WORK IN PROGRESS

As a beginning writer, I remember buying a ream of pale blue paper, a box of 2B pencils and a fancy sharpener, then coming home and plunging straight into the first chapter of the novel I wanted to write. I had no plan, but I had no doubts, either. What I did have was enthusiasm for the task, and that carried me through to a full draft. But the lack of a plan, the rush to the finish line, resulted in a novel that was structurally flawed. Needless to say, that first manuscript will probably languish in a bottom drawer forever.

Experience has taught me that the process of creating a new novel-length work is, and should be, a slow one. Before writing can begin there needs to be a longish gathering period in which thoughts and ideas accumulate along with material. It is a time of mulling over possibilities in order to be certain that the idea you decide to spend the next couple of years on is going to be worth it.

At the moment, I am still in the gathering stage, although getting closer every day to writing on the blue paper. I have also learned that it doesn't do to tell too much in the early days of a novel in case its fragile shape dematerializes. What I will say is that there will be music, that the settings will be wild and lovely and the characters full of spirit. That's it for now!