New Bookitis

I started a new manuscript recently. This one is the sixth story in a six book continuity due for release next year. I usually find starting a new book really exciting and generally have quite a gap between the previous book and the new one of a couple of weeks to a month. This gap-time is usually really good ‘gel’ time for my muse. Y’know, the time where snippets of dialogue hit you when you least expect it, or scenes just pop into your head at any given time.

With the current manuscript, however, I have basically gone from one story straight into the next, and hit the proverbial brick wall. So far the writing has been slow and painstaking. After a week of excruciating word extraction I managed to do a collage of the book, and one of the problems I realised I had was that I couldn’t ’see’ my hero clearly enough. Scouting a few modelling websites soon solved that problem (ah, the things we do in the name of research) and hey presto, the words are starting to flow.

Another thing that helped me was reading a couple of scenes written by other authors in the continuity. Because their characters were suddenly real and breathing people mine progressively became so too.

I think the ‘new bookitis’ has been cured and I relish developing my story further. I’ll let you know, from time to time how it’s going.