'Welcome to Bastard'

Here's a little preview of what I've been writing.

In this post I talked about my novel-writing project, The Experiment. I knew it was a brave, probably foolish, thing to attempt. First drafts are not meant for public consumption. A writer must feel free to write badly, if they are ever going to write well. And knowing that someone is watching is a surefire way to stamp out that playful approach we need if we’re to take risks.

As you may know, I decided to shift the focus of the experiment, whilst hopefully keeping it true to my original intention of sharing the trials and tribulations of writing a long project. I decided that this Substack (or one element of it, at least) would become a place for my literary sketches and smaller works, plus works-in-progress. It should be my gallery, albeit a gallery in a working studio, where I will show you, my reader-supporters my half-finished pieces, off-cuts etc.

I posted the first of those works-in-progress here:

At the time I thought I was writing a novella. I’ve been pressing on with the book, and making good progress, but in doing so I’ve come to a realisation.

I’m currently about 11000 words into draft zero, but having planned it out in a fair bit of detail, I know I’m only about an eighth of the way into the story. So it’s not a novella, which I’d anticipated being about 45k words. It’s a novel, whether I like it or not.

I’ve decided I do like it. I’ve chosen to see this as an exciting development; I’ve long believed that one of the hard things about being a writer of fiction is to know how much control to exert over the story that’s trying to emerge. Writing fiction is a strange mix of left-brain/right-brain, of control and stepping back to see what’s developing in the subconscious. Overthinking something can kill it dead, but not thinking at all is worse. It’s a little bit like riding a horse (something I can’t do, so read into that what you will). The rider’s (supposed to be) in charge, of direction and speed and so on, but y’know? It’s a pretty powerful beast they’re on, stronger than them and potentially more wilful. So who’s in charge, really?

Anyway, for my reader-subscribers, here’s a glimpse of where I’m up to with it. I hope you enjoy this chunk of my work, but as you read it remember it’s Draft Zero. I make no apology if anything about it is a bit shit. That’s the point, according to Hemingway at least, and I kinda think he knew what he was talking about.

The rest of this post is for my reader-supporters, but I have reduced the price of an upgrade to the minimum that Substack will allow (currently just under 60p/US$.76 per week if you subscribe annually). I’m asking you to support me so that my work can continue, and in return I’ll continue to write interesting and informative posts like this one.

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Work-in-progress 2

Title TK, Draft 0