a rest, I got a bit of a rest. Doing one 1,000(ish) word post a week of fiction is a huge drop in output for me and, with my life getting increasingly busier and spread between Cambridge and London, it has been good to take off the pressure. Since June 2015, when the self-published Secret Diary Of PorterGirl was released, things have been quite brisk. By the end of 2015 I had been picked up by a publisher and First Lady Of The Keys came out in September 2016. Between then and now I have written two Poirot parodies, launched Who Shot Tony Blair? and published The Vanishing Lord, as well as appearing in horror anthology The Box Under The Bed. That is a rather respectable offering. But it is rather tiring as I do actually have a real life as well.
So I find myself well rested, well trained and at the pique of writing prowess to get on and finish Sinister Dexter. It was hoped that it would be out by the end of this year, but that seems unlikely to me. Early next year is much more realistic. I’ve got this to swot up for, after all…
2018 was planned to be a quieter year but I already have three projects aside from PorterGirl lined up, so that also seems unlikely. Then again, there is little I like more than the unlikely, so perhaps this could be a marvellous thing after all.
Lucy Brazier 
I think your writing of this Poirot has evolved quite a lot as it has progressed – at first you were really doing a parody, but it became more serious as it went along, I felt. Which is a good thing! I can see that you can’t publish it as Poirot and Hastings, but maybe next time you should have a detective and a sidekick of your own creation but stick with the whodunit golden age format? No harm in having another string to your bow…
Oh, I also meant to say I’m looking forward to seeing if the third PorterGirl book is different by not having been done as blog episodes first…
The next PG is very loosely based on the Smoke & Mirrors series from the blog, but you’re right, it will be very different. I hope you will be able to see the progression – hopefully in a good way!
Thank you, FF, that means a lot, especially coming from such a seasoned reader as yourself! I feel that eventually I absolutely will go down the golden age route and I am starting to feel so comfortable writing in this style. What I don’t yet have is my own detective and sidekick characters, which I need to think about carefully so I don’t end up writing shades of Poirot and Hastings. I have no doubt that they will come, in their own time. This could become my strongest genre, with a bit more practice and patience 🙂
Well, I’m glad to hear that, because I think it suits your style too, and (only my opinion) I wondered if it would work better without the direct humour – I know your bloggies expect humour at the moment, but I suspect you could write an excellent serious whodunit…
I don’t think I’ve expressed that very well – what I mean is I’d tend to not have them have funny names like Bottomclutch – let the humour live subtly in the dialogue or the observation, a la Ms Christie et al… I’ll shut up and go away now. 😀
Haha – I knew what you meant! I agree, for a ‘proper’ golden age whodunit the humour would be much more subtle and, as you say, come through in dialogue and observations. The blog has a certain comical leaning to it that is fun for both me and the readers and doesn’t take itself too seriously. But soon I think I will be ready to make a move to something with a little more depth – although I’ll never be able to do away with humour altogether, obviously!
Thank you for your comments, I really do respect your opinion and this gives me the little push I need to start developing my style. Just needed to build my confidence a bit but I think I could be well be up to having a crack at a proper murder mystery 🙂
I shall put it on pre-order… 😀
Bless you – you will be the first to know when I start writing it!
It is so good to see how things are going with you. You are going from strength to strength and then some. Well done you.
Thanks, Chris. I must say, I never imagined things would turn out the way they have, when I first started this blog. I feel very fortunate. If it were not for the encouragement and support of good people like yourself, none of this would be possible. I am forever grateful. If you ever find yourself in Cambridge, I owe you cake x