Ask the Laureate (or - The Day I met Chris Riddell!)

Up front - this is a long blog post! Make yourself comfy while you read it!

Sometimes in life, you're lucky enough to meet the very people whose work you have enjoyed and loved for a long time and who inspire you in your own efforts.

Yesterday, I met one of those someones, because yesterday - as part of Leicester City's 'Everybody's Reading' Festival - I went with Laura Buckland (Granny Rainbow illustrator) to an Ask the Laureate event.

Which meant I met Chris Riddell.

*pause while I run round the room, squeeeing with excitement. Again. Afraid I did a lot of that yesterday*

In case you don't know, Chris is the current Waterstones Children's Laureate and he is the most amazing illustrator, storyteller and all round lovely person. (He's also apparently the Children's Laundrette, according to a friend of his who is German and got her words a little confused when she congratulated him on his appointment!)

I first saw Chris's drawings in The Edge Chronicles, a series created by him and Paul Stewart, when I used to go the library a lot more with the Squidgelings. While they found their books in the children's library, I used to find mine - in the same place. As soon as I saw The Edge Chronicles I loved the detail in Chris's pictures, the imagination he had, his masterful characterisation and how perfectly he seemed to capture the world of The Edge Chronicles in the 'simple' strokes of a pencil.

I was hooked. A quiet fan.

(As an aside - Squidgeling T also likes Chris's style; three years ago he used Chris for a school art project about an author study.)

When I wrote Granny Rainbow, Chris's style of characterisation became the inspiration for the pictures I asked Laura to create for the book - which we told Chris yesterday. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the story...

From Sunflower Saturday in a copy of Granny Rainbow I
added red noses to for a charity sale at the last Red Nose Day

Over the years, I've bought books like Goth Girl (a beautiful thing - I blogged about it here) and The Graveyard Book, and I began following Chris on facebook because he posts sketches on there from his personal notebooks as well as his Laureate Log. Never a day goes by without one of his sneaky train passenger portraits...or someone famous he's met...or something inspired by poetry or music or current affairs. I love it!

The first verse of a poem by Neil Gaiman that Chris drew on the way to Leicester.
You can see the other verses he illustrated on the way home on his
facebook page in the album 'Witch Work'.

Anyway, whilst browsing the old Book of Face a couple of weeks ago, I found out - purely by chance - that the Everybody's Reading Festival was hosting an Ask the Laureate event.

I knew I had to go.

Laura came with me. We submitted our questions for the Laureate and sat together (to start with - I gave up my seat for some little girls who I thought might see better, before discovering they'd moved elsewhere and I daren't move again, so we ended up sitting apart!) in the beautiful Y Theatre near Leicester Station, initially watching Chris sharpen his pencils. I have never seen anyone sharpen their leads SO long before without them snapping...

Then we watched while he flicked through the pages of one of those amazing sketchbooks and drew Emperor Smackbotty the Third AND a couple of audience portraits...

Emperor Smackbotty III (with Kraisie Mouse and nappy rash) from Alienography.

So funny, watching the mum and daughter trying to work this out,
then suddenly realising 'it's US!'

Lumberjack in The Sketchbook...

(Apologies for the quality of the photos - some are mine, some Laura's - but the necessary subdued lighting made things a bit difficult.)

The audience was very mixed; parents with children, fans of Chris's work (like us) and students of illustration. There wasn't a bad seat in the house, so everyone got to see what Chris was drawing.

Train passenger - not the man i the audience...

The question was 'When were you born?' and Chris added where
(South Africa) and that he was probably dreaming of wine gums even then...

I can't explain how amazing it was, to see drawings come to life on the big screen as answers to questions. There was an enormous wodge of postcards and Chris managed to answer a fair few; the lucky questioners got to keep either what Chris had drawn or - if it was a question he'd already answered - 'one he'd prepared earlier'.

We learnt about his earliest inspiration...his love of wine gums (a man after my own heart - but I wonder if I'd have to fight him for the black and red ones?)...how he was tutored by Raymond Briggs...and how his first story to be published (Mr Underbed) was written in a single evening in pure panic because when the publisher (with the extremely bushy eyebrows) who told him he could draw asked 'Where are your stories?', Chris lied and said 'I've got one, but I left it at home.' They told him to return with it the following day...

