Thursday, July 08, 2004
Book Number Three
Have you ever had something happen to you that won't let go? Whatever it is, it happens, and it becomes the thing that you think about every day when you wake up. And more. This thing has happened, and as much as you try, there's nothing you can do to change anyone's mind about it. No matter what you do. And let's say, for the sake of good drama, that you try lots of ways to change someone's mind or affect the outcome of this thing. So here you are, waking up to this new reality every day, and life goes on with or without you, so waking up that way gets to be the same. But it's still there -- even though you're used to it -- that feeling of something having been changed, something no longer the way it was. And not for the better. Years pass and it's easier to forget about the nuances. But that abruptness of change? That hasn't gone away. It's only settled into cynicism. And if it's investigated too thoroughly, so that all those nuances come to memory again, that sickening, nauseating sensation will return. And it will feel just like it did on the first day after.
The build-up of this, as well as how to respond to such a dilemma, is essentially the story of my third book, dreamed up more than a year and a half ago but started today, entitled Claims from the Pit. It's a first-person and s-o-c present tense novel that I've mapped out in ten chapters, shooting for around 300 pages or so.
This is about all the detail I'll go into with the book, mainly because this book, more than anything else I've written, or will write, is -- while composed for audience -- undeniably unpublishable. It's dark, challenging, and not about running. (Although I did make several characters runners -- can you believe I almost made them basketball players, just to try something different? What do I know about basketball?)
I'm more jacked about writing this book than I have been about just about anything else I've worked on. Which is strange, I know -- a lot of people would say that I'm wasting my time. Maybe, who am I to argue? But every time I open up the document and get to thinking about what the book is going to say and how it's going to say it . . . I can't help but get excited.
It's also nice to have a big project to work on again. It's been 18 months since I finished my last first draft of any fiction, and more than two years since I began a new book. Coming to that blank screen isn't easy. But it's worth it.
I realize reading about a book you don't know or care about is not interesting reading, so I'll try and not mention CFTP too often here . . . even though it's going to be on my mind for the majority of the next few months.
The build-up of this, as well as how to respond to such a dilemma, is essentially the story of my third book, dreamed up more than a year and a half ago but started today, entitled Claims from the Pit. It's a first-person and s-o-c present tense novel that I've mapped out in ten chapters, shooting for around 300 pages or so.
This is about all the detail I'll go into with the book, mainly because this book, more than anything else I've written, or will write, is -- while composed for audience -- undeniably unpublishable. It's dark, challenging, and not about running. (Although I did make several characters runners -- can you believe I almost made them basketball players, just to try something different? What do I know about basketball?)
I'm more jacked about writing this book than I have been about just about anything else I've worked on. Which is strange, I know -- a lot of people would say that I'm wasting my time. Maybe, who am I to argue? But every time I open up the document and get to thinking about what the book is going to say and how it's going to say it . . . I can't help but get excited.
It's also nice to have a big project to work on again. It's been 18 months since I finished my last first draft of any fiction, and more than two years since I began a new book. Coming to that blank screen isn't easy. But it's worth it.
I realize reading about a book you don't know or care about is not interesting reading, so I'll try and not mention CFTP too often here . . . even though it's going to be on my mind for the majority of the next few months.
