Yesterday I passed a mighty milestone: I finished my NOVEL!
"Eh? WOT Novel?" you may ask, as I don't think I've actually even MENTIONED it here - I am, after all, notoriously shy and LOATHE to publicise any such exploits hem hem. It's an adaptation of Storm House, the screenplay wot I wrote for my MA dissertation. When I sent the original script around agents, competitions and so forth several people commented that it would never get made because it was FAR too expensive, and that maybe I should consider turning it into a BOOK instead.
In October 2015, when I was starting work at Imperial, I was looking for a new, easygoing, non-deadline-based, WRITING project to have a go at to ensure that I didn't DROP it all altogether. "Why don't you write that BOOK?" said The Items On My List?" This was a GOOD idea - you don't need special software to format a BOOK, you can proofread on the tube, and you can even do some of it during idle moments at work, should they occur (which, of course, in my case NEVER HAPPENED, honest).
I thus ploughed through various versions, first of getting all the SCRIPT into PROSE, then going through and properly ADAPTING it, then going through AGANE and making it WORK properly and make SENSE (several times), and eventually doing the draft that I finished yesterday, where it is actually GOOD FUN to sit and read. I reckon one more whizz through for speeling and grammar is will done it good and proper, then who knows, maybe I could let people READ it?!?
The current plan though is to "mature it in wood" i.e. not look at it at all for a couple of weeks, then in the new year have a bit of an old THINK about what to do with it next. The idea of self-publishing via Kindle etc is VERY appealing - no hoops to jump through, no rejection letters, and it's pretty much what I've always done anyway with The ROCK - but on the other hand I wouldn't IMMEDIATELY say "No" if Mr Big Publishing House offered me a million quid for paperback rights.
I'll see how I feel in the futuristic year of 2017 A.D. but for now I am quite pleased to have DONE a book! All the way to the end and EVERYTHING!
