The Devonian author sits
down in The Den to talk about his new book Tripler...
When an interesting book comes our way, we like to find out a bit more about the thinking behind it. So a few weeks ago, John Collins sat down with Neil and put some questions his way...
Hi Neil, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. Well done again on writing Tripler, I enjoyed it so much.
Thanks a lot. It was a great pleasure seeing the novel feature in a review over at The Cult Den. And a bloody relief that you liked it, obviously!
So, Tripler is the first of a trilogy; was that always the intention or did it evolve through the writing?
Right at the beginning I was certain Tripler was going to be a one-and-done novel. But then, by the end of drafting chapter three, Harry and his Versions had well and truly gotten under my skin, and I was having so much fun that I realised I was never going to get all of my ideas into one book.
Once I knew I had a trilogy on my hands it was spectacularly freeing, because it allowed me to streamline my plot and stopped me from fatally overstuffing the novel. Having Tripler be book one allowed me to focus on a very specific character trajectory for Harry, and it leaves him – and his two other selves – in a (hopefully) very interesting and radically different place as we head into book two.
The premise is so intriguing, I know this is a cliché, but where did the idea come from?
Neil: There are really two answers to this. The high-falutin’ one is that I have always been fascinated by the mechanics of identity creation, by the complex nature of what exactly constitutes the “self”, and I’ve always been interested in exploring how we go about constructing and then reconfiguring our own personalities.
Especially nowadays, where everyone is encouraged to create and nurture multiple identities online, we’re used to manipulating perceptions, to presenting ourselves in certain ways, to constantly tweaking our personas so that they give the best impression of who we supposedly are. With that at the forefront of my mind, the idea of the Tripler virus – of being forced into having two other whole and complete selves for permanent company – seemed particularly potent and relevant to me.
The other answer to this question is truly mundane: the idea came from my dog. I was out walking him and was stunned to see him suddenly appear up ahead of me, about fifty metres away, because I could hear him breathing and I knew he was supposed to be directly behind me. Turned out the dog up ahead was just an uncannily good lookalike, but there was a moment where my mind was properly fooled.
My thought process went something like, “Hmm, what if my dog could project a version of itself somewhere else? Wait, what if it could project two versions of itself and do three things at once? WAIT – WHAT IF A HUMAN COULD DO THAT?”
Once I’d married my initially daft-seeming concept with my desire to write an action-based novel, I realised a whole world of possibilities had opened up, and I couldn't shake the idea. Also, well … I thought it would be cool!
In my review, I talked about your choice of lexis to enhance the physical and emotional description, particularly the effects of the explosion. As a novice writer I’m interested to know, do you spend as much time actually choosing, writing and thinking over the prose as you do the overall plot?
Uh, there are quite a few explosions in Tripler, but I think I know the particular one you’re referring to! I’m one of those writers who enjoys constructing plot and crafting prose in equal measure.
I am also an obsessive rewriter, and because I have a strong background in short stories I am always conscious of how individual scenes should have a well-defined beginning, middle and an end, and be as precisely worded as possible. That’s not to say I always get it right, though! The truth is, I spend a lot of time chewing over everything. That’s the writer’s lot, I suppose: we’re always chewing on something.
Harry is an interesting protagonist. For example, he decides to call his two versions Will and Way, describing it as a ‘coping mechanism.’ In many ways, that mechanism applies as much to the reader, so it could be said that his intentions as a character are the same as yours as a writer. Therefore I have to ask, how much of Harry was or wasn’t inspired by you?
Well, part of how the concept of Will and Way came about was through Harry's sense of humour – ie, "where there's a Will there's a Way" – but you're right, I needed a method of distinguishing between the various voices in Harry's head, otherwise the prose was going to get confusing and irritating quickly.
I also knew very early on that I wanted his Versions to have personalities of their own, and naming them differently allowed them to become characters in their own right. Some of it was stylistic – I sort of wanted to have my cake and eat it. After all, I've got a novel narrated in the first person by one man who is actually three men, and that gives me a lot of scope and freedom to experiment with simultaneous perspectives and conflicting viewpoints. Above all else, it's more fun to write.
As for Harry and myself – inevitably, there are a couple of similarities. We both love Bowie's music (though, arguably, Harry’s obsession is greater than mine) and we both have the kind of mind where we're always looking for the quickest route to achieve our goals. Harry's continually checking the angles and seeking any way possible to push his advantage, and there's some of that in me too. And his dry and sometimes inappropriate sense of humour is similar to my own.
