More on The Novel

I suppose that whenever anyone mentions a novel, then the obvious question is: "What's it about?". [Thanks, Alastair, for asking this one].

At this point, 90% of you (about 0.2 people) will turn to another blog, go off and do something else, or fall slowly over sideways, polaxed by the power of sheer boredom.

Roughly, it's a "whodunnit" crime novel with literary pretensions. It's set in a University, where an unpopular professor has been murdered. Strange events and hallucinogenic oddities litter the scene as a small team of academics blend their individual skills to track down the killer. Unless, of course, it's one of them...

Well, that's 5 chapters finished at about 8,000 words per chapter. I had planned 10 chapters, but the material for 5 and 6 has all just compressed itself into Chapter 5 alone, so it might turn out to be a 9 chapter book. I wonder if 72,000 words is sufficient?

Also, the discipline of getting down and writing more has made me think more about the possible ending and some of its improbabilities. There's now a cinematically dramatic ending, which may not work so well on the page, and a better tying up of loose ends. Will I ever write any more of it? Well, I hope so, as it seems to be one of the only ways to get off the job treadmill, and even then only a very low percentage of authors make it (that should probably be "makes" it, since the authors are being considered as a collective single unit).

Perhaps there are other would-be authors out there who might consider commenting on the whole process of getting work together, onto paper, and publishing it?

Anyway, back to the spiffing old teapot, as they used to say.