Writing The Brotherhood by YA Erskine

Even though I had the question that would underpin the novel, I wasn’t sure how to begin. Third person, first person, nothing seemed to provide me with the appropriate platform to express multiple, deep seated viewpoints. I burned with the need to show how this murder would affect everyone around the victim.

After much sitting and staring out the window and many long hot showers (the two places where I do my best thinking) I eventually decided to give everyone, well, the most important characters anyway, their individual say. Ten chapters, ten narrators. All equal.

So I had the story I wanted to tell, the voices I wanted to use, and a rough structure. From there, I began at the beginning and simply wrote and wrote and wrote. In the ‘architect vs gardener’ debate on author styles, I’m a gardener. I had no preconceptions of how the book would turn out. Just took it one page at a time and let the characters grow as the ideas flowed.

I didn’t set out to write according to any particular genre rules. I did however, have a few ideas about what I definitely didn’t want to do with it.

I didn’t want it to be a whodunit. Death in opening chapter, lone tortured protagonist, red herring, red herring, red herring, *yawn* chase, interview, confession, justice. It’s predictable and unrealistic.

Nor did I want to give it a happy ending where everyone is satisfied with their day’s work. That’s so far from the truth it’s not funny.

Also, I figured that you rarely get to hear things from the crook’s perspective. I didn’t want to be like most other books where you only hear his or her tale in the video interview room at the very end. I wanted you to hear more of his voice, to experience his journey, to see his rationale.

Lastly, solving crimes is never clear cut. Every person involved has an agenda. Everyone has personal issues which cloud their judgement. Everyone makes assumptions and mistakes. None of us are perfect. All of us are flawed. In real life, no matter how good the investigation is, these aspects do impinge.

So with these ideas in mind, I began the writing journey.