On the other hand, Harry kills people with ease, is a much better fighter than I am, is a confident handler of firearms, and is barely sane at the best of times. So there are some important differences!
While the novel inevitably falls into the category of science fiction due to the fantastical concept, it is as much a psychological thriller. Was this intended or did it just happen to work out that way?
I definitely wanted there to be a strong and compelling psychological component to the story. I’m always interested in finding ways to crank up the tension, and having Harry be such a deeply conflicted person, who quite literally has three sides to his character, was the perfect way to complicate the story at every turn.
Harry’s thwarted by his own selves on numerous occasions, and in some ways his greatest enemy is himself, and his greatest battles in the book are against versions of himself. I love sci-fi, I adore and embrace all the familiar tropes, but I also wanted to explore my central conceit in a way that meant the concept of Tripling was essential to all aspects of the story, and not just a cool gimmick or an excuse to write crazy action scenes.
Without giving too much away, can you give any indication of what we can expect from further instalments?
Chaos. Anarchy. Blood. Retribution. Bowie.
In the next book, the Tripler apocalypse, which has so far been only been a looming threat, will begin to properly manifest, and will start to change the world in unforeseen and terrifying ways. But Harry will struggle to notice, because he’s so consumed with getting revenge…
Obviously you’ll be busy writing the next book, but have you got any other projects on the horizon?
I’ll be contributing a number of standalone short stories to an anthology due out in November of this year, published by December House, themed entirely around the supernatural. My contributions will be... off-kilter. Other than that, it’ll mostly be Tripler all the way this year!
Finally, I’ve read somewhere that you have written screenplays before. Is screenwriting another avenue you would like to explore?
I have dabbled, and I really enjoy the process of writing a screenplay, but I have to dig deep for the discipline it requires. I have a tremendous amount of respect for screenwriters and I enjoy reading screenplays, but unless someone wants to offer me something specific, I don’t have any plans to write any of my own at the moment.
People keep telling me Tripler would make a good movie, but I’m not sure I’d personally want the responsibility of getting it into shape for the screen. There’d be some logistical headaches involved in an adaptation!
Neil, thank you very much for answering these questions and all the best for the next two novels and your future projects. I can’t wait to read them!
When an interesting book comes our way, we like to find out a bit more about the thinking behind it. So a few weeks ago, John Collins sat down with Neil and put some questions his way...
Hi Neil, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. Well done again on writing Tripler, I enjoyed it so much.
Thanks a lot. It was a great pleasure seeing the novel feature in a review over at The Cult Den. And a bloody relief that you liked it, obviously!
So, Tripler is the first of a trilogy; was that always the intention or did it evolve through the writing?
Right at the beginning I was certain Tripler was going to be a one-and-done novel. But then, by the end of drafting chapter three, Harry and his Versions had well and truly gotten under my skin, and I was having so much fun that I realised I was never going to get all of my ideas into one book.
Once I knew I had a trilogy on my hands it was spectacularly freeing, because it allowed me to streamline my plot and stopped me from fatally overstuffing the novel. Having Tripler be book one allowed me to focus on a very specific character trajectory for Harry, and it leaves him – and his two other selves – in a (hopefully) very interesting and radically different place as we head into book two.
The premise is so intriguing, I know this is a cliché, but where did the idea come from?
Neil: There are really two answers to this. The high-falutin’ one is that I have always been fascinated by the mechanics of identity creation, by the complex nature of what exactly constitutes the “self”, and I’ve always been interested in exploring how we go about constructing and then reconfiguring our own personalities.
Especially nowadays, where everyone is encouraged to create and nurture multiple identities online, we’re used to manipulating perceptions, to presenting ourselves in certain ways, to constantly tweaking our personas so that they give the best impression of who we supposedly are. With that at the forefront of my mind, the idea of the Tripler virus – of being forced into having two other whole and complete selves for permanent company – seemed particularly potent and relevant to me.
The other answer to this question is truly mundane: the idea came from my dog. I was out walking him and was stunned to see him suddenly appear up ahead of me, about fifty metres away, because I could hear him breathing and I knew he was supposed to be directly behind me. Turned out the dog up ahead was just an uncannily good lookalike, but there was a moment where my mind was properly fooled.
My thought process went something like, “Hmm, what if my dog could project a version of itself somewhere else? Wait, what if it could project two versions of itself and do three things at once? WAIT – WHAT IF A HUMAN COULD DO THAT?”
