THE DAILY GRIND

Got to thinking about the whole writing process.

I am amazed and a little awe-struck when I read of authors who firstly know with mechanical precision just how their book is going to proceed and secondly are able to bash out 5,000+ words a day in the process.

With me it's a little more haphazard,

Sure I know vaguely (very vaguely) where the plot of my book is headed but generally I have no idea how characters are going to develop nor do I have any forensic idea of what twists and turn my storyline might take. It just sort of happens. I find characters take on a life of their own - which is probably why they're all so strange - and as for the plot...well, as I write it evolves and interesting ideas occur to me which just beg to be followed.

It's a hugely inefficient way of working and generally means I have to cull 50,000 words from every book to make it sensible and coherent. But it does mean that I come up with some good ideas. ..well i hope they're good, otherwise it's all pretty pointless.

As for my daily quota: I aim to put down 20,000 words a week. Now they might not be particularly good words but they are capable of being polished and revised.

With The Demi-Monde 2 I'm bang on schedule though writing the tract on what ImPuritanism is was a real stretch. But having said that I'm pretty pleased with how my Dark Charismatics fit right in...

IN THE BEGINNING

Okay...

First blog, so let's summarise the situation.

• I've written a sci-fi/fantasy book called 'The Demi-Monde;
• My agent (John Jarrold) has pitched the book to various publishers around the world;
• Quercus (an independent British publisher) has signed the four book Demi-Monde series with the first book 'The Demi-Monde: Winter' hitting the shelves (probably) in January 2011; and
• Rod Rees (that's me, the me now referred to as a 'British novelist': doesn't that sound cool) finds himself obliged to write three more novels.

So now I am firmly in the world of Blads (no, I didn't know what they were until a week ago: apparently they're promo brochures designed to puff a book to overseas buyers); conventions (I'm to attend the big Horror one in Brighton in March 2010); photographs (Nelli prowling around all morning trying to make me look interesting); and web-sites (www.the demi-monde.com).

My aim is to make this blog a diary of my adventures in publishing. The next big event is meeting my editor (Nick) at Quercus and meeting John Jarrold for the first time (ours has been a strictly digital relationship thus far).

I'll keep you posted.