The Novel

After a short break to focus my time and energy on Mercy Buckets, a solo play that premiered at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September, the work on Scandalous & Remarkable has resumed.

Now, it is time concentrate on the novel itself. Over the first many months, I pursued research, musing and reflection in tandem with the construction of the novel. That was well and good in the early stages. In the mid-stages, when the story started to gain momentum, little snippets of ideas and new bits of information to be studied were still acceptable to strengthen the concept and style.

At this time, however, the approach is taking a turn. While the entire focus throughout was on the creation of the novel, the focus now is specifically to write it—long patches of narrative and storytelling not necessarily appropriate to the blog format. Nevertheless, the blog will continue. But rather than producing two entries per week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as in the past), the format will be one per week—on Wednesdays.

Returning my creative attention (or at least a large part of it) to the novel has required a reflection on what I’ve accomplished so far, where I am and what I would like to do…and yes, I am working on a tentative timeline. I do want to publish the book! While I have enjoyed writing the 100 blog entries (since September 1, 2010), and each—well, most—of the entries have or will be incorporated into the first draft of the book, my concern is that writing the blog will take precedence over writing the novel. (I know of others who have been trapped in this way.)

You see, the blog writing is, in a way, easier. While there are inherent connections, particularly since I have a specific subject—my great-grandmother Leta Eckman—like making a batch of cookies, I can whip up a blog entry in a couple of hours and then be finished. A novel, however, requires continuous front-of-brain thinking.  What has been written and considered needs to be omnipresent in order for the work to maintain its consistency and flow.

Time is of the essence. And I am a part-time writer with a full-time other job (that is also important to me), friends, activities and several theater projects. While I consider myself a fairly successful juggler, I realize that one can throw only so many rings into the air.

So that’s the plan.