Jonathan Dyer's Blog: The Nick Temple Files, page 12

Finishing a first draft of a novel is immensely satisfying. Getting all of those thoughts connected in a meaningful way and then getting them down on paper, or more likely in some sort of electronic document format, is like coming out into the light at the end of a long, arduous tunnel. Besides the emotional benefit of finishing, there’s the added benefit of being in a productive groove, of being accustomed to spending many hours each day working exclusively on writing...

(Author’s note: This is an article I wrote for a fantasy baseball blog back in 2012. I’m posting it as the Major League Baseball season opens in truncated fashion due to covid-19.)

During a night game on April 20th, the Oakland A’s Jemile Weeks hit a triple against the Cleveland Indians. I watched and rooted from the comfort of my couch. During spring training Weeks found some power in his stroke – nothing phenomenal, but more than last year. It looks like it’s carried over...

The first chapter I wrote in The Shadow Chamber was one of the last chapters in the book. And I recently wrote what will be the last chapter in the book with only about half of the 1st draft finished. Since then I have found that much of what I’m doing is writing backwards. I’ve picked a point and now I’m figuring out how to get there. That actually makes sense in a physical way. For instance, when I get in the car to go someplace I’ve never been before, I obviously know where ...

Creating a believable character is harder than it sounds. Unlike a play, a novel doesn’t have a list of the characters the reader will eventually encounter. The novelist introduces them throughout the story using a variety of methods to flesh out just who they are. At least that’s an approach I prefer.

A physical description obviously gives the reader an immediate mental picture to associate with a particular character. In addition to a static picture, the des...

One of the things that has surprised me most about writing is how characters can change as a story unfolds. In spite of having a rough idea of what role a character is going to play and what are the primary attributes of that character, I’ve had characters change in ways I hadn’t anticipated as I work through a book. I’m not talking about deliberately mapping out a character’s growth. I’m talking about something unplanned and unanticipated. Sometimes the change st...

It may go without saying that, experimental forms of writing notwithstanding, a good story is at the heart of good fiction. And I assumed for many years that knowing what the story will be is a prerequisite to putting pen to paper. I saw no chicken or egg quandary; story first, writing to follow. My experience leads me to conclude otherwise. A basic story can, and often does, develop, take shape, emerge, reemerge, or simply hide for thousands of words while writing. It can...

I get asked from time to time about doing research for the Nick Temple Files. The books are set in the 1950s and 1960s, so research is necessary to lend an air of verisimilitude to a work that is otherwise fiction. I often combine personal experience as a starting point with research, usually accomplished via the internet and sometimes supplemented with print works. Here are two examples:

Part of the story in Nick Temple File no. 5, The Shadow Chamber, ...