Work on every hand

{ Thursday, February 28, 2008 }

Here's a quick update on Sunspot Press and on the novel.

I'm working on a complete overhaul of the Sunspot Press web site. The new site will give you some idea of where I want to take Sunspot Press over the next few years. I'll be launching it simultaneously with a new, quarterly e-mail newsletter and the announcement to launch this blog.

If all goes well, this will happen by March 15. It's a lot of work and my paying job is biting at my heels right now, so wish me well.

The novel: I'm working through all the scenes writing enormous amounts of dialogue, most of which you will never, ever hear, nor would you want to. By the time you see it, it'll be pared down to the essential (one hopes). But it's fun getting used to the characters' voices and being surprised by what they say.

It's also fun -- and liberating -- to get used to the idea that I have no idea how to write a novel. It's not like memoir, where all I had to do was remember things and translate them so you could see them.

With a novel, the trouble is not that I can't imagine enough stuff -- it's that there is no limit to the possibilities of what has happened to these characters, what they know, what they've seen. Creating their world isn't hard. Setting limits on it is.

So the way I figure, getting through a rough draft of the dialogue for all the scenes may help me find those boundaries. I suspect that once the dialogue is roughed in, I'll be able to feel the spaces where I need action or where I need to turn the character inside out for you.

And then I'll know one more thing about how to write a novel.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Playground rules: We don't post name-calling, unconstructive meanness, or spam, and we ignore those who do, or our posts will be deleted as well.