Rupert Colley's Blog
April 14, 2017
How 'The Sixth Man' came about
It’s strange how a new novel can materialise in a writer’s mind.
Most of the time, like most novelists, I have a nugget of an idea and a setting. Then I spend days, weeks, even months, nurturing and fleshing it out – the character arcs, the plot developments, sub-plots, etc.
But not so with my latest novel, The Sixth Man. I was sitting in the garden one sunny afternoon in August 2014, cup of tea in one hand, pen in the other, a pad of paper on my lap. I was about to write a shopping list. Then, out of nowhere, came this idea – six men in a prison in Nazi-occupied France.
So now, armed with this seed of an idea, I sketched out the whole plot – from beginning to end. Thirty minutes gone, tea finished, I had it all done.
My wife returned. The dog barked in excitement. ‘Have you done that shopping list?’ asked my wife, breezily.
‘Er, no, but I have plotted out a whole novel. Look,’ I said, handing over a sheet of paper.
I waited eagerly as she scanned it, waiting for her hearty approval.
‘Hmm, very nice, dear.’ OK, she may not have called me ‘dear’ but the tone implied it.
The following day, I re-read what I’d written and decided it was, if anything, too simple. Ideas shouldn’t come that easily. And so I filed this sheet of paper, with a faint smudge of a tea stain, and forgot about it.
And I really did forget about it. Never gave it another thought.
It was about two years later, when I was looking for something else, I came across it: ‘THE SIXTH MAN’ in capital letters along the top. Seeing it afresh made me think – well, why not. Just write it.
And I did. It’s a short novel, only about 53,000 words. Took me about a month to write the first draft. The novel gives equal space to each of the six men. Usually, when writing a novel, you put yourself in the mind of your protagonist and perhaps the antagonist. But here, there were six of them, all of them flawed in equal measure. It was an enjoyable experience.
So this is what it’s about… six Frenchmen in a German prison in a village somewhere in France: a doctor, postman, policeman, soldier, teacher and, most importantly, a priest. Having spent six months incarcerated, ‘this’ is their last night so they’re all feeling rather jolly. But then comes a development – a German train has been blown up by the resistance, five German soldiers killed. Therefore, in reprisal, five of these men will be executed the following day. They have to decide which five should face the firing squad and they have six hours, until dawn, to decide.
And that, essentially, is what the novel is about. We hear each of their sorry tales and none of them come out of it particularly well.
The Sixth Man was released April 2017.
If you get to read it, I hope you enjoy it.
See the trailer for The Sixth Man
Most of the time, like most novelists, I have a nugget of an idea and a setting. Then I spend days, weeks, even months, nurturing and fleshing it out – the character arcs, the plot developments, sub-plots, etc.
But not so with my latest novel, The Sixth Man. I was sitting in the garden one sunny afternoon in August 2014, cup of tea in one hand, pen in the other, a pad of paper on my lap. I was about to write a shopping list. Then, out of nowhere, came this idea – six men in a prison in Nazi-occupied France.
So now, armed with this seed of an idea, I sketched out the whole plot – from beginning to end. Thirty minutes gone, tea finished, I had it all done.
My wife returned. The dog barked in excitement. ‘Have you done that shopping list?’ asked my wife, breezily.
‘Er, no, but I have plotted out a whole novel. Look,’ I said, handing over a sheet of paper.
I waited eagerly as she scanned it, waiting for her hearty approval.
‘Hmm, very nice, dear.’ OK, she may not have called me ‘dear’ but the tone implied it.
The following day, I re-read what I’d written and decided it was, if anything, too simple. Ideas shouldn’t come that easily. And so I filed this sheet of paper, with a faint smudge of a tea stain, and forgot about it.
And I really did forget about it. Never gave it another thought.
It was about two years later, when I was looking for something else, I came across it: ‘THE SIXTH MAN’ in capital letters along the top. Seeing it afresh made me think – well, why not. Just write it.
