Category: Books

The cinema of my dreams – Was it just another surveillance job? – Episode 3

I’ve had time to think about the next part of this opening sequence.

Long plane rides that leave in the dead of night are always conducive to working through plotlines because being on a plane in economy, the chances of getting any sleep is nigh on impossible.

And yet, this time the impossible is possible, which means that sleeping has overtaken the thinking process, and it will have to wait till I’ve woken up.

Of course, as usual, being in this interesting situation has provided another tangent, which is doing the impossible.  It reminds me of a saying I once heard, ‘if you want the impossible it will take some time if want a miracle, that will take a little longer’.  Temper that with ‘how long is a piece of string?’

When we last visited our intrepid wannabe hero, we were left with a cryptic ‘is anyone ever in the wrong place at the wrong time?’

Sometimes, but not for our particular hero.

It could be worse, I told myself, while the paramedic cleaned up my cuts and abrasions and gave me a concussion test, which, I suspect, might not quite discover if I was or not.  But, at that moment, it didn’t matter.

I’d lost the person I’d been assigned to keep under surveillance.

It was meant to be a doddle, but of course, no one could ever predict what the conditions might be in any exercise, and whilst I was one part of a team effort, it had been on my watch, and I only realized what it was that I’d been doing when a voice in my ear started asking for an update, because it was coming up to the changeover.

I was surprised the noise of the explosion hadn’t been transmitted to the others.  I waited till the paramedic had finished, a minute at most.

“I got caught up in an explosion, a couple of over-enthusiastic bank robbers, and taken down.  The target was ahead of me.”  I gave the team leader the exact location of where I’d last seen the target, then waited.

If the team was functioning properly, one of the other three should have been close enough to predict where the target would be at the change-over point.

“Are you alright?”  It was a question I’d expected earlier.

“Got caught in the aftershock got a few cuts and abrasions, and a ringing in my ears, but otherwise ok.  The paramedics want me to go to the hospital to be checked over, mainly for a concussion, but I’m ok to resume if you want.”

A minute, or two, of silence, then, “Do as they say.  We have the target still under surveillance.”

And that was it, what I regarded as a massive failure, despite the circumstances.

I watched the paramedics load the battered policeman onto a gurney and head towards the ambulance.  I went over to the cuffs and picked them up.  A souvenir of the event, if nothing else.

Lights flashing and siren wailing it left, heading for the hospital.

I took a last look at the scene and started walking away in the direction I was originally heading, and once past the perimeter, walked through the group of bystanders who’d gathered to watch the event unfold.  On the other side, I stopped, took another look back at the scene, and did the proverbial double take.

Standing not ten yards from me was the target.

And a quick look in every direction for the members of the surveillance team showed none of them was anywhere near the target.

I spoke quietly into the communication device.

“Target, I repeat, the target is in sight.  Is anyone nearby by?”

Silence.

So we now have a dilemma, if there is no answer from the team, are they maintaining radio silence, or is something more sinister afoot?

©  Charles Heath  2025

The cinema of my dreams – I always wanted to go on a treasure hunt – Episode 59

Here’s the thing…

Every time I close my eyes, I see something different.

I’d like to think the cinema of my dreams is playing a double feature but it’s a bit like a comedy cartoon night on Fox.

But these dreams are nothing to laugh about.

Once again there’s a new installment of an old feature, and we’re back on the treasure hunt.

…

Did it upset me that Boggs was a little snarky?  Yes, a bit.

We’d been friends for a long time, the sort who had stuck together at school to keep arm’s length from the bullies and work together on projects and homework.  That friendship had become more important after his father disappeared, and I had believed he appreciated it.

Until this treasure thing.

It hadn’t been there, looking over everything.  The fact of the matter was he had been too young to understand any of it, and his mother wisely kept the extended details of her husband’s obsession away from him, and it was quite by chance he stumbled over his father’s effects in the attic.

Had she destroyed that stuff then perhaps we’d all not in this position?

Life had been more predictable, we avoided Alex and Vince, Nadia was nowhere to be seen, and life just rolled along in unemployed heaven.  Of course, that would have had to change, as it had, because my mother couldn’t continue to support a son in his late teens, and at that age, I should have been looking for both work, and to move on with my life.

The state of the economy, and the town’s fortunes, made that difficult, and I guess it would have been a matter of time before I left, like nearly all of my contemporaries had to the bigger towns and cities for more opportunities.

Benderby and the factory had staved that off, for now.