We learned what Chris would do if he was told he could never pick up a pencil again. He didn't know what he could have done to deserve this cruel punishment, but his answer was:

We also got to see how passionately he feels about reading and school libraries and the issue of grammar schools. I'm not sure if every Laureate has a campaign as such, but allowing children access to books is certainly something Chris feels very strongly about and champions at every opportunity.

He's also keen on the power of encouragement, something evident in the way he answered a couple of questions from the illustrators in the audience. He advised drawing every day - what you want to, not what you think you ought to - and researching the publishers where you think you might fit. And don't wait for things to happen. Sometimes you just have to be brave and take the next step.

We discovered the inspiration behind Lord Goth - Lord Byron - who is 'Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Gnomes' because he (Lord Goth, not Chris) rides around his estate on a Regency bicycle, carrying a blunderbuss. Then, when inspiration for his poetry strikes, he proceeds to blow the head off a gnome statue. Loved that tale...and kudos to the publisher who said 'yes, go ahead Chris!' without flinching when he took the proposal for Lord Goth to them.

The talk ended all too soon, (about an hour) and then we joined the signing queue. I'd taken Goth Girl and bought a copy of The Sleeper and the Spindle on the day (word of caution - the beautiful dust jacket will warp if you get it too near a heat source, as I discovered to my disappointment when I got it home). It took us three quarters of an hour to get to the front of the queue, simply because Chris was an absolute star, signing every book anyone put under his nose (some of the children looked to have bought their entire Riddell collection!) and he had a word to share with everyone. He came across as genuinely liking people - always good when you meet your fans! - and he was interested to hear what you had to say.

I really DID meet him! Still can't quite believe it...

I thanked him for everything he does for school libraries because I am, after all, a volunteer school librarian - and was astounded when he thanked me for doing that job! I told him I wouldn't be able to if he and others like him didn't write such fab stories for children to enjoy.

When it was Laura's turn he asked about her illustration degree and she told him about collaborating with me on Granny Rainbow; he wished her good luck in her future projects.

Laura getting her book signed...and the rest of the queue, still waiting patiently.

Oh - and if there are any Blue Peter fans reading this, Chris was wearing his GOLD BLUE PETER BADGE! He doesn't like to wear his Laureate's medal when he goes on tour - keeps it in a box on the mantelpiece - but he has been known to wear it whilst emptying the dishwasher because he is an Important Person.

One of the question postcards and my two signed books...

It was an awesome afternoon. I didn't get my question answered (I asked where is your favourite holiday destination - and do you take holiday snaps or draw holiday sketches?) but I had such a great time without that, I wasn't bothered!

Meeting Chris in person, watching him work, exchanging a few words with him AND getting my books signed...I think I almost floated home. 

And my most favourite thing that Chris said? 

"As creative people, keep creating."

I think that's just become my new mantra. 

Banned Books

For my birthday in June, Mr Squidge bought me a bracelet of enamelled metal plates of book covers. Just like this one:

(You can buy something similar from the Literary Gift Company)

One of the plates says 'I read banned books'. Well, that couldn't be right I thought - Alice in Wonderland? Huckleberry Finn? I knew Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned because of the S-E-X across the class divide years ago, but that was years ago.

I decided that, if these books were banned - or had been banned at some point - I would attempt to read them all; work my way round my bracelet and read things I'd never read before.

The first I tackled was The Color Purple. Banned on various grounds, including racism, inappropriate language, violence and physical abuse. You could also add rape, promiscuity, drugs... Definitely not what I'd call a light read. Yet I devoured it in one sitting, and it's a book that will stay with me for life.

I decided to do a bit of digging into banned books, and found that, purely by coincidence, I had read The Color Purple during Banned Books Week, a time when the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association seeks to celebrate the freedom to read and draws attention to the harm caused by censorship of reading materials. There's a wealth of information on their website if, like me, you want to know more.

It made me wonder how I feel about censorship of books. 

We all want to protect - particularly our children - from inappropriate content. Isn't reading a banned book a bit like letting them loose on an unprotected internet? 

