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To those of you interested in the ‘mechanics’ of embarking on a novel, I’m trying something new with Book Four. Previously the stories have evolved as I went along. Obviously my research into times, places and military hardware had been completed and I knew broadly where the plot would take me. But only broadly, and I was led almost as a reader would be led by characters and events down unexpected paths to often surprising happenings. Because of this process of discovery, faltering sometimes, re-tracing my steps, progress could be agonisingly slow; occasionally as few as three hundred words in a day.

With Book Four, for various reasons I won’t go into now, I decided on a different approach. This time I have completed a detailed synopsis, chapter by chapter, exceeding 15,000-words (can it be called a synopsis?) that has set out the entire plot and detailed in great depth each character; his or her background, motivations and actions. The beginning, middle and end is known and, to some extent, fixed. The hope is that, when I start writing ‘for real’ on Monday 19 October, I will be able to deal with the novel as if it were a journey, the route already identified, the points along the way confirmed, the destination established. Of course it may come to nothing, and I will find myself veering away from the map and exploring those ‘unexpected paths’ of previous titles. Whatever the outcome one thing never changes: that sense of rising anxiety that will overcome me as I sit down in front of a blank screen, in this case at about 10.00 a.m on Monday 19 October, and wonder ‘Can I do it again?’