In other news, I had a revelation last night. I was having a quiet night by myself, contemplating my writer-in-residence position, which I am very much enjoying, but which right now lacks any sort of structure or set project. And suddenly something presented itself as a solution... so now I think I can say I am working on a new book! I am not going to go into details right now, because I am a little nervous that if I talk about it in public it may dissolve or sound ridiculous. But I am pretty excited because it's not just more short stories, it is something that is a new intellectual challenge for me, and something I think - I hope - is fairly innovative. Anyway, I might reveal more in due course, but I feel relieved to have found myself a framework within which to carry out this residency and some kind of end product to work towards.Phew!
Let's hope I don't wake up tomorrow thinking it's all a terrible mistake.This is all new to me, this first flush of excitement - I've never experienced this before, I had no idea when I was writing the stories in The White Road that they might be a collection. I've never consciously worked on anything book-length from the start.
It seems to be similar to something I read over on Nik Perring's blog the other day. He interviews the wonderful Nicola Morgan, author of 90 - yes, ninety! - books, whose latest Wasted, is published on Monday. This is how she describes it when an idea comes to her:
First comes the idea for a new novel. Fabulous! (Literally, one might say). It hits me on the tongue like sherbet. If I’m in a supermarket, I will stop mid-aisle. Walking the dog, I’m likely to ignore the worst canine behaviour. At this point, I’m thinking, “Yesss! Why didn’t I think of this before?” Next, I fluctuate between excitement and a more prosaic, “Hmm, but such-and-such might be a problem later.” But over the following days, as the characters grow in my head, excitement mounts and doubts fade. I am about to start to write.A lovely way to describe it, excitement mixed with doubt. Nicola then says it's
"damned terrifying because it’s the start of a long and unknown journey. When I sat down to write the first page of Sleepwalking, my third novel, I actually said aloud, “Oh God, here we go,” taking a huge breath to summon the strength. Many blank pages stretch ahead, and they won’t fill themselves."Yes. Exactly. Not, I want to stress, that I am working on a novel. No, definitely not. But I can imagine it being book-length, and possibly rather undefinable. Almost definitely completely uncommercial! But that actually makes it easier to contemplate. The thought that no-one will ever publish it, that I am doing it for me, makes it far easier to jump off this cliff. I hope!