I don't think so. Perhaps that's because of my own view on books; when the Squidgelings were younger and their reading ability outstripped the 'suitable' books available for their age group, I let them have free choice. But - I always tried to read the same books as them so I had an idea of what they contained. Can't say I enjoyed reading spy stories with lots of violence, but at least I was prepared when the kids told me how many people died and in how many yukky ways. It meant we could talk about it - together.

There's a quote I love:

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." – Neil Gaiman

Could we apply the same kind of approach to reading material which challenges our view of the world? The books that deal with social issues such as racism, homelessness, sexuality, mental issues? Not that these are necessarily to be seen as 'dragons' to be beaten...but we at least become aware of their existence as things that might be different to our individual norm. And as a result we broaden our thinking, become - one hopes - more tolerant of differences and issues in our world. 

Instead, it seems that some people want to 'protect' our children and offer them a sanitised view of the world in which they live. One that does not include witches (Yup - Harry Potter has been banned quite a lot!) or topless sunbathers (a teeny tiny picture in a Where's Wally book) or animals that act like humans (Alice in Wonderland). If we narrow the reading experience, will that not raise narrow thinkers?

I began to wonder whether the addition of ages to children's books by publishers is a form of much subtler censorship - if you're not THIS old, you can't read THIS book. Or when in schools the system sometimes limits the child's reading material to a particular 'band' because they do not have the skills to read the stories they choose for themselves. Whilst I agree there is much to be said for encouraging children to read what they are capable of - which requires time and adult supervision to work properly - what's wrong with allowing a child to take a story that is beyond their capability so that they can share it or listen to it thanks to a more able reader at home?

Is there ever a time when reading material should be banned? I honestly don't know. My preferred approach would be to allow free choice - but to inform, so that the choices made are by the reader, not by those who seek to wield power over people's minds and thoughts and view of the world. 

Author visits...

I've done several author visits to date. Most have had small groups working on some element of creative writing and a Q&A session. I'm happy with that. It works and I'm comfortable doing it.

In the last few weeks, I've had lots of requests for author talks - which is pretty fab, actually. (I've also seen a reasonable spike in sales of paperback copies of StarMark since the magazine article - perhaps the two are linked?)

Over the next couple of months, as well as trying to write more of CKD, I will also be...

1. Giving two author visits to secondary schools as part of the Loogabarooga Festival, which happens over Leicestershire's half term.
2. Giving a talk to a ladies group at my church. (I say talk, but they WILL be writing at some point...)
3. Running a creative writing day at my local primary school, similar to the one I ran last year.
4. Following up enquiries from another local primary school and a secondary school book club a bit further from home...plus two other secondary schools have shown interest too.
5. Speaking to a church youth group.
6. Putting a booking in my diary as a speaker for October - 2017!

All lovely and exciting - but look back at number 1 on my list...

The first of these visits to be confirmed is actually going to be at a school I attended, over thirty years ago. I have been asked to speak to an entire year group of Year 7's (11-12yrs old). That's one hundred and twenty pupils. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY! Because the school has stated it would like as many pupils as possible to be enthused and inspired by my visit.

No pressure there then!

(Fortunately, I have delivered - in a previous life! - training sessions to similar numbers of adults, so I am confident I can deliver a good assembly-type talk about writing and some of the journey I've been on so far. Oh - and afterwards? I'm holding a one-hour workshop for one class in the library...)

I find it quite humbling - and very scary - to be viewed as an inspiration.

I think it's because I'm still getting to grips with the fact that I am viewed by other people now as a proper author (I know, I AM one, but compared to other authors who sell hundreds or thousands of copies and make their living from the art, I'm such a small fish...) I'm discovering that it's the relationship you can have with your readers - or potential readers in most cases - that makes the difference in how you are viewed as an author. I can sit in my lounge and write all the good stories I can, but it's when I talk to children, help them to grow and learn in their own attempts at writing creatively, that I reap the rewards - and I'm not talking purely of sales here. I'm talking about reputation, about word of mouth recommendation, about delivering a quality product, whether that ends up being an author visit or a novel. And I'm also talking about the feedback I get, when pupils return the their classrooms and put into practise what we have covered with massively increased confidence.

