A message from Leo McNeir, Crime Writer

Message from Leo

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since my last message, but I have an excuse. For some weeks I was laid up with a painful, unpleasant affliction called costochondritis. I had never heard of it before. Even now I have to pay great attention while writing it. It was a while before I could even manage to pronounce it. Anyway, enough of that. Suffice it to say, I am more than grateful to my wife, Cassandra, for her fantastic care, plus the unrelenting interventions of various parts of the NHS.

Needless to say, I missed the glorious spring weather of April-May, apart from views from my bedroom window. On the other hand, it gave me the opportunity to reflect on the issues raised by some readers in response to my last message.

I was intrigued by the question of how long I spend on writing. Unlike many writers, I don’t have a particular target. There are some who can write steadily from nine to five. Others profess that they are unhappy if they don’t achieve a thousand words each day. In contrast, I believe Ernest Hemingway used to produce about three to five hundred words in the morning and then spend the rest of the day on other activities. My way of working is rather like that, though I don’t spend afternoons deep-sea fishing for marlin!

On average, it takes me about a week to write a short story, a month to write a novella and a year to produce the first draft of a novel.

If you are reading this note, you have possibly read some of my material. I hope you think it was worth it and, as always, I wish you

Happy reading!