Other than that, I was rather pleased with the job I had, not too taxing, amenable hours so I could do other stuff, and although the only downside was working with Alex, all I had to do was avoid him, and the warehouse was a large building.

I went home to change and found my mother there, sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee.

“You’re home early,” I said when I saw her.

“On a break.  Had to go to the bank, and it wasn’t much further to come here.  Muriel tells me you’ve been talking to Nadia Cossatino.”

Talking to Nadia to her was the same as spending time with her.  And to my mother, the Cossatino’s were public enemies, close to the number one.

“You taught me to be polite and speak when spoken to.”

It was always good to quote her rules back to her when she was trying to admonish me.

“You know what the Cossatino’s are, Sam.”

“She doesn’t act like one, not now.”

“You know why they sent her away, don’t you?”

Sent away?  That was not what I heard, but then, as a so-called child, what we were told and what was reality were two entirely different things.

“I thought I did, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me the grown-up reason?”

“She stabbed a girl, and instead of going to juvenile detention, they sent her home to Italy where she couldn’t get into any more trouble.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did she stab another girl?”

“Do the Cossatino’s need reasons for what they do?  She’s not a very nice person, nor are the family very nice people.  Remember that the next time you see her.”

“She’s nice to me, and I prefer to be polite.  But I’ll take what you said and be careful.”

That said, I was dismissed, lecture given.

I changed and came back to pack a meal for the evening break.  Mother was still sitting at the table.

“I thought you’d be on your way back to work.”

“Not going back today.  I’m not feeling very well.  How is the job going?  I never get to see much of you these days.”

“I’m helping Boggs when I can.”

“Isn’t he on that treasure trail his father started?”

“Yes.  He found a box of his stuff in the attic, and we’ve been trying to make sense of it.”

“There is none.   There was no treasure, just a bunch of maps Boggs’s father made for the Cossatino’s to con people out of their money.”

“What about Ormiston?”

“He was a bigger fool than Boggs.  You don’t want to be humoring Boggs with such nonsense.  You concentrate on doing your job properly and let him follow his father down that rabbit hole.  I feel sorry for Muriel, having two of her family sucked into that mess.”

“And what if it is real?”

She gave me a look that told me the only thing that was real would be her wrath if I persisted with it.  “OK,” I said.  “I’ll try and reason with him, and get him to give it up.”

It was then I noticed the flowers over by the window, a very expensive-looking bouquet in an ornate vase.

“Do you have a secret admirer?”

She looked a little puzzled, then realized what I was talking about.

“Joshua sent them over, thought it might cheer me up.”

Joshua was Alex Benderby’s father, my employer.  Odd that he would be sending my mother flowers.  We were not anywhere near his social circle.

“He’s a kind man, Sam, and we have been friends since school.  I could do with some cheering up.”

I was not sure what she meant by that, but I hope it didn’t mean he would come visiting.  Knowing Benderby was a curse, not a benefit, and I hoped my job wasn’t contingent on her being nice to him.

I shuddered at the thought, said no more, and left for work.

My job was supposed to be my sanctuary, where I could get away from home, the depressive nature of living in the town, and Boggs and his treasure hunt.

It wasn’t an escape from Alex, and not only did he work in the same building, but treated it as his fiefdom, and resented the fact I’d ‘wormed’ my way into his domain.

Under that boastful and arrogant exterior, he really was just an insecure little boy.

But very, very dangerous.

He was leaving when I arrived, having switched from night shift to day, a blessing.  His alternate for the night shift was an uncaring old man who was approaching retirement and didn’t want anything to screw up his exit.

He let me do whatever I wanted so long as it didn’t blow back on him, and I took extra care not to cause offense, or raise any flags.  Stuff came in, stuff went out, the stock register was up to date, and nothing ran out.

It was as simple as that, and even so, Alex still couldn’t get it right so we covered for him.

Alex stopped at the door on the way out, a bad sign.

“You want to tell that clown of a friend, Boggs, to stop poking around the caves.  They’re not a place for amateurs.”

“I didn’t know he was poking around the caves.  Nor that you were.  Any particular reason?”

“It’s called spelunking, dimwit.”

I knew that but wasn’t going to make an issue of it.  He was lucky he could pronounce it let alone know what it was.

“They’re just caves, Alex, with nothing more than a few limestone pinnacles, and bat shit on the floor.  Unless, of course, you think the pirate captain hid his treasure in one of them.  I can’t see how, or why.  They’re a long way from the coast.”

