Writing a 'Chess piece'

The creation of a new story....

Its winter and that means it is the time of year when I now routinely sit down to write a new story. I am more than half way into the writing, with roughly 50,000 words written. It is not done on a whim. The germ of an idea for this particular tale has an origin from a few days of relaxation spent in the sun on the island of Tenerife. While sat sipping ice-cold beer by the pool, I was jotting ideas in my notebook for a new subject to write about. Just little headings and then a bit of casual free writing to broaden the initial idea. By the time I was ready for the next frosted glass of thirst-quenching ale, I had about seven of these little introductions.

My turn to go to the bar, so I handed the notebook to my wife Paula and asked which one she thought she either liked best or would be an interesting story to tell. The length of the queue and general ‘faffing’ of the bar staff gave Paula the opportunity to give these little precis pieces thorough examination. By the time I returned with the beer Paula had replaced the notebook on my sun lounger and declared, after she took a first refreshing sip of her drink,

“Do number five!”

“Ok”, as I scanned down the page to the fifth of my seven stories that I had sketched out. Hmm! yes, I could see what she liked about it. More research to be done, but that is not unusual and a whole host of characters to create, a selection of scenery to visit, then describe and a way to build a new and authentic story. But a definite project! That is pretty much where it stayed. For the rest of 2024 I got on with finishing the publication the latest book, On the Beat, …..my collection of stories and anecdotes of my early years as a Beat Duty police officer in the Metropolitan Police in the 1980’s., which was published in December 2024. (which you can find on Amazon, with all my other novels and the link is at the top of my sub stack website page).

Back to this little poolside pencil jotted note, (ironically committed to a paper on 15^th March 2024…Beware the Ides of March, as the Soothsayer in the Bard’s Julius Caesar said!), which will become my fourth published novel. Once again, I am changing genre to try and write something new and fresh, to my readers, but also to me. This new work has a convoluted plot line, with many characters to both introduce and fold into the manuscript. It is to be set in France, so plenty of opportunities to research and explore the locations I am thinking of. But, as I sat contemplating the necessary tension I am trying to bring to the story; I paused to consider that the writing was akin to playing a slow and methodical game of chess.

Chess, often referred to as “The Game of Kings” has such a rich history, with moments of genius and breath-taking brilliance. How satisfied would I be to create an original plot that might be spoken of in such a wonderful way!

Does my introduction open in a solid and easy to follow way? Is it though, because of that, a little dull and lacking in drama? Perhaps the Caro-Kann opening, which is popular, but not as dynamic as many other beginnings, in Chess parlance.

Is my writing style making my reader think? Am I creating ideas of where my potential story is going? Trying to get the reader to accept the premise of the story, which may not be altogether as it seems, along the lines of the Queens Gambit, for example?

Other well-known chess moves spring to mind. Does this latest ‘work in progress’, an attempt to build a tense thriller, have hints of The Sicilian Defence. Something with distinct variations, but in the case of my part written manuscript, leading to complex and potentially dangerous struggles, where it is never obvious who may come out on top. That certainly seems to fit, as I contemplate where the narrative may take me next.

As I subtly try and move my characters across the landscape of the story I cannot rid myself of the feeling of similarities between my plot synopsis and other famous chess moves.

I have only been able to find a small amount of commentary surrounding the game of chess in 1999 played between Gary Kasparov and Veselin Topalov. Kasparov sacrifices his rook, but this leads to an unstoppable attack by him. Do some of my characters, important, but not integral, vying for page time in my new epic tome, need to be sacrificed, so that I may forge ahead to create the denouement I am looking for?

How else to describe the feeling of the creation of a storyline and the development of a character driven plot? How about the scene in an operations bunker during the height of the Battle of Britain? I have become the controller in this operations centre, sat with a commanding view, senior personnel sitting either side, communications officers bringing me the latest intelligence about enemy movements. Down below on a huge map, outlining the scope of my story, a number of WRAF staff, with long wooden poles, slide my characters around the board, bringing them into and out of the action at my ordering.

Or perhaps a more recent image, that seems to fit these thoughts of strategic plotting. I have the recollection of a wonderful moment in the Rowan Atkinson comedy ‘Blackadder goes Forth’. Field Marshall Haig, played by the wonderful actor Geoffrey Palmer, is chatting with Blackadder on the telephone about Blackadder’s desire to get out of the WW1 trenches and avoid ‘going over the top’ for the Big push. Haig, while listening to the pleadings of his erstwhile companion of Umboto Gorge, casually sweeps an entire battalion of miniature soldiers off the 3D landscape in front of him into a coal shovel and throws them over his shoulder, without even hesitating his conversation with Capt. Blackadder!

“You know me, Blackadder. Not a man to change my mind”.

“Yes, we’ve noticed that, Sir”.

Oh, to be so Cavalier when culling characters while writing?!

Book four continues to be written…..

Next up, some handy hints on self-publishing, or at least the decision to?

!