What The Lord of the Rings and Unspoken have in common
15 April, 2026
Q: What do The Lord of the Rings, War and Peace, The Name of the Wind, Shantaram and Unspoken have in common?
A: They all took more than 10 years to finish!
Anyone who knows me knows I’m pretty enthusiastic about starting new things.
I have no shortage of harebrained ideas, and when I decide to take one on, it usually starts with me saying: How hard can it be?
The answer generally turns out to be: Much harder than I thought!!
And so it was with Unspoken.
It all began back in 2014
Back in 2014, I started reading books on the craft of writing - character, structure, dialogue, pacing, point of view etc etc. Fascinating.
It changed the way I read novels forever.
My next thought bubble was: May as well write a few scenes based on what I was learning.
That's how it all started.
Over many years I’d read the theory, then write chapters in enthusiastic bursts.
Then work would take over ... months would slip by.
Each time I came back to the manuscript - if you could call it that - I’d read the last section and my reaction was usually something like: What was I thinking? - partly because the writing wasn’t very good, and partly because I genuinely had no idea what I’d been trying to say or where the story was heading!
Then something unexpected happened.
The best thing that could have happened.
I LOST EVERYTHING!!
Around 50,000 words.
I had to start fresh.
But this time I mapped it out, scene by scene.
Ticked away at it whenever I could.
And over the years, I started to form a solid basis for what would become Unspoken.
When I retired, I quickly discovered there's only so much gardening I can do!
Finishing Unspoken became my focus.
I treated writing like my job and spent about eight hours a day on the manuscript - sometimes more, but only because I loved doing it. It was cathartic - a way to bring closure to a twenty-year chapter of my life.
The manuscript gave me space to reflect on my time in politics and what I thought was important to say.
Then I had another problem.
By the time I typed THE END, I had over 115,000 words - way too many for a debut novel.
My research was telling me I needed to get in under 90,000!
That was a blessing, because it meant hard decisions had to be made.
I couldn't stray from a very compact storyline.
Thousands of words and more than a few side stories were cut.
So, what didn't get culled?
They say write what you know and I knew there was a place for a novel set in the argy bargy of politics.
But not one that gets bogged down in jargon no one understands or cares about. Or a storyline that's centred on politicians being ... well, politicians! I knew that wouldn’t appeal to a broad audience.
At its core, Unspoken is about the diverse characters that move within the political circle - politicians yes, a few, but mostly not. And it's about the expectations and unspoken rules that shape their behaviour.
It follows an introverted, embattled woman - not your classic thriller hero - who is drawn into events she never sought and barely understands.
Through her eyes, the novel explores how people survive systems that rely on containment and silence, and how hard it is to push back, if indeed you have the capacity and support to do it.