“We’re not looking for treasure.  It doesn’t exist.”

“Then why warn Boggs off?”

He shook his head.  “You’re as daft in the head as he is.  Just tell him not to get in my way.”

With that, he was gone.  A huge sigh of relief, and a long peaceful night ahead of me.

Until the phone rang.

…

© Charles Heath 2020-2022

What I learned about writing: How to Keep Your Writing Fresh

How to Keep Your Writing Fresh – Ditch the Clichés (and Use a Few Sparingly, If You Must)

Introduction

We’ve all been there: you sit down to write a blog, a sales email, or a novel chapter, and before you know it your prose is peppered with phrases like “think outside the box,” “at the end of the day,” or “the sky’s the limit.” Clichés feel safe because they’re familiar, but they also signal lazy thinking, dilute your voice, and can even turn readers off.

So how do you keep your writing crisp, original, and engaging? And if a cliché is the perfect punchline for a specific moment, how can you wield it without sounding trite? Below is a practical, step‑by‑step guide to help you banish the overused and, when necessary, deploy a cliché with surgical precision.

1. Know What a Cliché Actually Is

DefinitionWhy It’s Problematic
A phrase, idea, or trope that has been overused to the point of losing its original impact.It signals a lack of original thought, can feel generic, and often triggers “mental fatigue” in readers.

Key takeaway: Not every familiar phrase is a cliché. Idioms (“break a leg”) and widely accepted terminology (“search engine optimization”) are fine when they serve a clear purpose.

2. Identify the Clichés in Your Own Writing

  1. Read Aloud – Hearing the words forces you to notice rhythm and repetition.
  2. Highlight “Red Flags” – Words like obviously, basically, in today’s fast‑paced world, think outside the box, win-win.
  3. Use a Cliché Detector
    • Online tools (e.g., Cliché Finder or ProWritingAid).
    • Browser extensions that underline overused phrases in real time.

Pro tip: Keep a personal “cliché cheat sheet.” Whenever you catch yourself reaching for a tired phrase, jot it down and replace it later.

3. Replace, Not Remove – Strategies for Fresh Alternatives

ClichéWhy It’s OverusedFresh Alternative
“Think outside the box”Corporate buzzword“Explore unconventional angles”
“At the end of the day”Conversational filler“Ultimately” or “When all is said and done”
“The sky’s the limit”Over‑optimistic hype“The possibilities are endless”
“In today’s fast‑paced world”Generic time‑setter“In an era of rapid change”

How to Generate Alternatives:

  • Ask “Why?” – What’s the core idea? Answer that directly.
  • Swap nouns and verbs – Replace box with a concrete image relevant to your niche.
  • Use vivid sensory language – “The horizon expands before us” feels more poetic than “the sky’s the limit.”

4. Embrace Specificity Over Generality

Bad: “She was very happy.”
Good: “She beamed, her eyes sparkling like sunrise on the lake.”

Specific details make the scene vivid, leaving no room for lazy shorthand.

5. When a Cliché Is the Perfect Fit – Use It Sparingly & Strategically

Sometimes a cliché can act as an anchor—a shared cultural reference that instantly connects you with readers. If you decide to keep one, follow these guidelines:

5.1. Make It Contextual

  • Tie it to your unique narrative.
    • Example: Instead of the generic “It’s a win‑win situation,” write, “Our partnership is a win‑win: you get a 20 % discount, and we gain a long‑term client who loves our eco‑friendly packaging.”

5.2. Add a Twist

  • Subvert expectations.
    • Example: “We told the team to think outside the box—but first, we built a bigger box.”
    • This acknowledges the cliché, then flips it, showing cleverness.

5.3. Pair It With Strong Imagery

  • Bolster the cliché with fresh description.
    • Example: “At the end of the day, the city lights flickered like fireflies caught in a jar, reminding us that even the busiest streets need moments of calm.”

5.4. Limit Frequency

  • One per paragraph, maximum two per piece.
    • This keeps the impact high without overwhelming the reader.

6. Practice Exercise: Rewrite the Cliché‑Heavy Paragraph

Original (cliché‑laden):

“In today’s fast‑paced world, businesses need to think outside the box if they want to stay ahead. At the end of the day, it’s all about delivering value and creating win‑win solutions for customers and shareholders alike.”

Revised (cliché‑free):

“In an era of rapid change, companies must explore unconventional strategies to maintain a competitive edge. Ultimately, success hinges on delivering genuine value and forging mutually beneficial relationships with both customers and investors.”

