When I first had some kind of a clue about what I was going to do with this novel writing thing I decided that I had to keep it fluid and free enough to keep me interested. If I had meticulously planned out the plotline, characters etc. then writing it all would just become a chore. It would be a case of joining the dots and I didn't feel I would be able to keep interested in something that I had already devised.

I instead I chose a rough shape and a selection of themes. This would allow me to drop ideas in as they came along but still keep everything together as a cohesive whole.

I had decided I wanted to make a 'detective' story at a very early stage. I had previously read ideas of how it could be possible that emotions received by viewing/reading narrative are not copies of sadness, love, anger, fear or other conventional emotions but are instead received from predicting or being surprised by narrative events. A reader tries to predict the future plot, and either feels rewarded when he/she is correct or is surprised when the prediction is wrong. I felt that this placed the reader as a detector, constantly investigating and making judgments. The actual detective genre was just an extension of this.

I realized that I would have to use real life experiences to avoid the cliches of a wellknown and overdone genre. Memories of real people, places and events would bring extra texture and hopefully drag it out of crowd. Real life experiences would provide the inspiration for events and plotlines and supply plenty of useful material. I realize that this could also bring problems, like causing offence to real-life people or raising questions about my sanity. This could only be a serious problem if it was published or read by a wide audience. I would have to rename as much as possible and tempt fate at the same time.