Calloo callay it’s soon London Book Fair day, and yes I am going to the ball. Got a badge that says author and A Body of Knowledge on it… in case anyone asks. Meanwhile the sap is rising and I am getting to know two new characters in Next Book. I sit down — resisting, cross at the blank page — and start a scene with main character and new character. They talk, they come alive!
Crocus harbingers: spring show today in my front garden.
Do it, just do it. After the not-knowing, but vowing my trust that it would come, ideas for Next Book are pouring out. But all higgledy-piggledy (Happy Year of the Pig, by the way). How to tame, how to order. I don’t know, but keep on writing. It doesn’t matter. Get the words on paper, fix them later.
I now have three different starts for this novel. Have already diverted a fourth to be used further on. One challenge is to know the back story, but provide it later. Get into the story, the voice, the action. Get the characters talking to each other: Lo! They become people! And anyway it will all get moved around when I am much further in — so interesting to find out what is going to happen next!
Meanwhile heartening news, agent A has read all of A Body of Knowledge, and we meet this week! She misses the characters, we are plotting our path together, and I’ll be able to tell her of characters to come…
Be here now 