What Changed?

  • Replaced “fast‑paced world” with “era of rapid change.”
  • Swapped “think outside the box” for “explore unconventional strategies.”
  • Substituted “at the end of the day” with “ultimately.”
  • Turned “win‑win solutions” into “mutually beneficial relationships.”

7. Checklist Before Publishing

  •  Did I scan for common clichés?
  •  Have I replaced every red‑flag phrase with a specific, vivid alternative?
  •  If a cliché remains, does it serve a strategic purpose?
  •  Have I added a twist or unique imagery to that cliché?
  •  Is the overall tone consistent with my brand voice?

Conclusion

Clichés are the linguistic equivalent of fast food: instantly satisfying but nutritionally lacking. By actively identifying, replacing, and only strategically preserving a few, you’ll elevate your writing from “just okay” to “memorable.”

Remember: your words are a reflection of your thought process. The more original they are, the more credibility you earn with every sentence. So next time you feel the urge to lean on a tired phrase, pause, dig deeper, and craft something that truly belongs to you—cliché or not.

Happy writing!

Feel free to share your favourite “cliché‑with‑a‑twist” in the comments below.

365 Days of Writing, 2026 – Beyond the second novel

Does a series need to be planned

…

Plotters vs. Pantsers: Why Even the Most Spontaneous Novelists Need a Series Bible

If you’ve ever reached book three of your epic fantasy or detective series only to realise your protagonist’s eyes magically shifted from piercing blue to emerald green, or that a character who died in chapter four just casually walked back into a scene, you aren’t alone.

Writing a book series is an incredible creative journey, but it is also a marathon of memory. When you live with characters for months—or years—at a time, details blur.

So, when writing a series, does it pay to have a plan for each novel, if only to maintain continuity?

In a word: Absolutely.

While the debate between “plotters” (those who outline meticulously) and “pantsers” (those who write by the seat of their pants) is fierce in the writing community, long-term continuity demands a hybrid approach. Let’s dive into why minor memory lapses happen, the hidden costs of ignoring continuity, and how a simple planning tool can save your sanity (and your readers’ trust).

The Anatomy of Amnesia: How Continuity Errors Happen

Human memory is notoriously unreliable, and when you are knee-deep in the throes of drafting, your brain is prioritising plot momentum, emotional arcs, and dialogue over trivial data.

Over the course of a multi-book series, several common continuity issues inevitably creep in:

  • The Shape-Shifters (Physical Descriptions): Hair colours darken, eye colours shift, scars migrate from the left cheek to the right, and heights fluctuate.
  • The Aging Paradox: Did timeline pacing get a little wobbly? Suddenly, a character who was supposed to be 16 in book one is acting suspiciously like a seasoned 21-year-old by book two, even though only six months have passed in the book’s universe.
  • The Lazarus Effect: Minor characters—or worse, major ones—disappear for a book, only for the author to accidentally reintroduce them with a different name, backstory, or worse, revive them from the dead without explanation.
  • Logistical Lapses: Geography and lore are major culprits. Did the journey from City A to City B take three days on horseback in the first book, but only an afternoon in the sequel? Did a magic system suddenly acquire a new rule (or lose an old one) just to help you write your way out of a corner?

Why Continuity Errors Cost You Readers

You might think, “Surely my readers won’t notice if a character’s eye colour changes.”

Think again.

Today’s readers are deeply engaged. They read with a fine-toothed comb, theorise on forums like Reddit, and discuss books passionately on BookTok and Goodreads. When they spot a glaring continuity error, it pulls them right out of the fictional dream.

Frequent inconsistencies signal a lack of polish. Worse, they break trust. If a reader can’t rely on you to remember basic facts about your own world, they may hesitate to invest their time and money into the next instalment of your series.

Planning Each Novel: The Blueprint for Success

You don’t have to outline every single plot twist, chapter by chapter, if that kills your creative joy. Many successful authors proudly write by the seat of their pants for the actual storytelling.

However, planning for continuity is entirely different from plotting a narrative. To maintain structural integrity across a series, you need a two-pronged strategy:

1. The Individual Novel Outline

Even if you hate strict outlines, having a loose roadmap for each novel ensures that your pacing holds up, subplots resolve, and you don’t write yourself into a narrative dead end. Knowing your destination doesn’t mean you can’t take scenic detours along the way, but it does mean you won’t accidentally drive off a cliff.

