I’m lyin’

I started writing a new novel this weekend.

Actually, I picked up an old 45-page fragment of a novel and started working on it again. The segment was originally conceived as a book proposal for an installment in a work-for-hire series that wasn’t picked up. I really liked the idea, and I’ve been thinking about it for the past year or so as a standalone novel, something that I can abstract from its original intent.

So, I made a new document and stripped out all of the series-specific details. Primarily, that meant moving the setting from a distant location that I’m not familiar with to a place closer at hand that seems fraught with more possibility. Interestingly, though the story is essentially driven by a particular setting, I didn’t find it hard to re-imagine that setting somewhere else. However, since I have to bring the characters to the setting, I had to rewrite some passages to update the change in geography.

The first four chapters are devoted to setting up the characters and bringing them all together, which is a different approach from any of my previous long works. The story thus far isn’t linear. I picture it like a spiderweb, and I’m setting the anchor lines before spinning the web across them. I’m hoping there’s enough intrigue and mystery to keep interest up—I know it’s got me hooked.

For the original proposal, I had to write a full synopsis, which I didn’t relish since I hadn’t thought through the complete story yet. I’ll probably abandon that synopsis completely, since a lot of it was dictated by the series “bible.” I wasn’t terribly happy with the synopsis, especially the way the story went in the final third, but now I can cast that all aside and just let the story go where it wants to, unencumbered by the constraints of the series.

Before I write any more, I want to start my own bible, my conversation file in which I ramble and bumble about and try to find the edges of the tale. This approach served me well with The Silent Desert. With that novel, I had a clearer idea of where the story had to end up; this time, I have a clearer idea of who the characters are and the experience of writing this book will be to find out where they take me. The setting is restrictive. It keeps all these people in close proximity. They all have agendas, some conspicuous, some hidden. At the heart of the story, there’s one big secret, the details of which I haven’t completely worked out yet. Until I have these in place, I’ll probably just do some more mental prep and research.

So, in summary: 1) It’s not a new novel. 2) I didn’t start it this weekend. 3) I didn’t write anything new to the end of what I already had, simply revised what I wrote in the summer of 2004.

Three lies in the opening sentence of this entry, and yet I feel like it is essentially true.

Currently reading: between books; I finished Jasper Fforde’s Well of Lost Plots last night. Not sure what I’ll pick up next

Recently watched: A few episodes of Doctor Who featuring Peter Davison (the fifth doctor). Also, Grey’s Anatomy, which was pretty good. I was glad when Alex lit into George toward the end to wake him up from his whiny, self-absorbed funk.

Listening to: Yahoo Radio. I discovered this service, which is part of our DSL. It’s a customized service where you pick favorite artists, albums, genres and then rate songs as they play (never again, it’s ok, like it, love it, can’t get enough of) so the system learns your musical tastes and gives you more of what you’re likely to appreciate. So far, I like it. Every now and then it throws in something unexpected, with mixed results.