a cornerstone at my house...
Yesterday I wrote the first scene of my new book. Like laying a cornerstone, this determines the orientation of the entire structure of the book… It’s a big moment for me since it’s the first new text I’ve written for… well, YEARS!!?
Perhaps not incidentally, today the English paperback edition of The Third God has been launched…
Tags: launches, right-angles, writing
Posted in progress reports, stonedance | 6 Comments »
silk scaffolding...
I have sort of mentioned how things are going with my new book – but, going by some queries I’ve received, not clearly enough… so I thought I’d write a few words…
Firstly, the new book, the one I’m working on – let’s call it “KK” – is, as I’ve said before, a novel set in the past – the real past… I’m not going to say what it’s about – I believe that books, like other creative ventures, have to be carefully nurtured, kept close: premature exposure to the outside world can hurt them.
Though it’s historical fiction, the process of writing KK is turning out not to be that different to writing the Stone Dance. Perhaps that’s not so surprising – I often claim that the Stone Dance is a sort of historical novel: it’s just that I had to invent the history upon which it is based. In the case of KK, the source of the research is not my imagination, but history books and academic papers. That said, ancient history is sparsely documented and so there’s a lot of scope for imagination…
So, I have completed the ‘general research’ phase, during which I read freely in all kinds of peculiar directions – both widely and in depth – to ensure I have a sufficient grasp of the period. I am now ‘constructing’ the framework for the book itself – what I am hoping will be my ‘silk scaffolding‘. Though, this still involves research, it is research that is much more tightly focused on the ‘actual’ book.
I would like to point out that, for the The Third God, it probably took me at least 2 years to reach the stage I’m at now… I say this to give my reader AND myself hope that KK is not going to be years in the writing. What is exciting is that I am beginning to see the landscapes, to ‘know’ the characters, to hear the whisper of their voices… I can already feel that it’s going to be quite a trip… :O)
Tags: silk scaffolding
Posted in progress reports, stonedance | 11 Comments »
in my garden...
well, I’ve been meaning to wish you all a happy new year for quite a while now – and I was even going to wish you a happy Christmas too… but what with the endless snow and associated dramas, that never happened. Not that I am really complaining about the snow – I love it! and it was to experience the seasons more fully that was one of the main reasons I moved out into the country.
I am not sure how the blogging is going to go over the next few weeks because I am nearing the end of the research phase of my new book. I am going to ‘try’ to write it quickly (no titters please! :O) ) and this means I might find it hard to spare the time to write here… but we shall see…
Finally, you might like to read the mention made of The Third God here (scroll down to David McWilliam)…
Tags: christmas, research
Posted in my life, progress reports, reviews, stonedance, thoughts/opinions | 6 Comments »
reclining man...
This week’s life drawing class was harder for me than the last one… I wasn’t feeling zen enough – and so it was a bit of a struggle. But wherein lies the struggle? Mainly, I feel, it is in my desire for excellence… Of course, underlying this is a fear of failure… so that with each stroke, and at every stage of the drawing, I am fighting the anxiety that this is not good enough.
Why am I bothering you with this…? well, it is because this has a direct bearing on my writing. It seems to me that writing (and all creative endeavour) is a balance between ’spontaneity’ and ‘control’… In me, the former has been very much under the shadow of the latter. (This is symbolized in the Stone Dance by a Sapient with his hands coiled around the throat of his homunculus… an image that has even deeper resonances for me than the one I’m pointing out here.) I fear free spontaneity – fear that what I am trying to do will slip through my fingers and disappear into the sand. So I hold tight to it. This explains much of the tortured cradle that I felt necessary to construct to support the building of the Stone Dance… the spirit of which has only recently sailed free… That cradle was of stones, as heavily build as a pyramid – and one of the main reasons it took me so long to write the trilogy. Now, however, I wish to find liberation from such labours… Thus, partially, the life drawing, where I am forced to confront my anxiety that what I build should at all times be visibly solid… Instead, what I am doing now is trying to learn to work with a scaffolding of delicately tensioned silk…
Tags: homunculus, life-drawing, sapient, silk scaffolding
Posted in progress reports, stonedance, thoughts/opinions | 4 Comments »
woman on stool
Yesterday I began life drawing classes with my friend Adrian Smith. As you can see (if you follow the link) he is already a most accomplished artist. His reason for going is that “you can always learn more”: my reason might not seem so obvious – I am trying to loosen my method of working.
My method for writing the Stone Dance was VERY intensive. Besides, it is hard, when one grips on to something that tightly, to let go. Now that I’m working on something new, there is an ever present danger that I will slip back into my old (a decade long!) way of thinking. I judged that to assault this frontally was just likely to make my ‘habituation’ dig in… I don’t have separate compartments in my head for writing, drawing, or anything else creative – it forms a fluid oneness… Thus, by loosening up my drawing, I believe I am performing an outflanking manoeuvre on myself… that will free up my writing…
Tags: life-drawing
Posted in my life, progress reports, stonedance | 6 Comments »