2. The Ultimate Weapon: The “Series Bible”

If you take away only one piece of advice from this article, let it be this: Create a Series Bible.

A Series Bible is a centralized, living document (using software like Scrivener, Notion, Google Docs, or a dedicated binder) where you track the immutable facts of your fictional world. It should include:

  • Character Profiles: Full names, nicknames, physical descriptions, birthdays/ages, key relationships, core motivations, and major life events.
  • The Timeline: A master chronological ledger tracking what happens on what day, month, and year across all books.
  • World-Building Lore: Rules of magic, geography, political structures, currency, and technology. Keep a running glossary of invented terms, town names, and historical events.
  • The “Loose Ends” Ledger: A list of unresolved plot threads or lingering questions you need to address in future books.

Strike a Balance: Structure Meets Creativity

Planning doesn’t mean chaining yourself to a spreadsheet. Think of a series outline and a continuity bible not as a cage, but as safety rails. They give you the freedom to drive fast and take creative risks, knowing you won’t crash into a wall of your own making further down the road.

By investing just a little bit of time upfront to track your characters, ages, and world rules, you save yourself hours of agonising developmental edits later—and you deliver a polished, immersive experience that keeps readers coming back for book after book.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? How do you keep track of your series continuity? Let us know your favourite tips and tricks in the comments below!

…

In a word: Pause

Yes, when you are going at it like a bat out of hell, it might be a good idea to take a pause and regroup.

That being a pause as an interruption to an activity.

In music, it’s a mark over a note.

Perhaps it’s a good idea to pause recording a TV show while the ads are on.  Networks don’t like it, but it makes the show make more sense without the distractions of advertisements, sometimes quite inane or annoying.

What I just said might give pause to my opposite number in this debate.

Have you been in a conversation, someone says something quite odd, and there’s a pregnant pause?

How did the word pregnant get into the conversation?  That, of course, usually means something significant will follow, but rarely does.  But it can also be a conversation killer where no one says anything.

Is that a wide eye in awe moment?  You did WHAT?

Then there is the word pours, sounds the same but is completely different.

In this case, the man pours water from the bucket on the plants.

Or my brother pours cold water on my plans.  Not literally, but figuratively, making me think twice about whether it would work or not.  Usually not.

Or a confession pours out of a man with a guilty conscience.  AKA sings like a bird.  Don’t you just love these quaint expressions?  It reminded me of a gangster film back in Humphrey Bogart’s day.

It never rains but it pours?  Another expression, when everything goes wrong.  A bit like home renovations really.

Really, it means to flow quickly and in large quantities, ie., rain pours down.

And if that isn’t bad enough, what about paws?

Sounds the same again, but yes, it’s what an animal has as feet, especially cats, dogs, and bears.

One use of it, out of context, of course, is ‘get your paws off me!’

And one rabbit paw might be good luck, but having two rabbit pows, I might win the lottery.

If only….

The story behind the story – Echoes from the Past

The novel ‘Echoes from the Past’ started out as a short story I wrote about 30 years ago, titled ‘The Birthday’.

My idea was to take a normal person out of their comfort zone and led on a short but very frightening journey to a place where a surprise birthday party had been arranged.

Thus, the very large man with a scar and a red tie was created.

So was the friend with the limousine who worked as a pilot.

So were the two women, Wendy and Angelina, who were Flight Attendants that the pilot friend asked to join the conspiracy.

I was going to rework the short story, then about ten pages long, into something a little more.

And like all rewrites, especially those I have anything to do with, it turned into a novel.

There was motivation.  I had told some colleagues at the place where I worked at the time that I liked writing, and they wanted a sample.  I was going to give them the re-worked short story.  Instead, I gave them ‘Echoes from the past’

Originally, it was not set anywhere in particular.

But when considering a location, I had, at the time, recently been to New York in December, and visited Brooklyn and Queens, as well as a lot of New York itself.  We were there for New Year’s, and it was an experience I’ll never forget.

One evening, we were out late and finished up in Brooklyn Heights, near the waterfront, and there was rain and snow; it was cold and wet, and apartment buildings were shimmering in the street light, and I thought, “This is the place where my main character will live”.

It had a very spooky atmosphere, the sort where ghosts would not be unexpected.  I felt more than one shiver go up and down my spine in the few minutes I was there.

I had taken notes, as I always do, of everywhere we went, so I had a ready supply of locations I could use, changing the names in some cases.

Fifth Avenue near the Rockefeller Centre is amazing at first light, and late at night with the Seasonal decorations and lights.

