Those first few words...

Since early this year, I've been scribbling - on and off - notes for a new WIP. I've tentatively called it The Crystal Keeper's Daughter, although there are a lot of 'crystal keepers' if you search the web, so it's not exactly unique as a title. It's taken many months, in between the other life stuff that inevitably rolled up, to get to grips with this story.

I finally feel like I've got everything plotted, in that I know the rough shape of the story and where it begins and where it ends. I have my MC, Zanni, who is turning out to be quite feisty when she wants to be. I have a theme running through, though I hope it won't be so obvious it hits the reader between the eyes. And I have that feeling now that I need to write, to actually commit words to hard drive (or memory stick in this case) and shape all the messy notes into something readable.

Yesterday, I wrote the first couple of hundred words.

They're nowhere near being right as an opening scene, but you have to start somewhere. From past experience, I know that once I begin, the story will evolve until I hit my stride and pick up the rhythm of Zanni's huge adventure until it begins to feel like the novel I hope it will be.

How long will it take? No idea. I managed a first handwritten draft of Kingstone in just over 70 days and a first typed draft after a further month. (Bear in mind this was my box-ticked-when-I-wrote-something method, and not a count over consecutive days). I've not kept track so far this time as carefully, but I am determined to track the typed draft to make sure I don't leave the work for too long.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and if I need inspiration, I'll simply take a peek at my little basket of crystals and imagine I'm in Zanni's world...