This year I'm taking on a task that feels like it might be impossible. Or at least improbable.
I'm working on two novels simultaneously, and I hope to get a presentable draft of each done by May. That's four and a half months. Not a long time, by any stretch of the imagination.
The first novel is Beyond Here Lies Nothing, which is the third novel in my Concrete Grove series for Solaris. I've already made a good start on this and have outlined quite a few chapters ahead. This one I'm calling my Weeknight Book, because that's when I work on it; week nights.
The second book is The Quiet Room, which is an expansion of my acclaimed novella What They Hear in the Dark. This is my Weekend Book, because...well, you get the idea. I've done less on this one so far, but it's slowly starting to take shape.
I'm doing this because I want 2012 to be my year. I've put in a lot of work over the last four or five years to get where I am, and now I have to move up a gear if I want to make the most of the momentum I've managed to build. I'm swimming in the same waters as full-time writers, so I need to be proffesional and make my time count, I need to keep on pushing. Because ultimately that's all we can do in this life: push.
And I'd hate to get to the end of mine and think that I could've pushed just that little bit harder if only I'd tried...
"Firmly in the front ranks of the new wave of British horror." - The Guardian
4 comments:
Wise words at the end there.
Here's to a good 2012 for you!
Good Luck Gary!
Looking forward to reading the new books when you finish them :)
If we do not try to push forward we can't progress. Or so I believe. I do try to push things forward, to improve as much as I can, but without setting an unreachable goal. That would bring only misery.
I do hope that in 2012 you can become a full-time writer. If there is one writer at the moment who deserves to live from his writing I am convinced that you are that writer. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed for you :)
Many thanks, folks!
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