I’ve sought comments from a few members, and I’m modifying my plans a little in the light of them. This is going to be an incredibly tough challenge to organise, but I’d like to think that every member will be able to create a chapter – at least in outline if not the whole words. Obviously, everything may have to be modified to make reasonable continuity in style and so on. I like tough challenges, though.
A CRIME WITH NO LOSERS
I have always wanted to write a different type of crime novel. Usually crime novels have a villain, a crime and a motive. I decided that a crime story without any of these would be different, so I devised the following plot. There are two investigators – a police inspector and an amateur sleuth. The crime actually reduces to a mystery, but the sleuth solves it, but won’t reveal how – and knowing “how” leads to the person who created the mystery. However, any reader can solve it, because all the clues are there (the most vital one will escape most people), and I think in reality, not more than 1 in 100, would do so. I plan to use a strategy asking for members to be responsible for certain passages or chapters. That doesn’t mean that you’ll have to write them, but I’d like that “responsibility” to include the planning, creativity, or the dialogue as well as, or instead of, the actual writing. I’ll keep members up-to-date with the progress, but clearly, while I will read your comments, I will have to make decisions on their inclusion or modification Obviously, there’ll be a lot of work for me to put it together, and I’ll also look to members for proofreading.
I am assuming that you would all like to play some part in this exercise: I hope that the time commitments on you won’t prove daunting. I would really like this to be a great team effort. If you don’t think you’ll be able to sketch out the plan of a chapter (I plan about 25-30 chapters of about 2,500 to 3,000 words each, although some may be more and some less), then let me know now.