Hello everyone
In 2019, I answered a reader’s question. That question, and I paraphrase: where do you get your ideas from?.
The short version of the answer is: everywhere. The longer answer is: ideas are easy, the bigger issue is whether an idea is substantial enough to be the basis for a complete novel.
However, there’s a step I didn’t talk about in that post: growing that initial spark. In other words, taking a fleeting notion—the slightest whisper—and making it into a more coherent story kernel.
For me, when I am looking for a more coherent story idea, I take the spark and ask a lot of questions—each answer likely generating yet more questions.
A few days ago, I had an idea—not necessarily a great idea, but an idea nonetheless. I thought you might be interested to see what I did with this idea and how I questioned myself to develop the kernel of what could become a novel.
The basic idea…
The idea that came to me was:
There’s a translator…
…who overhears something he’s not meant to hear
This idea—to be kind to the idea—is quite thin and not particularly unique. For instance, the 2005 film The Interpreter has at its heart a translator who overhears an assassination plot.
But I had a different image in my head. I had the picture of a conversation knowingly being carried on in front of the translator. The two people having the conversation did not expect the translator—a young man, a seemingly naive person—to understand what was being communicated. In other words: there is a character who is being underestimated…and that always intrigues me.
Characters
When it comes to developing the spark, my first thought is: who do I ask the questions of?
With the situation of a translator who hears something he’s not expected to understand, as a matter of basic logic there are immediately four characters I can interrogate:
- the translator
- his principal—the person who has hired the translator
- the counterparty to the principal—the person with whom the principal wants to communicate but needs the translator’s skills
- the person who the counterparty has a conversation with (that the translator overhears)
So, let’s get asking questions and see where this leads us.
With any of these questions, you might not agree with the questions, the answer or the inference that I have drawn. And that’s fine. But these questions, answers, and inferences are where my mind went, and combined, these all suggest a certain kind of novel, to me. Another novelist would almost certainly come to a different conclusion.
Translator
The first character to interrogate is, naturally, the translator.
Where did he come from?
I had the image of someone whose origins are uncertain. If you place a rectangle on the map, with the top-left corner on Istanbul and the bottom-left corner on Cairo, and then extend the right edge of the rectangle east as far as Islamabad, I figured he could come from anywhere in that region—so possibly, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, or one of the Stans.
Where did he learn his languages?
Taking someone with a broadly (and at this point in my thinking, non-specific) Middle Eastern background, my question was where did he learn his languages. And the obvious, if rather clichéd answer was: in a refugee camp.
What else did he learn in the refugee camps?
While it might be a cliché to associate the Middle East with refugees, there’s something intriguing about a character who has passed through a refugee camp, and the notion of a refugee gives the character interesting potential dimensions.
First, from a linguistic perspective, the experience in a refugee camp gives the character the opportunity to learn many languages and dialects, first-hand, in a practical situation. He can now communicate with most people from Asia and Africa. In other words, the conversation he overhears could be in virtually any Asian or African language.
But in addition to languages, through his experiences in the refugee camps he has developed an understanding (knowledge/fear) of gangs and how they operate—both the people smuggling gangs that move people across borders and the criminal elements who ruthlessly exploit the human misery within the camps. And he has seen the resilience of people and the strategies they adopt to survive when forced to live in an awful situation.
Principal
A translator is only a translator if he’s got someone he’s translating for. If he’s not translating, then he’s just someone with a skill for languages. So the translator needs a principal.
Why does the principal need a translator?
This principal needs to communicate with people who speak a different language and who come from a different culture. This tells us of a level of subservience—or, at least, the principal wants something from the people with whom he is communicating.
This points to the principal being a businessman. More, it implies to me that his clients are probably nation states (or quasi nation states, such as criminal or military groups seeking control of the nation state).
To me, this suggests that the principal is probably a weapons manufacturer. Given that we’re in 2025, these will be high tech weapons systems.
Why does the principal need our translator?
