Here be dragons!
Writing is such an interesting way to self-discovery. I don’t mean to sound all high-brow and deep, but as I’m sitting toying with the revisions for Djinn and thinking about what the future may hold, I feel like I’ve crossed over a self-imposed limitation. And it feels liberating and amazing.
But onto more things linked to the title of this post: discovery. Revising Djinn has led me to realise many things, chiefly that it is a lot of work. Personally, I thought that writing it was where all the hard grafting was – sniggers – boy, if ONLY I had known. *narrows eyes at other writerly types who nod sagely at this point*
But, having said how much hard grafting it is, it is also very much an eye opening experience. I’ve realised that a) the book moves forward quite rapidly and does not drag its feet as I had initially feared and b) that Nicholas needs more verbal screen time. He is in danger of becoming a bit angsty and internal…and as much as I love other people writing intense internal dialogue for their characters, it does not suit Nicholas or Djinn, at present and c) the rapport between Jenny and Nicholas is really good but I am worried about potential luuuurve interest, which is not the direction I want this to go in at all. Not in this their first book, at least!
A further discovery is how much research I had uncovered for Djinn and how much I had lived and breathed it for such a long time. The germ for Djinn struck me back in 2007 and I created a folder dedicated to that alone and crammed every bit of research I could find into it for months. But it sat in the back of my head and stewed. In the meantime I did other Stuff. Then this year it all came pouring out in one fell swoop. Is that odd? I hope that it is. I can’t afford to ruminate that long over new storylines! Not if I want any type of writing career.
I’ve got a deadline for the revising and amendments which is Friday, 28th August, which is when I will be printing it off and handed it over to my personal hero(ine) Jamie, for more checking. She is kick-ass and I know she won’t pull punches. I’ve already asked / warned her and by all accounts, she has her red pen ready! Jamie will be the first person, apart from me, who would have read Djinn in its entirety. Needless to say I am excited but terrified (in a good way) at the same time.
Right – enough jibba jabba from me. Off to ruminate on plotslines and character creation.
This past week turned out to be a genuine holiday! 
Then I may meet up with my friend Karen to talk writing, books, and then hubby Mark may stop by and we may have a brainstorming session or just talk all at once, in a fury of words, about writing, movies, comics, graphic novels, novels, fantasy, urban fantasy, DnD and whatever else we can think of.