Wow, I've had a good week of wacking away on the keyboard (helped by some nice weather - ah, the fresh wiff of rash, rash fried Englishman!)and have now got my first 5 chapters down! WOO! It feels great but I made need to take a few days off. I hate moments like this but I find that they are kinda essential. I sort of run out of stuff to write and need to sit back and take stock of the situation. That's the irritating thing about writing a book, I find it happens in distinct stages. I think that I'll talk about these over the next few weeks, trying to sound as arty and pretentios as possible. Just imagine that I'm speaking from the balcony of a villa in tuscany, a straw hat upon my head and a silk scarf around my neck, looking mistily out over the neat lines of Lombardy poplars swaying in the breaze while taking an inordinate amout of time over my continental breakfast of rolls and strong coffee. O.K., got that image? Here goes then!
Stage 1. The concept. This is the little spark which starts someting off in one head, a bit like a flint being struck by another flint which has just flown out of nowhere. I often find that this mostly takes the form of "What if?". What if there was a man who decided to make a stand over this, that or the other? What if that kind of person was lord over a region of Norman England? Of course, most sparks fly off into the damp moss and instantly gutter and die, as on closer scrutiny the answer to "What if?" is "Something boring and predictable happens". However, every so often, the spark hits a dry patch of moss and the spark becomes and glowing ember, a start, something from which a story might grow and it is from this point that one can start blowing and trying to bring it to life. But this is the next stage and I'll talk about that next week :D !