Once I’d married my initially daft-seeming concept with my desire to write an action-based novel, I realised a whole world of possibilities had opened up, and I couldn't shake the idea. Also, well … I thought it would be cool!
In my review, I talked about your choice of lexis to enhance the physical and emotional description, particularly the effects of the explosion. As a novice writer I’m interested to know, do you spend as much time actually choosing, writing and thinking over the prose as you do the overall plot?
Uh, there are quite a few explosions in Tripler, but I think I know the particular one you’re referring to! I’m one of those writers who enjoys constructing plot and crafting prose in equal measure.
I am also an obsessive rewriter, and because I have a strong background in short stories I am always conscious of how individual scenes should have a well-defined beginning, middle and an end, and be as precisely worded as possible. That’s not to say I always get it right, though! The truth is, I spend a lot of time chewing over everything. That’s the writer’s lot, I suppose: we’re always chewing on something.
Harry is an interesting protagonist. For example, he decides to call his two versions Will and Way, describing it as a ‘coping mechanism.’ In many ways, that mechanism applies as much to the reader, so it could be said that his intentions as a character are the same as yours as a writer. Therefore I have to ask, how much of Harry was or wasn’t inspired by you?
Well, part of how the concept of Will and Way came about was through Harry's sense of humour – ie, "where there's a Will there's a Way" – but you're right, I needed a method of distinguishing between the various voices in Harry's head, otherwise the prose was going to get confusing and irritating quickly.
I also knew very early on that I wanted his Versions to have personalities of their own, and naming them differently allowed them to become characters in their own right. Some of it was stylistic – I sort of wanted to have my cake and eat it. After all, I've got a novel narrated in the first person by one man who is actually three men, and that gives me a lot of scope and freedom to experiment with simultaneous perspectives and conflicting viewpoints. Above all else, it's more fun to write.
As for Harry and myself – inevitably, there are a couple of similarities. We both love Bowie's music (though, arguably, Harry’s obsession is greater than mine) and we both have the kind of mind where we're always looking for the quickest route to achieve our goals. Harry's continually checking the angles and seeking any way possible to push his advantage, and there's some of that in me too. And his dry and sometimes inappropriate sense of humour is similar to my own.
On the other hand, Harry kills people with ease, is a much better fighter than I am, is a confident handler of firearms, and is barely sane at the best of times. So there are some important differences!
While the novel inevitably falls into the category of science fiction due to the fantastical concept, it is as much a psychological thriller. Was this intended or did it just happen to work out that way?
I definitely wanted there to be a strong and compelling psychological component to the story. I’m always interested in finding ways to crank up the tension, and having Harry be such a deeply conflicted person, who quite literally has three sides to his character, was the perfect way to complicate the story at every turn.
Harry’s thwarted by his own selves on numerous occasions, and in some ways his greatest enemy is himself, and his greatest battles in the book are against versions of himself. I love sci-fi, I adore and embrace all the familiar tropes, but I also wanted to explore my central conceit in a way that meant the concept of Tripling was essential to all aspects of the story, and not just a cool gimmick or an excuse to write crazy action scenes.
Without giving too much away, can you give any indication of what we can expect from further instalments?
Chaos. Anarchy. Blood. Retribution. Bowie.
In the next book, the Tripler apocalypse, which has so far been only been a looming threat, will begin to properly manifest, and will start to change the world in unforeseen and terrifying ways. But Harry will struggle to notice, because he’s so consumed with getting revenge…
Obviously you’ll be busy writing the next book, but have you got any other projects on the horizon?
I’ll be contributing a number of standalone short stories to an anthology due out in November of this year, published by December House, themed entirely around the supernatural. My contributions will be... off-kilter. Other than that, it’ll mostly be Tripler all the way this year!
Finally, I’ve read somewhere that you have written screenplays before. Is screenwriting another avenue you would like to explore?
I have dabbled, and I really enjoy the process of writing a screenplay, but I have to dig deep for the discipline it requires. I have a tremendous amount of respect for screenwriters and I enjoy reading screenplays, but unless someone wants to offer me something specific, I don’t have any plans to write any of my own at the moment.
People keep telling me Tripler would make a good movie, but I’m not sure I’d personally want the responsibility of getting it into shape for the screen. There’d be some logistical headaches involved in an adaptation!
Neil, thank you very much for answering these questions and all the best for the next two novels and your future projects. I can’t wait to read them!
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