It goes right back to my original motivation - enthusing children to love the written word, whether they are creating it for themselves or reading it when it's been written by another.

I am nervous of the task I face, but equally I am excited to have such a large audience on a single occasion. I really, really hope I can give them something to remember.

Stalking Leviathan

 

Behold! The amazing cover of the soon-to-be-published third anthology from The Random Writers! 

If you like mythical beasties, you're going to love this one; twelve tales that go in search of creatures of myth, legend and the spaces between the real and imagined. From the overwhelming confusion of the Irish Civil War to the eerie expanse of modern day Bodmin Moor; from Elizabethan England to the skies above Persia, the Random Writers quest for an answer to the question - What is the nature of the beast?

Unfortunately, I don't have a story in this anthology - it's been such a busy year, I simply didn't feel I had the time to do it justice - but I have proofread the anthology and it is stunning. I wish I could write even half as poetically as some of the guys whose stories ARE in here.

Stalking Leviathan, a Bestiary of Tales is due for publication at the end of this month.

York 2016

I had mixed feelings about York this time. For a start, my driving buddy wasn't going this time, so it was a bit different having to lug a case full of books onto the train.

I'd also done a lot of the workshops in previous years and wondered whether there'd be enough new stuff to keep me inspired. That said, there's no harm in going to subjects you have covered before with a different speaker, because you might just pick up a different way of thinking about or approaching the same topic.

And I wasn't doing any 1-2-1's, something I was worried might seem a bit arrogant. A kind of 'I'm published now, so I don't need them' approach, rather than an 'I don't have anything I can show you!' wail of despair (which is actually the reality).

But I went. The best bit has to be that I met so many cloudies again - and others that I'd never met before in real life - and we all sat talking about writing. In my fifth festival, I also found I was also more confident about talking to agents and book doctors and speakers without fearing they'd cut me dead. Maybe they were getting to recognise me, too?

So to the nitty gritty, the learning, the 'what I got out of it'...

Friday afternoon I sat in Brian Keaney's mini course on the golden rules of children's literature. A lot of it I knew already, but what stuck with me was Brian's insistence that you have to address a child you know when telling your story (your own or someone else's), or reconnect with your inner child, something he went into in more depth in a later session about the role of insight in children's literature. I came away wondering what I do - is it my inner child that writes my stories, or do I have a particular child in mind when I write?

We also touched on the issue of 'cross-over' books which appeal to both children and adults. Brian was of the opinion that a lot of adults who read children's fiction are looking for something with a good story that isn't depressing, something I found particularly interesting as StarMark has been read by more adults than children at this point in time. And as I'm a sucker for a happy(ish) ending myself, perhaps I'm unknowingly writing what a lot of adults - as well as children - are craving?

He also observed that often, children are powerless in their world. Stories have to reflect that powerlessness in order to inform and colour the decisions made by the child to shape the story you're telling on their behalf. And remember; children are human beings too.

There were excellent keynote speakers this year. C.L.Taylor, (Home for Christmas, The Missing, The Lie) and Jo Cannon (The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, whose talk I mostly missed because we had to get an earlier taxi to avoid the traffic delays caused by SkyRide York!) both proved that the unthinkable CAN happen if you want to be a bestselling author, but the road is often long and fraught with brutal edits and personal difficulties which mean the overnight success takes years to achieve.

Have to say that although I love hearing different authors' writing journeys, they always tend to be really big names at the Festival. I know that's bound to be a draw, but just once, it'd be great to hear from someone with - I was going to say less success, but of course that's completely wrong! From someone with less of a 'Big 5' approach to the business, because I am certain that most of the audience at York will probably end up as self-pubbed or small press pubbed authors rather than those who are discovered and experience a meteoric rise to fame. It would be no less inspiring to hear of other writing journeys and non-bestseller successes in publication... but perhaps that wouldn't be enough of a draw for the punters.

