After the debacle of my last piece of writing, it took me a long time to even be able to approach the blank page again. When it did, I felt I was working in a ‘one step forward, two steps back,’ kind of way. Every time I felt a bit of momentum the narrative would stall. Part of this is because of my writing habits. I’m not superstitious, but I do admit to using an old Samsung laptop that’s on it’s last legs, to write on. I had this archaic piece of kit back in Australia, it’s practically falling apart, but it’s where I wrote Momentum, and that was when, at least for personal confidence, my writing career really began. So I’m attached to the laptop, and have used it for all my work since. As I life somewhat of a transient life these days, I don’t always take it with me when I go up to work, so the novella I completed this week was written with long gaps where I didn’t write anything at all, then three or four day bursts of productivity.
This work ethic flies in the face of how I’ve written before. Taking too much time off means the characters start to fade, and once that happens they stop moving the narrative along. So in one way I’m surprised that I’ve managed to see this one through to a conclusion.
As always there are initial pluses and minuses. The title of this post is the novella, and one that I’m very happy with. One of those lucky moments where it just came to me out of nowhere, and I thought ‘It’s perfect.’ Hopefully it highlights the main theme – how two people can meet on a whim and their whole lives change because of it. And following on from that, this novella also has a breakneck quality to it, partly because it involves a road-trip, but also because it has spontaneous decision making, and the sense of a runaway juggernaut unable to stop and take stock. Of my previous stuff State Line explored this a bit, but I think this one has a more nihilistic edge that I like. There is a bit of romance among the action, and I hope that part is realistic, and not corny. There had to be something to sweeten the flavour of despair.
Much like the still untitled novel mess, I had fears that I’d get into a plot hole again, but I think I’ve managed to escape the morass. I’m really hoping that in the re-write something glaringly obvious won’t rear its head and render the whole thing inexplicable, as that would take a lot of the heart out of me. If I go 0 for 2 I’ll start to wonder if I can ever get something written again. You can tell a lot by how you close the laptop after the final word is written – this time I felt content, even a little bereft. Which is a good sign. Time for a break now, and then I’ve got a decision to make…
The Beautiful Fight 