Hello, I’m Paul Franks and I’ve written a conspiracy-thriller called ‘A Dive Into Darkness’, based upon my four years researching HIV/AIDS. In this original podcast series, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the story behind the story, the four-year research and writing process from inspiration to publication, and all points in between.
In Episode Thirty-Two of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’, ‘Carlos Alcaraz and The Lightbulb Moment’, I will tell you how I began turning ‘The Red Book’ into ‘A Dive Into Darkness’.
I can tell you precisely when ‘The Red Book’ began to morph into ‘A Dive Into Darkness’ – the evening of September 11th, 2022. I was in Alderney, in bed, nursing a very sore torn calf muscle and listening to the Men’s US Open tennis final, hoping the ‘future of tennis’, Alcaraz, would win his first Grand Slam title. I was pondering ‘The Red Book.’ It had many flaws, the main ones being too much medical-science and a meandering, weeks long, plot. As I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep, I remembered what Dan Brown had said about the ticking clock. I decided there and then to compress the novel’s action to seven days. The next day I would compress it even further, to five.
I had reached this stage of writing novels without actually doing much research into the writing process. Way back in June 2020, when I was planning out ‘Race’, I knew I wanted chapters to be short as I wanted to write a book with chapters that people could read on short Tube journeys, or on the toilet! In September 2022, I knew short, sharp chapters were perfect for a ‘page-turning’, hard-to-stop reading, thriller and a ticking clock was another way of building tension and as ‘Reedsy’ put it, raising the stakes.
Next day, 12th September (or, as I call it, Kevin Pietersen day), I found the Reedsy video, ‘8 Ways to Raise Your Story's Stakes’. These were: Create goals; Add a ticking clock; Raise the emotional stakes; Raise the external consequences; Create a sacrifice; Avoid plot armour; Create stakes in each scene; Create moral no-win situations. I looked at the plot for ‘The Red Book’ and realized I had most of those elements already. Shortening the action to five days meant that I could cram a gallon into a pint pot – the novel would definitely be ‘All thriller, no filler’!
I was filled with excitement and on my way to devouring every Reedsy creative writing video on Youtube. By the time of the Queen’s funeral, a week later, I had re-plotted ‘The Red Book.’ It wasn’t the finished article, but it was already a hell of a lot better.
Thank you for listening to Episode Thirty-Two of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please tell your friends about it. In Episode Thirty-Three of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’, I will tell you about Dan Harmon and how he inspired the title, ‘A Dive Into Darkness.’
Till the next time, goodbye and happy reading.
A reminder that ‘A Dive Into Darkness’ is available both as an ebook and paperback, with Barnes & Noble and Amazon and all the references/links connected with this podcast can be found at my ‘A Dive Into Darkness’ Substack page.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-dive-into-darkness-paul-franks/1145527746?ean=9781917129855
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dive-Into-Darkness-Paul-Franks-ebook/dp/B0D32DP97S
Dan Brown - Masterclass live
Reedsy, ‘8 Ways to Raise Your Story's Stakes’
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