Harold - The Middle-Aged Master Criminal

  

Do you have old unpublished manuscripts that you might revive? Why did you abandon it (or them?) What would it take for you to go back to them?

 

By Abir

 

I was born lucky. At least that’s what my mum says. And when it comes to writing, that’s probably true. I didn’t start writing my first novel till the age of forty. I know – I don’t look a day over twenty-five – but trust me, I’m old and I’m lucky.

 

The first full novel I wrote was published, and in the years since I’ve been fortunate to always be in contract, agreeing my ideas in advance with my publishers, sending them a synopsis of what I intended to write, and then going ahead and writing. So I don’t have unpublished manuscripts squirreled away in a drawer somewhere. What I do have, though, are semi-formed ideas and the opening chapters of several things I started writing when I was in my thirties and then stopped because: 

a)     I read what I’d written and got scared; 

b)    I got bored; or 

c)     Life/work/kids got in the way.

 

Amongst them there is one particular idea that I would love to resurrect. It’s the story of a middle-aged man who dreams of committing the perfect crime. In the few chapters I’d written, he’s called Harold and is having a bit of a mid-life crisis. His wife has fallen out of love with him, his kids think him irrelevant, and he has grown to hate his job (he’s a banker for the world’s ultra-rich). Naturally he blames a lot of this on his name. It’s been hard for people called Harold ever since 1066. Our Harold though, has a plan to change everything. He’s going to commit the perfect crime and he’s going to get away with it. Of course, life never pans out that smoothly, especially for people called Harold, and his plans, through no fault of his own, go wrong. Harold alas finds himself running for his life. Can he save the situation before he ends up in an early grave?

 

I think there’s something alluring about committing the perfect crime. I still believe in the idea and I will write it one day. So why did I stop writing it? I think the answer lies in the fact that back in 2010 when I started it, I really had no idea of how to write a book. I got mired in boring bits and never concentrated on what mattered. As a result, what I wrote was pretty crap and the process scared me.

 

Now, thirteen years later, I’m a lot more experienced. My skills as a writer have improved, and whilst I don’t always get it right first time, I have the confidence to keep working at it until I have something decent.

 

So one day I will write about Harold, because his story still interests me, and because I think it’d be fun. After all, there’s a bit of Harold in all of us.