Julie Cohen's First 100 Words session was a blast! Not only were we given hints and tips on how to grab our reader in the opening few sentences, we were also given the opportunity to send in our first 100 words for Julie's opinion. She gave feedback on 26 previously unread submissions, rattling off first impressions at breakneck speed. Mine was one of them - number 13, but I'm not superstitious. Here's the piece I sent and what I jotted down of Julie's comments:

“All out! All out for Kartalma, if you please!”

            Zanni groaned and stretched. “Why’s he yelling, when there’s only two of us?”

            “I daresay he doesn’t get the chance to do it very often. Few people come this far so he’s making the most of it.” Pa pushed his glasses up his nose and shot a glance at Zanni. “At least it’s not dark yet.”

            “No.”

            Zanni was glad of it; too many of their travelling days had ended with night drawing in and the inside of the carriage being plunged into the kind of darkness which had brought the fear flooding back.

Great - fear of dark there. No backstory and keep backstory shrunk. Keeps us reading on. Where is it happening? Where is Kartalma? More sense of place.

I took notes on all 26 pieces and there were lots of positives as well as points for improvement. Interesting that some of the ones Julie loved, I was a bit 'meh' about - but that just reinforces the subjective nature of the written word and what appeals to different readers.

Thriller Plotting Techniques with Daren King was a strange session. There was lots of really useful tips in it, proving that Daren knew his stuff. But unfortunately he was a very nervous speaker which made it hard to listen to him until he'd begun to relax about half way through the allotted time. Daren introduced many 'concepts' which could be applied to a story to essentially increase the tension in a variety of ways, and I found myself jotting little notes about CKD (my current WIP) as he spoke, because I could see how something I'd already written into the novel's outline could be used to greater effect. There were also some useful definitions of bribery vs extortion (paying someone as opposed to forcing someone) and mystery and suspense (a question mark over the past or present, as opposed to a question mark hanging over the future) that I will be making much use of.

I attended two sessions by C.M.Taylor on Character is Destiny. By which, I mean I didn't do the same one twice - there was a part one and two! Part 1 looked at the golden triangle used by screenwriters to boost the emotional power of plot which I'd taken two years ago. (You can read about it by clicking here) and also introduced the Transformational Arc by Dara Marks. The latter is a device which produces a variation on a character arc within the four act structure, and I have to say I struggle to understand all the different phases. Well, I don't - I can understand them when I see the arc in front of me, but - and this is the pain in the bum bit - I don't know how to apply it to my own writing!

In part 2, Craig looked at how theme could be used to determine a character's destiny in combination with the golden triangle and transformational arc. Basically, when you have the theme of your novel, you can design characters to reflect the theme, oppose the theme, be ambivalent to the theme, or even be the neg of neg, ie someone who thinks they have solved the problem but in fact has not. (Deluded with respect to the theme, maybe?) The more fatuous the theme, the better this works because the more variations on the theme you can introduce. (It's also something I'd heard before in a session with Julie Cohen) Craig gave a great worked example based on a piece he'd been commissioned to write based on the barred list in a London pub.

Mind you, since having come home and tried to tackle the outline of CKD in this way, I got completely disillusioned and despairing because although I can see the events in my novel, I'm not sure whether they are the resistance or exhaustion phase, what my inciting incident is, how I push my character to breaking point...etc etc. I looked on the web to see if I could find anything to help, and surprisingly found a few articles on why the three act structure can actually stifle your creativity and you should focus on the natural story structure instead.

I like that idea a lot more, so I'll work with what I've got whilst sticking to a general intro, build-up, hi point, oh s**t moment, climax and resolution. It's vague enough for this mainly-pantsing writer!

Last of all, I attended Jeremy Sheldon's Endings and How to Climax in any Genre. (I like Jeremy - we shared a table for Sunday breakfast when I was running some ideas past Brian Keaney - and he really knows his stuff when it comes to screenwriting and how you can apply screenwriting tricks to the written word.)

This session came about because often, we focus on grabbing a reader at the start of our book - but do we apply the same effort to giving them a satisfactory ending? Compelling climaxes are decisive (no going back, time running out) substantive (present a risk to self or others) and spiritual (can be moral, psychological or emotional). They require that the protagonist makes a previously impossible choice to gain a slim chance at achieving the impossible. Put simply, the choicemaking has to be the most difficult it can be at this point of the novel. Make your protagonist work for every inch of gained ground until the situation is resolved...or not.

