Murder for Pleasure

That sounds like a rather obscene title, but of course I don't mean real murder. More the fictional kind, and particularly the cozy variety that I'm so fond of. After all, reading it, watching it and writing it is something I do for pleasure. In fact, I am doing it right now. You see, every afternoon I watch Murder She Wrote while I apparently do marketing things. Which is why I am writing this...

Anyway, my conversations with Agatha are important to my process. After all she was involved in every aspect of her books right from the beginning. She was very interested in 'jacket design, marketing, royalties, serialisation, translation, cinema rights, even spelling' so who better to ask advice?

My ponderation this week is primarily around productivity and as a proliferate author, Agatha certainly knew how to be productive. At the mention of the word productive, my mind already wonders to chocolate factories, Willy Wonka and flying elevators. Hang on, what if there was a flying elevator that played music. Not Kenny G, but classical music...

Where was I? Oh yes, productivity. You see, I was listening to a podcast on deceased author estates, and what happens to all your books etc. when you die. At first I thought of Agatha, and all those notebooks. There are seventy-three as it turns out, all filled with drafts and random scribblings. She also wrote enough novels to read one a month for seven years, which to my calculations is eighty four, and having written them over thirty-five years, on average that was 2-3 books a year.

That sounds fairly reasonable when you put it like that. Of course, there were plays, short stories and she wrote poetry as well, but it seems doable. I decided keeping notes and jotting everything down will help me too, so I took an essential expedition to office works and purchased a very pretty planner.

However, as I started filling it out, I began to wonder; after all that time, did Agatha still enjoy writing?

Over a scone with clotted cream, I found my answer.

'Agatha,' I said, 'did you ever get tired of churning out books? I mean, chocolate is wonderful, but one can have too much of a good thing.'

Fortunately, Agatha is used to my obscure trains of thought.

'One of the pleasures in writing detective stories is that there are so many types to chose from: the light-hearted thriller... the intricate detective story... and what I can only describe as the detective story that has a kind of passion behind it.'

'Passion? That sounds very intriguing, but still. How you managed to write so many different stories? Did it ever feel like a slog?'

'Five books are work to one that is pure pleasure.'

'What do you mean?'

'Crooked house. This book is one of my own special favourites. I saved it for years, thinking about it, working it out, saying to myself: "one day, when I have got plenty of time and want to really enjoy myself—I'll begin it."'

That was an astonishing revelation. So astonishing, I almost choked on my scone. What's more, I discover that was around the forty-third book Agatha published! I have to say, it's one of my favourites too and now I will enjoy reading it even more knowing it was such a passion project. Murder for pleasure. Why not?

So, I have a plan. Because I intend to enjoy doing this, just as Agatha did for the remainder of my life, I have decided to write three books a year. I have it all figured out, and I'm putting it here so Agatha holds me accountable.

Therefore here is my plan for this year. I will write one middle-grade novel of 43,000 words, one shorter contemporary murder-mystery of 55,000 words and another historical one of 80,000. I'll also add a section to a non-fiction book. So... that is approximately 179,000 words in the two hundred and seventy days remaining of the year which is only 662 words a day. Easy!!

Woohoo! I feel so excited. My brain is bubbling with ideas, not to mention musical chocolate producing elevators. So off I go. Wish me luck!!