Seeking out a translator with proficiency in many languages implies that the principal is intending (or hopes) to do business in many countries. He wants one person that he can trust—he doesn’t want to have to trust a separate person for each language.
And while it may be good business practice to involve as few people as possible in negotiating deals, I suspect that this principal wants the fewest number of people involved because there is a shady element to his business.
Extrapolating, I’m going to guess that the principal wouldn’t be shy about sanctions busting or finding loopholes around export controls on arms sales.
What sort of person doesn’t have a facility with languages?
Beyond his subservience to his potential clients, the principal’s lack of facility with languages tells me one thing: he’s probably British…probably English.
However, given his obvious ambition to earn money, I’m going to guess that he didn’t start his business in the UK.
Counterparty
The principal needs a counterparty—the person he is negotiating with. The person to whom he is trying to sell his weapons.
So far, we’ve had two male characters, so let’s assume this character is female.
Who does she work for?
And this is where things get tricky…
Assuming the ultimate purchaser of the weapons is a nation state (or quasi), then the counterparty will be working for a government (or aspirant government) or will be an intermediary, there to keep the identity of the client obscured.
Whatever she’s doing, there will be many secrets surrounding her and anything she tells us will probably be a lie. However, there will likely be tells that she unconsciously gives off which the translator can pick up on.
And if she’s there to keep the identity of her client/paymaster obscured, this implies that she is both deniable and disposable.
Why is she taking the risk?
This woman is clearly not a fool—indeed, to be in the role she is in, we must assume she is highly competent—so why is she putting herself in a situation where she is taking these risks, potentially making herself deniable and disposable?
The obvious answer is personal gain, probably financial.
However, there is another possibility: leverage. Whoever she is working for may be blackmailing her—perhaps her family are at risk.
Or maybe this is telling us something about her character—maybe she’s arrogant and reckless, lacking a firm understanding of the risks she is taking.
The Chatty One
The fourth character is the individual who the translator overhears talking with the counterparty.
So is he a translator?
Clearly not. If he says something that has the effect of kicking off this story—something that must be important—then he’s not simply a translator, even if he presents himself as one.
If he’s not a translator, then what is his role?
There are several possible explanations for this character:
- He could be a minder for the counterparty. He could be there to make sure she doesn’t double-cross her employer, or maybe to keep reminding her of the danger her family is in if she fails on her mission.
- He could be the counterparty’s senior—the true power for making this business deal.
- In many cultures, it would be unusual for a woman to assume the role taken by the counterparty—maybe this offers some explanation for his role.
Whatever his true role, it is obvious that, like the counterparty, he is not who he presents himself as being, and is not to be trusted.
What have we learned about this novel?
You can see, with a few questions, I’ve gone from a fairly flimsy idea to having the kernel of a story.
To me, at the moment, this feels like a run of the mill espionage story. I’m not sure what sort of espionage story—there’s certainly a corporate element in there with a high tech arms deal, which probably goes wrong.
The story has the potential for high personal stakes, and there is room for personal complications to be thrown in. That’s before I think about any double-crosses.
In other words, for me, there’s something that could be interesting.
Is this enough? Will it be a novel?
So, is this enough for a novel?
In short, no. There are still some serious flaws…
I’m not sure this is sufficiently gripping, at the moment. It’s not unique—it’s not its own story. It needs something more—quite a lot of somethings. In particular, the idea doesn’t have a clear conflict, and without a conflict, all I really have is a situation, not a story.
However, there are some potentially interesting characters here, all with potential hinterlands and motivations. I’m not sure they’re interesting enough as they stand—nor that they have sufficient motivation to act—but I think something could be done with this. And I think there’s something about the interaction between these four characters that could be interesting. So I’ll file this notion away and review it from time to time.
But if it’s going to go anywhere, it needs a lot more work.
Until July
That’s me for this edition. I’ll be back next month, by which time these ideas will definitely not have become a novel. If they ever do become a novel, it won’t be this year or next.
Until July.
All the best
Simon