The original main character was a shy man with few friends, hence not expecting the surprise party.  I enhanced that shyness into purposely lonely because of an issue from his past that leaves him always looking over his shoulder and ready to move on at the slightest hint of trouble.  No friends, no relationships, just a very low profile.

Then I thought, what if he breaks the cardinal rule and begins a relationship?

But it is also as much an exploration of a damaged soul as it is the search for a normal life, without having any idea what normal was, and how the understanding of one person can sometimes make all the difference in what we may think or feel.

And, of course, I wanted a happy ending.

Except for the bad guys.

…

Get it here:  https://amzn.to/2CYKxu4

newechocover5rs

The first case of PI Walthenson – “A Case of Working With the Jones Brothers”

This case has everything: red herrings, jealous brothers, femme fatales, and at the heart of it all, greed.

See below for an excerpt from the book…

Coming soon!

PIWalthJones1

An excerpt from the book:

…

When Harry took the time to consider his position, a rather uncomfortable position at that, he concluded that he was somehow involved in another case that meant very little to him.

Not that it wasn’t important in some way he was yet to determine, it was just that his curiosity had got the better of him, and it had led to this: sitting in a chair, securely bound, waiting for someone, one of his captors had called Doug.

It was not the name that worried him so much; it was the evil laugh that had come after the name was spoken.

Doug what? Doug the ‘destroyer’, Doug the ‘dangerous’, Doug the ‘deadly’; there were several sinister connotations, and perhaps that was the point of the laugh, to make it more frightening than it was.

But there was no doubt about one thing in his mind right then: he’d made a mistake. A very big. and a costly mistake. Just how big the cost, no doubt, he would soon find out.

His mother and his grandmother, the wisest person he had ever known, had once told him never to eavesdrop.

At the time, he couldn’t help himself, and instead of minding his own business, listening to a one-sided conversation that ended with a time and a place. The very nature of the person receiving the call was, at the very least, sinister, and, because of the cryptic conversation, there appeared to be, or at least to Harry, criminal activity involved.

For several days, he had wrestled with the thought of whether he should go. Stay on the fringe, keep out of sight, observe and report to the police if it was a crime. Instead, he had willingly gone down the rabbit hole.

Now, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, several heat lamps hanging over his head, he was perspiring, and if perspiration could be used as a measure of fear, then Harry’s fear was at the highest level.

Another runnel of sweat rolled into his left eye, and, having his hands tied, it literally made it impossible to clear it. The burning sensation momentarily took his mind off his predicament. He cursed and then shook his head, trying to prevent a recurrence. It was to no avail.

Let the stinging sensation be a reminder of what was right and what was wrong.

It was obvious that it was the right place and the right time, but in considering his current perilous situation, it definitely was the wrong place to be, at the worst possible time.

It was meant to be his escape, an escape from the generations of lawyers, what were to Harry, dry, dusty men who had been in business since George Washington said to the first Walthenson to step foot on American soil, ‘Why don’t you become a lawyer?” when asked what he could do for the great man.

Or so it was handed down as lore, though Harry didn’t think Washington meant it literally, the Walthenson’s, then as now, were not shy of taking advice.

Except, of course, when it came to Harry.

He was, Harry’s father was prone to saying, the exception to every rule. Harry guessed his father was referring to the fact that his son wanted to be a Private Detective rather than a dry, dusty lawyer. Just the clothes were enough to turn Harry off the profession.

So, with a little of the money Harry inherited from one of his aunts, he leased an office in Gramercy Park and had it renovated to look like the Sam Spade detective agency, you know the one, Spade and Archer, and The Maltese Falcon.

There’s a movie and a book by Dashiell Hammett if you’re interested.

So, there it was, painted on the opaque glass inset of the front door, ‘Harold Walthenson, Private Detective’.

There was enough money to hire an assistant, and it took a week before the right person came along, or, more to the point, didn’t just see his business plan as something sinister. Ellen, a tall, cool woman in a long black dress, or so the words of a song in his head told him, fitted in perfectly.

She’d seen the movie, but she said with a grin, Harry was no Humphrey Bogart.

Of course not, he said, he didn’t smoke.

Three months on the job, and it had been a few calls, no ‘real’ cases, nothing but missing animals, and other miscellaneous items. What he really wanted was a missing person. Or perhaps a beguiling, sophisticated woman who was as deadly as she was charming, looking for an errant husband, perhaps one that she had already ‘dispatched’.

