Anthony Eaton's Blog: Musings from an Outer-Spiral-Arm - Posts Tagged "trilogy"

So, I started this blog and promptly neglected it for a week. Not the most auspicious start, I guess. But, in all honesty, between being buried in marking at work, trying to finish a book for an increasingly nervous publisher, and absolutely having to spend as much time as possible every day playing with Toby, (who has just reached the age where it's hilariously funny to be dangled upside-down by his hips, kissed repeatedly and have raspberries blown on his tummy) blogging hasn't been as much of a priority as it probably should.

Actually, on that, I just want to thank the lovely folks at UQP who extended my deadline (again) last week, and did so with tremendous grace, given that this book was originally due to them at the end of November of last year. (Small hint for anyone thinking of writing a book / having a baby enter the family / taking on a full time job in a new field for the first time in five years: DON'T!- at least, not all at the same time) I had roughly 60,000 words of the final 'Darklands' book done by the time Toby arrived, on 24th November last year. Those took me about a month and a half to write. They flowed out beautifully, I was happy with them. It was all going so well.

It's taken the intervening five(ish)months to write the next 30,000, in dribs and drabs and during the small periods when I've got both the time and energy to push out a few thousand words here and there.

This isn't how I usually work - generally I like to put blocks of time aside, and just pour the book out of me, but in this case, I've had to adapt. Now, I'm very aware that the 'bitsy' writing has made for a 'bitsy' story in places, so editing is going to be a pain.

Still, the bones of it are okay, I think, which is a good thing, because I'm sure not starting it again, like I did three times with Skyfall. I'm not happy about having to adopt the Douglas Adams approach ("I love deadlines; I like the 'whooshing' sound they make as they go past"), but really I don't feel like I've had much choice, which I guess is just part of the writing game, sometimes.

Still, it's almost there, now. Just a couple of thousand words to go, and we're done. Book three of a trilogy that's taken me the better part of a decade to get out of my head. I'll finally be able to let go of these characters, this world, and get on with something new. The strange thing is that I'm kind of reluctant to let that happen - it'll be very, very odd, not to have this hanging over my head. I'm not sure what's going to fill the space it'll leave behind.

I guess I should probably go and finish the thing. Get the monkey off my back and all that.

Or I could go play with my son for a while.