Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Birth of a Novel: Part Three

ARE WE THERE YET?

This is hard work. Never before have I written something as plot-heavy as Dead Bad Things. It's character-driven, yes, because most of what I write is, but the plot is very complex (at least by my standards). The two books - Pretty Little Dead Things and Dead Bad Things - form a sort of over-arcing tale that is as much crime as it is supernatural horror, and at some point along the way the plot suddenly became crucial to everything else.

Like I said: this is hard work.

I'm now almost a third of the way into the second novel and only now has one of the major themes revealed itself: inheritence. The passing-on of things from generation to generation, or from person to person. The handing-over of the baton. That and the terrible trade-offs life often demands of us.

Did I mention how much hard work this is? I did? Okay. Just checking.

There are three or four seperate plot strands going on in this novel, and I'm starting to worry about when (and how) they'll converge. I have a rough idea of course, but I'm outlining as I go along because the story demands that I give it a loose leash. It won't be held back.

Last night I wrote about a side character, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide who had her arms hacked off, lost her family in the massacres, and inherited...voices. Although she only appeared for a chapter, to pass on some information to Thomas Usher, I get the feeling that she's important but I'm not quite sure why. Hopefully she'll pop back and let me know...

So, the novel is coming along slowly...but it is coming. Some of them are like this; they have to fight their way into the world. Sometimes these are the ones that mean the most.

Word count: 27,500 words

2 comments:

Mark West said...

Blimey and I thought I struggled - this sounds better with each update, Gary!

Gary Mc said...

Cheers, Mark...it's exhausting, but exciting.