David Barrie's Blog, page 2

On deadlines.

On trusting your ear, rather than your eye.

The manuscript of Loose-Limbed, the third Franck Guerin book, is now with the publisher. That means I am caught up in the editorial process, which involves me defending what I wrote tooth and nail and them explaining to me (more or less patiently, depending on the day) why no sane reader would be willing to plough through the book in its current state.

On originality.

It may be that a touch of paranoia is inevitable once you start investing time and money in a creative endeavour. It probably has to do with the fact that labouring away at a story, song or work of art is such a nakedly personal undertaking, that you feel as anxious and protective about the result as a mother might a newly-born baby.

On false summits.

I am a regular, although mediocre, runner of marathons. I attempt to do one a year, and as a result have a drawer which clinks like a treasure trove every time I open it because it conceals my small stash of medals (long distance running being an admirably egalitarian sport, even the last to arrive gets one).
However, I hate running marathons.

On facts, and when to acquire them.

Write first; research later. Not a common dictum, I grant you, but one that seems to work for me. More to the point, the opposite does not, as I learned from my unsuccessful attempts at writing a Ph.D. thesis

On recurrent characters.

With all the zeal of a recent convert, I

On being interviewed.

"Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop".

On getting started.

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it is off to work we go. The first week of September marks the start of the business year in France when major projects are kicked-off and ambitious statements made about the year ahead. As business remains very quiet for my own little management consulting firm, it is probably a good time to try to knock out the next Franck Guerin book.

On the diffusion of literary artifacts.

This summer I found myself in a (very well run) campsite in Buena Vista, Colorado (the Snowy Peaks RV Park for anyone who might find themselves passing through there; which, if you are a hiker, you should try to do some day).

On retouching.

John Law Media plan to release a Kindle version of "Wasp-Waisted"> this summer, and they have given me the opportunity to revise the text before they do so. So I reread it (which I had not done since it was published) and tweaked some lines