An Update

I’ve had a few people asking me how my new novel is coming along, so I thought I’d just say a few words about where things stand.

The novel is about a woman’s relationship with her father as he starts to lose his memory and starts to relive his traumatic experiences as a tail gunner in RAF bombers in World War Two as if they were happening in the present.  It’s been a few months since I finished a first draft, but it was quite clear when I read it through that a few things needed to fleshed out, which meant there was more writing to be done. And then, when I’d finished that, I needed to take stock of the whole thing and do some editing. At about that time, as sometimes happens, other things in my life had to take priority over writing (see my post Life Imitates Art from last month).

However, the good news is that I do now have a complete second draft which I’m reasonably pleased with. At this point it is time to bring in a new perspective.  I find that you develop a kind of blindness to your own work, because you’re so familiar with the characters and the plot.  It’s easy to miss things that might not work for the reader who is new to the story.  Also, there were a few bits I wanted to run past someone who knows more about certain things than I do.  So the novel is currently with a couple of good friends who have agreed to read it for me an offer their thoughts.  I am waiting, slightly nervously, for their comments.  What more, if anything, needs to be done to the book before I can start thinking about sending it off will depend largely on what they say.  One thing I do know is that I need to come up with a title!

So there we are!  I’ll provide further updates in due course when there’s more to say.