Or for a tall, dark and handsome foreigner who spoke in riddles and in heavily accented English, a spy, or perhaps an assassin, in town to take out the mayor. The man was such an imbecile that Harry had considered doing it himself.

Now, in a back room of a disused warehouse, that wishful thinking might be just about to come to a very abrupt end, with none of the romanticised trappings of the business befalling him. No beguiling women, no sinister criminals, no stupid policemen.

Just a nasty little man whose only concern was how quickly or how slowly Harry’s end was going to be.

…

© Charles Heath 2019-2024

365 Days of writing, 2026 – Beyond the second novel

Does a series need to be planned

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Plotters vs. Pantsers: Why Even the Most Spontaneous Novelists Need a Series Bible

If you’ve ever reached book three of your epic fantasy or detective series only to realise your protagonist’s eyes magically shifted from piercing blue to emerald green, or that a character who died in chapter four just casually walked back into a scene, you aren’t alone.

Writing a book series is an incredible creative journey, but it is also a marathon of memory. When you live with characters for months—or years—at a time, details blur.

So, when writing a series, does it pay to have a plan for each novel, if only to maintain continuity?

In a word: Absolutely.

While the debate between “plotters” (those who outline meticulously) and “pantsers” (those who write by the seat of their pants) is fierce in the writing community, long-term continuity demands a hybrid approach. Let’s dive into why minor memory lapses happen, the hidden costs of ignoring continuity, and how a simple planning tool can save your sanity (and your readers’ trust).

The Anatomy of Amnesia: How Continuity Errors Happen

Human memory is notoriously unreliable, and when you are knee-deep in the throes of drafting, your brain is prioritising plot momentum, emotional arcs, and dialogue over trivial data.

Over the course of a multi-book series, several common continuity issues inevitably creep in:

  • The Shape-Shifters (Physical Descriptions): Hair colours darken, eye colours shift, scars migrate from the left cheek to the right, and heights fluctuate.
  • The Aging Paradox: Did timeline pacing get a little wobbly? Suddenly, a character who was supposed to be 16 in book one is acting suspiciously like a seasoned 21-year-old by book two, even though only six months have passed in the book’s universe.
  • The Lazarus Effect: Minor characters—or worse, major ones—disappear for a book, only for the author to accidentally reintroduce them with a different name, backstory, or worse, revive them from the dead without explanation.
  • Logistical Lapses: Geography and lore are major culprits. Did the journey from City A to City B take three days on horseback in the first book, but only an afternoon in the sequel? Did a magic system suddenly acquire a new rule (or lose an old one) just to help you write your way out of a corner?

Why Continuity Errors Cost You Readers

You might think, “Surely my readers won’t notice if a character’s eye colour changes.”

Think again.

Today’s readers are deeply engaged. They read with a fine-toothed comb, theorise on forums like Reddit, and discuss books passionately on BookTok and Goodreads. When they spot a glaring continuity error, it pulls them right out of the fictional dream.

Frequent inconsistencies signal a lack of polish. Worse, they break trust. If a reader can’t rely on you to remember basic facts about your own world, they may hesitate to invest their time and money into the next instalment of your series.

Planning Each Novel: The Blueprint for Success

You don’t have to outline every single plot twist, chapter by chapter, if that kills your creative joy. Many successful authors proudly write by the seat of their pants for the actual storytelling.

However, planning for continuity is entirely different from plotting a narrative. To maintain structural integrity across a series, you need a two-pronged strategy:

1. The Individual Novel Outline

Even if you hate strict outlines, having a loose roadmap for each novel ensures that your pacing holds up, subplots resolve, and you don’t write yourself into a narrative dead end. Knowing your destination doesn’t mean you can’t take scenic detours along the way, but it does mean you won’t accidentally drive off a cliff.

2. The Ultimate Weapon: The “Series Bible”

If you take away only one piece of advice from this article, let it be this: Create a Series Bible.

A Series Bible is a centralized, living document (using software like Scrivener, Notion, Google Docs, or a dedicated binder) where you track the immutable facts of your fictional world. It should include:

  • Character Profiles: Full names, nicknames, physical descriptions, birthdays/ages, key relationships, core motivations, and major life events.
  • The Timeline: A master chronological ledger tracking what happens on what day, month, and year across all books.
  • World-Building Lore: Rules of magic, geography, political structures, currency, and technology. Keep a running glossary of invented terms, town names, and historical events.
  • The “Loose Ends” Ledger: A list of unresolved plot threads or lingering questions you need to address in future books.

