Self-Imposed Deadline
When I finished writing the first draft of my murder mystery, Dark Water, I gave myself a week-long break, just to get out of the headspace of working on a novel. I had marvelled at how little time it had taken me to write this fiction, considering how long any other novel has taken me.
Compared with the other books I've written, which have taken years to complete, Dark Water was done in a blink of an eye. Taking into account that I travelled to Peru, went kayaking, and edited all sorts of photos and video footage, plus maintaining this blog, it had taken fewer than four months to complete the first draft.
The second draft took a couple of weeks, during which I added new material, deleted extraneous content, and cleaned up the rest. It was at that point that I started sharing the raw manuscript with friends, seeking their honest opinions.
Most importantly, I wanted to know if they had figured out who the murderer(s) was/were early on in the novel.
I took their feedback, made more changes and thought the novel would be ready to submit to a publisher. It wasn't.
On the advice of a friend, I read a book on what it took to get a mystery novel ready for publication. Reading this book, I remembered that I had learned much of these tips and techniques when I was in journalism school, but I never thought some of the stricter rules, such as sticking to 'said' when quoting someone—or in this case, using dialog—instead of using synonyms such as 'cried' or 'laughed' would apply.
I also re-formatted my manuscript so that it was double-spaced, to make it easier to read.
I was about halfway through making other necessary changes to the book, to tighten it up, when I felt that I needed another, much longer break. I was missing some glaring problems: not the kind that a casual reader might notice, but ones that needed reworking.
And I was a bit burnt out from looking at the book over and over again.
In October, I stepped away from Dark Water and busied myself with other things; I was applying for jobs; I was making YouTube videos; I was starting renovation projects that I never finished.
In December, we had friends visit for a week, which was a wonderful distraction from everything, especially my writing. During their stay, I didn't even work on my blog.
Kid 1 was involved in a collision where no one was hurt but our SUV was totalled. So we spent time between Christmas and the new year looking for a replacement, whilst at the same time I was fighting with my insurance company for a reasonable settlement.
DW and I went to Costa Rica with some friends for 12 days, after which I busied myself with photo editing, blog writing, and video production. There's going to be a third video that'll come out but it's currently a lower priority for me.
When March came, I told myself that I had been away from Dark Water for long enough. Indeed, long enough to forget some of the characters' names. On March 2, I told myself, "It's time to return to Callaghan and Hayes."
It's Calloway: Michael "Mickey" Calloway.
I'm more than halfway through the first reading and I've made some changes to tighten up the text. I've added more emotion to the prologue. I've found some minor errors that have now been corrected.
I've also given myself a deadline to have the manuscript publisher-ready.
On Saturday, March 8, 2025, I told DW that I wanted to write a new novel and that I wanted to try my hand at a murder mystery. A detective novel. On that day, I decided that the novel would be set in Ottawa and that a body would be found on the Rideau River, near the Vimy Memorial Bridge.
But I had nothing else: no identity to the victim—not even if the victim was a man or woman—and no motive for the murder. I had no murderer. I didn't even know anything about the detective.
Having two police detectives came a couple of weeks later.
On March 14, as DW, Kid 1, and I drove to Toronto for a getaway with Kid 2 and some friends. As I drove, I started thinking more about this novel. I came up with the victim and one of the detectives. The victim had a job as a CBC reporter; the detective, a seasoned inspector who was returning to duty after a medical absence—nothing major, that would impede his ability to effectively do his job, but something that could prove to be an issue down the road.
Sorry, that might be a spoiler.
On March 16, as we drove back to Ottawa, I gave the story more thought. Being set in Canada's capital city, politics was going to be involved. But whether it was going to be federal politics or municipal politics, or both, was still left to be figured out. And I still didn't have a suspect or motive for the crime.
I knew that I had something coming together, and that I would have to start making notes or I would forget things. If only I could find some time to work on this story, I told myself as we neared home.
On Monday, March 17, as I was lining up my workday, I was called to a meeting with my manager's manager. I knew this person but we rarely communicated with one another, and never one-on-one, so I had a sinking feeling about this meeting.
And I was right. I was being laid off. But it wasn't just me: my manager and three other writers were being let go. Our entire documentation team.
Rather than get upset, I let out a sigh of relief. Now, I was going to have time to write this novel.
I worked for another week with my company, where I mostly said goodbye to colleagues and preparing a report that let my boss' boss know the state of my documentation and where everything could be located. I went to farewell lunches and prepared my computer so that it could be returned to the company.
In my free time, I really started fleshing out my storyline, and it was at this time that I came up with a working title: Dark Water. Yes, I ended up keeping it.
On Saturday, March 22, I came up with an idea for a motive and a possible murderer. I also came up with the idea of having the investigation coincide with the city in chaos after a plane crash. The murder victim would also be someone who was supposed to be a passenger on that flight but for some reason, she missed her flight.
And yes, the victim who is found in the Rideau River is a woman. If you haven't read it already, I have a synopsis, which you can read here.
On Sunday, March 23, I started making a spreadsheet with characters and backgrounds, and I wrote the prologue. I mark this date as the official start date for me writing Dark Water.
Monday, March 23, 2026 is now my deadline for having the novel ready to submit to a publisher. Which means that every day, until then, I'll be reading and re-reading the story. I should be done my first read in the next day or two, and then I'll start again.
I'm going to also ask some friends who are fast but thorough readers to have a look at this latest draft and offer suggestions and feedback. They will be people who haven't read the book before, so they'll have the freshest eyes.
I've read many crime-fiction books in my time—from great stories to those that absolutely sucked—and I have to admit that mine is pretty good, if I do say so. The greatest factor to that claim is that this is the first book I've written that I've actually liked to read, myself. I'm probably my biggest critic and Dark Water is the first book that doesn't make me cringe when I read it.
What a ringing endorsement: Dark Water. It doesn't make me cringe.
Stay tuned.
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