For the five folks who read this blog, you know I've been writing a new novel called Onyx. Well, I'd like to say I've been writing it, but I haven't touched it in several weeks. A few things have gotten in the way, such as work and needing to spend time with family. However, there's one other minor thing that has gotten in the way...
...a different book that's begging to be written.
When I wrote Homecoming, I had to develop a backstory, and that backstory centers around a man named David Morton. Morton is the key to how the human race found hope and, eventually, a new world on which to thrive after being brought to the edge of extinction. Ever since I completed Homecoming's first draft, Morton's story has been in my thoughts. I find myself going to bed thinking about his actions in one part of the story or another. Such obsession has only one answer to make it go away - I have to write the story.
This is not to say that I don't have strong feelings about Onyx. What it says is that Morton's story is so much more prominent right now that it's getting in the way of my enthusiasm and creativity in writing Onyx. As you know, enthusiasm is the key to any good book, so I've decided to shelve Onyx in favor of this new book that will not wait.
...a different book that's begging to be written.
When I wrote Homecoming, I had to develop a backstory, and that backstory centers around a man named David Morton. Morton is the key to how the human race found hope and, eventually, a new world on which to thrive after being brought to the edge of extinction. Ever since I completed Homecoming's first draft, Morton's story has been in my thoughts. I find myself going to bed thinking about his actions in one part of the story or another. Such obsession has only one answer to make it go away - I have to write the story.
This is not to say that I don't have strong feelings about Onyx. What it says is that Morton's story is so much more prominent right now that it's getting in the way of my enthusiasm and creativity in writing Onyx. As you know, enthusiasm is the key to any good book, so I've decided to shelve Onyx in favor of this new book that will not wait.
(May we be as enthusiastic as these guys)
It'll be interesting to see just how quickly this new book comes out. I don't even have a title yet, only a rough outline of what will happen. The ideas for what Morton does - his struggles, setbacks, and triumphs - have been running through my head for a long time, and I feel that if I don't get them out, my brain is going to explode. I can't have that, so I guess I have to write about it(the only way of my brain exploding that I'll accept). The character matures greatly throughout the story, which takes place over the course of 72 years, driving forward with both boundless optimism and quiet despair. He's flawed, naive, arrogant at times, and deeply insecure at others. He feels the weight of the world on his shoulders, and even though there are times he wants to do nothing more than crawl into a hole and disappear, he also feels a sense of obligation that if he doesn't act as best as he knows how, then he won't be able to look himself in the mirror.
In other words, he's human.
I'll get back to Onyx in the fall, but Morton awaits. Hopefully my enthusiasm for this book, enthusiasm I've learned never to ignore when it hits you about a specific work, will allow me to finish this before too much longer. Although I've written before about plowing through something so you have a good base of material to produce, writing, in the end, has to be fun or you'll never stick with it. So that's what I'm going to do here - have fun. If nothing else, it's going to be a wild ride.
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