Strike a Balance: Structure Meets Creativity

Planning doesn’t mean chaining yourself to a spreadsheet. Think of a series outline and a continuity bible not as a cage, but as safety rails. They give you the freedom to drive fast and take creative risks, knowing you won’t crash into a wall of your own making further down the road.

By investing just a little bit of time upfront to track your characters, ages, and world rules, you save yourself hours of agonising developmental edits later—and you deliver a polished, immersive experience that keeps readers coming back for book after book.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? How do you keep track of your series continuity? Let us know your favourite tips and tricks in the comments below!

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‘Sunday in New York’ – A beta reader’s view

I’m not a fan of romance novels but …

There was something about this one that resonated with me.

This is a novel about a world generally ruled by perception, and how people perceive what they see, what they are told, and what they want to believe.

I’ve been guilty of it myself, as I’m sure we all have at one time or another.

For the main characters, Harry and Alison, other issues are driving their relationship.

For Alison, it is a loss of self-worth through losing her job and from losing her mother and, in a sense, her sister.

For Harry, it is the fact that he has a beautiful and desirable wife, his belief that she is the object of other men’s desires, and, in particular, his immediate superior’s.

Between observation, the less-than-honest motives of his friends, a lot of jumping to conclusions based on very little fact, and you have the basis of one very interesting story.

When it all comes to a head, Alison finds herself in a desperate situation, and she realises only the truth will save their marriage.

But is it all the truth?

What would we do in similar circumstances?

Rarely does a book have me so enthralled that I could not put it down until I knew the result. They might be considered two people who should have known better, but as is often the case, they had to get past what they both thought was the truth.

And the moral of this story, if it could be said there is one, is that nothing is ever what it seems.

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Available on Amazon here: amzn.to/2H7ALs8

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The cinema of my dreams – Was it just another surveillance job? – Episode 2

Back to the explosion at what was first thought to be at a takeaway.  Certainly, it had been levelled, but so had several other buildings in the near vicinity, but we haven’t got to that part yet.

The boredom of the flight is still allowing me to explore the opening sequence a little further, where we left our man on the scene under tight police guard.

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In five minutes, perhaps less, the whole scene had turned into countless vehicles with red and blue flashing lights, screams from the victims, and yelling from the rescuers.

I was still under police guard, but coming from the other side of the scene, a rather battered and bleeding street policeman came running towards us, stopping short of the man standing back, the one I assumed was in charge.

“Tell me you’ve got them,” he gasped, then looked from the man in charge to me and then back again, looking very concerned.

“We have.” He looked very calm and pleased with himself.

“What?  Him?” He nodded in my direction. “He was blown up in the blast and from what I saw was chasing the real culprits, two men covered in dust, one of whom was carrying a large duffel bag.”

“This guy was caught running from the scene.”

I decided to add my bit to the discussion.  “Your car drove straight past them.  I can’t see how you missed them.”

He was starting to look worried.  “We were given your exact description from an anonymous tip.”

The battered policeman bent over and then collapsed to the ground.  Two of my captors went towards him, but he motioned them away.  “Of course you did, by the two men escaping.  Get after them, before it’s too late.  And free this guy.  He’s got nothing to do with the blast.”

After removing the cuffs, they jumped back in their car and headed back in the direction they came.  Too late now, the two men would be long gone.

I went over to the policeman on the ground just as another ambulance pulled up and as the paramedics got out, I motioned to them to come and attend him.

“What happened,” I asked him

“A bank robbery, the clowns used far too much explosive and almost brought the building down on them.  Not so lucky for the neighbours.”

He was looking around, then stopped, looking at the place where I’d just been held down. I followed his gaze and then saw what he saw.  The cuffs were still on the ground where the man who removed them had obviously dropped them.

His expression changed, and for a moment I thought he was going to explode.

“What’s wrong.”  Obviously, something was but I couldn’t see it.

“The cuffs.  We haven’t used those for years now.  They weren’t real police.”

My mind clicked into gear at the same time as he uttered the words.

They were there to help the others escape whilst holding us both up with a phony arrest.  I wonder what they would do if they hadn’t been sent after their fellow robbers.

The battered policeman just sighed and lay down on the pavement and let the paramedics work on him.

Only then did we notice he had a piece of an iron bar sticking out of his side.

Then, of course, people just don’t happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Or do they?

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© Charles Heath 2025