And there you have it. The only other things to report back on are the gala dinner (I wore a tiara thought there isn't much photographic evidence of that fact. Check out Debi Alper's blog for lots of pics of the FoW2016 - I'm in there somewhere), which didn't have dancing this year (boo!) but had lovely food and very good company as always; the futurecast session, where the issue of ebook pricing was hotly discussed though we all agreed to disagree and be polite while we were doing it; several cloudies had full MS requests and there was some very good news on the agent front for another; and last, but not least, I sold 10 of the 14 copies of StarMark I'd taken with me.

Not bad, eh?

Roll on FoW 2017...

Where did the summer go?

Actually, that's a misleading title.

If we're talking weather, then the summer is well and truly here this week, with very warm days and the threat of thunder. By 'summer', I'm talking about the holidays. Long, leisurely lazy mornings and nothing much planned. Instead, we're back at school (Leicestershire goes back immediately after the August Bank Holiday) and hit the ground running with new timetables, changes to after-school clubs, scouting, meetings...it's a bit of a shock to the system.

Add to that a wedding (more of that later), the Festival of Writing and a NIBS meeting, and I've not really felt much like blogging til now.

So let's start with the wedding. It was held in the Roman Baths in Bath, and was a beautiful occasion, full of love and very emotional. I'm only going to share one photo with you though. This one, taken outside the door of Bath Abbey by an obliging passer-by:

An ageing hippy/intellectual type with an armful of paperwork offered to take the pic for us. As the four of us (sis, Mum, Dad and me) posed, we started to giggle because our well-meaning photographer had the camera at a weird angle. It seems to be the trendy thing to do, to slant your photos, but we just laughed and let him get on with it. Look to the right of the photo too - he managed to get his pile of paperwork in, even if he did chop mum and sis off... 

The Festival of Writing...always a fab experience, and no less special this year than in previous years. The best bit, as always, is meeting friends old and new, and catching up on how everyone's doing in their quest to be published. I will blog about some of the sessions I attended and what I learned about myself and my writing this time, so more of that later...

And NIBS. Our little writing group met last night to get in touch with our inner child (inspired by a couple of York sessions). One of the exercises we tried was to produce something in the style of a well known children's author. When the Squidgelings were small, one of their favourite bedtime books was Peepo, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, so that's what I used as a starting point. Thought I'd share it with you...

Here's a little schoolboy

One, two, three.

On his way to school

What does he see?

He sees his neighbour sitting

in a chair all alone

But he carries on by 

Cos he's kicking a stone

He sees a little lady

With a big black dog

And then he pretends 

To be a green frog.

Here's a little schoolboy

One, two, three.

Gets to the playground

What does he see?

His friends Ben and Jerry 

are running round and round.

Chasing little Katy

With a leaf they've found.
He sees the dinner trolley
With packed lunches piled high
And the mums and dads all talking
as a plane flies by.

Here's a little schoolboy

One, two, three.

sits in the classroom

What does he see?

He sees the teacher smiling

as she ticks off names

and a table in the corner

where there's lots of games

He sees the coloured pencils

in the pencil pot

And the numberline and playdough

and a book he's got.

Here's a little schoolboy

One, two, three.

Eating his dinner now

What does he see?

He sees the dinner ladies

in their aprons blue

and chips and bananas

and fishfingers too.

He sees his squished up sarnies

with the marmite in

and the juicebox of orange

with a tiger's grin.

Here's a little schoolboy

One, two, three.

outside for P.E

What does he see?

He sees a bag of footballs

and some bright red cones

A running track of nice green grass 

and no sharp stones.

He sees the teacher's stopwatch

hears the whistle too

And remembers - should've gone before!

He needs the loo.

Here's a little schoolboy

One, two, three.

The schoolday's over

What does he see?

He sees his mummy waiting

With a smile on her face

And there's his little sister

in the usual place.

He sees the clock hands moving 

Til they point to three

The door opens - out he runs

It's nearly time for tea!

So if you had to write in the style of a children's author you love, who would it be? 

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...