WRITING DALES dotcom

It was over ten years ago that the idea for 'DALES dotcom' was formed. It was thanks to my son James, now a successful TV producer, director and cameraman.

At the time he was at York Sixth Form College and he was given an assignment for his Media Studies 'A' Level course to write the synopsis of a film and create a DVD cover for it.  We talked about it and came up with the idea of juxtaposing two major news stories of the day - the dotcom crash and the foot and mouth outbreak in the UK.

James, with a little help from me, completed his assignment (left) and I started thinking that the story idea might be worth developing.  Soon afterwards we went on holiday to Barbados. Now don't run away with the idea that we're rich.  I run a video and conference production company  - www.production.co.uk - and I had just produced a video and awards ceremony in London for the Florida Tourist Board. They didn't have a large enough budget for the video they wanted but they had been donated two first class tickets to any Virgin Airlines destination in the world. I did a deal for cash plus the tickets and managed to convert them into four business class tickets so that I could take the whole family on holiday.

We rented a tiny apartment on stilts overlooking golden sand (right, with James). Between swimming with giant turtles, playing beach cricket with the locals and drinking copious amounts of free rum cocktails purloined by my young daughter from the all-inclusive hotel next door, I wrote the first two chapters of the book. I returned home with the best intentions of finishing the novel, but paid work took up most of my time and the chapters disappeared into the digital equivalent of a top drawer.

It wasn't until late last year that I retrieved them. Business had slowed down dramatically, a combination of the recession and the loss after 11 years of a major client who had provided a significant amount of my income through twice yearly conferences and numerous training videos.  I'm not used to having time on my hands. My whole adult life has been spent working to deadlines, writing, producing and directing, at BBC radio and television, commercial radio and in my corporate production company.  Finishing the book would keep me busy and I started writing mostly in the evenings and often late into the night.. 

Advice to novelists suggests that books need to be carefully and completely plotted before they are written.  I had decided on major events which would take place and knew how the story would end, but I had only a vague idea of how I would get there. But I found that to be a positive thing. Resolving situations which I had created without knowing how they might be resolved provided a drive for the narrative and led me down  paths which I hadn't foreseen. After all, life's like that. We all end up in situations we hadn't expected or wished to be in and we have to find the best way out of them.  Much of the writing time was spent staring into the middle distance thinking up how the characters would react to their situations and I'd like to think that brings a realism to the book. 

Some way into the writing I realised that I was unintentionally writing what might be called a solipsistic novel.  The whole book is seen through the eyes of the main character, Tom Keardon. Once the style had been been established, nothing could take place which Tom didn't directly experience or was told about.  My next novel, if there is one, will avoid this self-imposed restriction.

A paean of praise to the World Wide Web. Once upon a time writers either had to write about what they knew, or go off and research it, involving time, travel and expense. No longer. While parts of 'DALES dotcom' draw on my experiences (of which much in a forthcoming post), with the exception of several location-finding and idea-inspiring walks in the nearby Yorkshire Dales with my wife Felicity, most of the book was researched online.

For example, I once stayed in the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong which features in the book.  By going to Google Maps I was able to see a street view of the entrance and check what colour uniforms the porters wore.  Wikipedia provided detailed information about the economic and political history of China. Google searches gave me everything I needed to know about subjects as diverse as sheep-dipping, probate law, Chinese weddings, and theological interpretations of bible passages.

Thanks are also due to friends and family who helped along the way: Sue Cook  - suecook.com/writing/ - who read the first draft and provided valuable advice which led me to rewrite part of the ending, to Kat Ferris - http://www.artkat-studios.com/ - who painted the book cover, Cathy Cox who designed the cover text graphics, and of course to James without whom ...