Ah, those two little words that mean so much. Two words that are so exciting for any novelist, yet also often rather daunting. Chapter One. The start of a new book. A fresh beginning. A chance for a breakthrough, possibly. Or heartache and frustration, perhaps. Yep, I'm in philosophical mood this evening. For, having returned from work and had something to eat, I'm going to sit right down and write...well, a few paragraphs at least.
This new book is going to be another Lake District Mystery, and I've mapped out in my mind key elements of the main plot, which has its roots in the past, and also a couple of sub-plots.I've thought about the main characters, and have a good idea of their main personality traits. But there's still quite a lot I'm unsure about, especially about how the detective work will be carried out, that I hope and expect will be filled in during the months ahead.
As usual, I don't know how long exactly this book will take to write, though I'm hoping it won't be more than twelve months. We'll see. I am, though, excited by the main ideas behind the story, and that's mportant, because a writer needs to be excited by the basic concept of the book in order to keep going when morale starts to suffer - as it usually does at some point.
I'm rather tempted to write a number of blog posts about aspects of writing generally, and about the writing of the book specifically, as I proceed. How this will work out in practice is hard to foresee. I'll stop if I think it's getting tedious for my loyal readers, or if it gets in the way of the actual writing. But I hope it will be interesting for you, and for me. Over the past few weeks, I've been averaging a blog post a day, as well as venturing a few steps into the mysterious world of Twitter (a world I'm still rather unsure about, to be honest.) Now I'm planning to revert to three or four blog posts a week to give me a bit more space for writing the novel. As always, I'll very much welcome your comments, whether posted on the blog or sent by email.
One final word about Blogger. I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but it seems as though the wretched problem of spam comments has been resolved, at least for the present. I've not had any spam comments for a while now, whereas sometimes I was getting up to twenty a day - very tedious. I assume this also means that the Blogger stats are becoming more reliable. I'd welcome any feedback from fellow Blogger bloggers on their own experience..
13 comments:
Martin - I'm so happy to hear you've begun your next Lake District mystery. I'll be really excited to read it. And I like the idea of your sharing the writing process. It's interesting to me to know what goes on 'behind the scenes.' I'll look forward to your posts.
Good luck, Martin!Contemplating diving in off the high board is always the worst bit. Keeping reminding yourself how much we all enjoy your Lake District books....as long as that doesn't put you under too much pressure!
Will be thinking of you!
Liz Gilbey
As I read the beginning of your post I thought it was interesting to read how you go about writing your books. So I'm glad you're going to do more posts on writing. I often wonder how on earth people with day jobs manage to write books as well and a blog too. You must have stamina, I think as well as enthusiasm and excitement.
Good luck with the new book! As for Blogger I think there are periods when blogs are being slammed by spam referral which is more bothersome than spam itself. My spam referral continues to be a problem and there's nothing I can do about it other than NEVER to click on the links that appear in the Blogger stats. I found that by not allowing Anonymous comments the spam comments dropped to zero in a matter of weeks. I'd rather have zero spam than have to waste my time deleting all the nonsense left by Anonymous commentors who are only leaving links to porn websites.
Margot, many thanks. I am encouraged to say more about my writing experience!
Hi Liz, very kind as ever. No pressure at all!
Thanks, Margaret. I'm very interested in how writers go about their work, so I'm strongly tempted to throw my own opinions into the mix. As for stamina, yes, I'm sure all novelists need that.
Hi John. I'm not clear about the difference between spam and spam referral? Is the latter to do with links to Bad Stuff?
I have been told, by someone who knows a lot more about the technology than I do, that new technology means that spammers now have to imput each email address individually by hand rather than send off thousands of emails with one click. This has inevitably reduced the amount of spam being sent out.
I would be fascinated to read your progress blogs and see how your process unfolds. I've only just stumbled across your blog which is already very enlightening.
Roz, that's very interesting, thanks.
Eamonn, good to hear from you and I'm really grateful for your feedback.
You need a "share this" button, so we can tweet (or FB) the link to other interested colleagues! I liked the blog title, too.
Post a Comment