Today has been a fairly good day — a very good day, in fact.
Yesterday, the outline finished over a week ago, I finally started writing As Morning Shows the Day. I got the first thousand words in place by Sunday lunchtime and today saw me nail the second thousand words in place.
After the false starts of last year, the constant feeling around for something different, something I’d never done before, Morning… well, it’s really too early to say. I don’t really want to tempt fate. But I do strongly feel that returning to my earlier way of working is paying off. I’m comfortable with the form (a literary family saga that probably most closely resembles John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany — at least in its structure, it’s actually a very different novel… one I feel only I could write, which is always a good sign) and I know exactly where it’s going, leaving me free to concentrate on the language and the voice.
A good start and, more to the point, a novel I find myself looking forward to writing when I’m away from it.
