Here’s a secret: I’m writing a book.
Not the first, granted, although somehow I managed to forget to write about the Aperture book once it had been published and arrived in my hands. Don’t know why – it took months to put it together and despite some misgivings I have signed the contract for a second edition.
Anyhow, this isn’t that. This is fiction.
I had an idea for a story at the start of the year which matured over the next few months, pretty much until we went to the Dales at Easter, in fact. By then it was more or less worked out in my mind, and one evening I mentioned it at dinner and ended up sketching out the story. I hadn’t planned on doing that, but it’s probably as well that I did, as everyone said they wanted to read it.
So, on the train home, I started to write.
And it’s going surprisingly well. My characters are behaving, they’re saying the things I want them to say, and they’re not going off down any unexpected tracks. The secret, as I’ve discovered, is careful, extensive planning. It’s the only way you can keep them in control. After all, if you don’t know where you need to take them, you shouldn’t be surprised if they wander off on their own.
Skipping that stage was the cause of my downfall last time around. Back then I raced off with nothing but a word-count in sight and the results were, frankly, rubbish. It all petered out at 115,000 words, when the story was only half way told.
I’ve looked back at it since and it’s trash. And contrived trash at that.
Re-reading that blog entry, I can see that I’d managed to put down 50,000 words in three weeks, which should have told me something fairly obvious. Apparently it didn’t. This time, in a couple of months of writing I’d done 40,000 words. A respectable total, and one with which I’m satisfied, as I know this time around that the story has integrity.
That’s why the characters are behaving themselves: I know where they need to go, and I know what they need to say in every conversation. I also know who they are, how they got where they are, and how this defines their motivation for every move and spoken word.
It’s very fulfilling, but much harder work than I’d imagined. I’m determined to see it through, though. Hence this entry. Now that I’ve admitted I’m doing it, I have to finish it.
Watch this space.
