Scratching on a piece of (digital) paper

I am writing again.

The second novel (Helicopter!) has stalled because I can’t get the characters right. I need to pull back and possibly try a change of view. Maybe attempt a switch to first person instead of third.

But the bottom line is that I don’t like Helicopter! very much at the moment; I can’t get enthused by it, and although the factional plot interests and intrigues me, I just have no appetite for the protag.

There are other pieces of work in various stages in the pipeline; outlines of two other novels and a synopsis for a new short story, but they’ve been pushed back to enable me to cope with the more prosaic but necessary day-to-day issues.

But there is a new piece in the offing. I’m not sure how marketable it is; the subject matter isn’t one that, to the best of my knowledge, has been widely written about, at least not in the way I’m attempting. I’m very unsure how the publishing house-driven market would view it.

However it’s there, in my head, and also ‘out there’ in a far more concrete (and readable) form.

I have written nine chapters, drafted two more and sketched out a further three which would take the reader to the point of conclusion.

The book works out at an average of 900 words per chapter, an overall wordcount in the region of 13,500.

It’s time to write the literary synopsis and begin the mailout. I hate this bit of the process.

Ah well, we’ll see what the agents and publishers think in due course.