Progress on the new novel
I don't write much about the new novel and its progress. I don't talk about it much, not in any detail at least. I feel like some air lets out of me, a balloon, when I talk (or write, even in my journal) about what the story is, how it's developing, where it's going, exactly. It releases tension that needs to stay internal, I think. You see, I don't know where the story (a scene, a chapter) might go until I'm there in it with the characters, watching with them, waiting with them, to see what will happen. Oh, I have general ideas, of course, outlines for chapters and scenes, on paper, in my head, of way points/milestones. But those can change, too, with any new idea, phrase. I don't know until I'm writing what might happen.
So I'm at another way point: printing out another clean version of the book. Word count is nearly 50,000 (about half of what a typical novel runs). That's including several pages of material I know won't be used (front material, notes) and even more material in the back, maybe half a dozen pages, of notes on characters, scenes, dialogues, words to use. That's not counting an extra file of Leftover Material that's about 100 pages (plus/minus 25,000 words).
And there's also an old file I just discovered this morning: an early draft of the novel dating back to November 2005. Wow. Yes. More than 10 years ago is when this novel started. So much time. So little time....
I'll print out the current version, of course, and that Leftover Material file. Maybe I'll also print out that November 2005 version, just to have it handy, to see if anything can be salvaged.
There's a lot of going back and forth. That's what this novel is, too. Remembering. Memory and now. How stories change. The stories we tell ourselves, each other.
The title is still Dusk and Ember. It's still Richard Issych's story--Richard from my first novel, There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes. The novel-in-progress takes place before the events in Noah; and it centers around a murder, over one night, and its consequences.
So I'm at another way point: printing out another clean version of the book. Word count is nearly 50,000 (about half of what a typical novel runs). That's including several pages of material I know won't be used (front material, notes) and even more material in the back, maybe half a dozen pages, of notes on characters, scenes, dialogues, words to use. That's not counting an extra file of Leftover Material that's about 100 pages (plus/minus 25,000 words).
And there's also an old file I just discovered this morning: an early draft of the novel dating back to November 2005. Wow. Yes. More than 10 years ago is when this novel started. So much time. So little time....
I'll print out the current version, of course, and that Leftover Material file. Maybe I'll also print out that November 2005 version, just to have it handy, to see if anything can be salvaged.
There's a lot of going back and forth. That's what this novel is, too. Remembering. Memory and now. How stories change. The stories we tell ourselves, each other.
The title is still Dusk and Ember. It's still Richard Issych's story--Richard from my first novel, There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes. The novel-in-progress takes place before the events in Noah; and it centers around a murder, over one night, and its consequences.
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