Conjuring the Story

Old Problem

Writing around a full time job and family is, for me, as tricky as it is necessary.This summer I worked up a pretty meticulous outline for a next book: The Serpent’s Walk. But, since then, I have had no end of trouble getting rolling: an immensely frustrating experience all hemmed in with self-doubt, suffocation, self-pity, distraction, and similar critters.

Today’s Solution

It occurred to me that getting the story to live in my imagination once again might be the key. With that in mind, I’ve sketched the shape of one of the more unpleasant characters. I had been vacillating about exactly what sort of thing he would be. Imagine writing Moby Dick without any notion of what sort of sea monster had got Ahab so irritated. (Clams can be quite alarming. Oh. And squid. No. Maybe it’s a mermaid. Or a vast narwhal….)

I think it helps to have an answer or two about the physicality of the thing swimming at the bottom of the next book….

I think.

I’ll update you soon.