And I did. It’s a short novel, only about 53,000 words. Took me about a month to write the first draft. The novel gives equal space to each of the six men. Usually, when writing a novel, you put yourself in the mind of your protagonist and perhaps the antagonist. But here, there were six of them, all of them flawed in equal measure. It was an enjoyable experience.
So this is what it’s about… six Frenchmen in a German prison in a village somewhere in France: a doctor, postman, policeman, soldier, teacher and, most importantly, a priest. Having spent six months incarcerated, ‘this’ is their last night so they’re all feeling rather jolly. But then comes a development – a German train has been blown up by the resistance, five German soldiers killed. Therefore, in reprisal, five of these men will be executed the following day. They have to decide which five should face the firing squad and they have six hours, until dawn, to decide.
And that, essentially, is what the novel is about. We hear each of their sorry tales and none of them come out of it particularly well.
The Sixth Man was released April 2017.
If you get to read it, I hope you enjoy it.
See the trailer for The Sixth Man
March 5, 2013
"My Brother the Enemy"
I've written ten history non-fiction titles for the "History In An Hour" series (http://www.historyinanhour.com); a series I started myself in 2009 before selling it on to HarperCollins. The series has done, and is doing, tremendously well. It now has several authors and currently 25 titles, of which 19 are available as downloadable audio. (The rest will follow as audio in April 2013).
But originally I started off writing novels. Having written three between 2002 and 2005, I then promptly left them to gather dust.
Almost a decade on, I decided to revisit them and, being able to pass judgement from a distance, thought they were good enough to revisit.
One of them, set during the dramatic Hungarian Revolution of 1956, was, I felt, too long and had too many lead characters. While, as in most novels, most characters meet, mingle and interact, there was one subplot where the characters never met any of the others. It was their tale, two brothers, twins, that I lifted and made into a stand-alone story.
And it is this story, "My Brother the Enemy", that I've just published (February 2013) as a novella: two brothers and the girl they both love amid the fearful violence on the streets of Budapest during the uprising.
Meanwhile, while writing articles for the History In An Hour blog, I'm putting the finishing touches to the rest of my fiction and hope to have them all published by Summer '13.
And a quick May 2013 update, my second novel, "This Time Tomorrow", a compelling story of war, brotherly love, passion and betrayal set during and following World War One is now available.
But originally I started off writing novels. Having written three between 2002 and 2005, I then promptly left them to gather dust.
Almost a decade on, I decided to revisit them and, being able to pass judgement from a distance, thought they were good enough to revisit.
One of them, set during the dramatic Hungarian Revolution of 1956, was, I felt, too long and had too many lead characters. While, as in most novels, most characters meet, mingle and interact, there was one subplot where the characters never met any of the others. It was their tale, two brothers, twins, that I lifted and made into a stand-alone story.
And it is this story, "My Brother the Enemy", that I've just published (February 2013) as a novella: two brothers and the girl they both love amid the fearful violence on the streets of Budapest during the uprising.
Meanwhile, while writing articles for the History In An Hour blog, I'm putting the finishing touches to the rest of my fiction and hope to have them all published by Summer '13.
And a quick May 2013 update, my second novel, "This Time Tomorrow", a compelling story of war, brotherly love, passion and betrayal set during and following World War One is now available.
July 20, 2012
Historical Writing on 'History In An Hour'
Recently, on the History In An Hour site (http://www.historyinanhour.com), I set up a page for writers of non-fiction or fictional history to talk about how they wrote their books, their historical influences and what draws them to their areas of history: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2012/0...
I plan to transfer those posts to here, the GoodReads site.
If you would like to contribute an article, please contact me either through GoodReads or the History In An Hour site.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Rupert Colley.
I plan to transfer those posts to here, the GoodReads site.
If you would like to contribute an article, please contact me either through GoodReads or the History In An Hour site.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Rupert Colley.
