March, 2010

A strange week, full of anxiety dreams. Because I got stuck. For some reason — well, for many reasons — the new book just ground to a halt. Some people call this “writer’s block”. But here’s my favourite assessment of that particular condition. It’s from Paul Theroux’s lovingly rigorous essay Chatwin Revisited: In terms of [...]

Read: On Turning the big wooden crank on my chomping meat-grinder

March, 2010

In 1925 – the very year the High Bouncing Love appeared as the Great Gatsby – another best-selling, era-defining book was published, having been renamed by an editor with an eye for such things. The book was called Mein Kampf. Max Amann, the editor in question, had been Hitler’s company sergeant in World War I. [...]

Read: On Four and a Half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice.

March, 2010

Would you have bought any of the following novels? Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires, Under the Red, White, and Blue The High-Bouncing Love Trimalchio in West Egg Nor me. But in fact, as I’m sure you already know, they’re all one book. These are some of the working titles for The Great Gatsby — a name [...]

Read: On Archie Leach, The High-Bouncing Love, Catch-18 and Nowhere, Forever

February, 2010

In terms of volume it’s been a pretty good week. I’m almost fifteen thousand words into the new book. I’ve stumbled across a couple of new characters; one principal supporting character has already shown me a side of himself I hadn’t anticipated. I find myself falling for him a little bit, so his role will [...]

Read: On the Nature of First Drafts

February, 2010

Today I sat down to begin writing the new, still untitled, book. The first thing I noticed was this: I didn’t know how to begin. I didn’t have a way into the story. I knew it had to be fast — because it’s that kind of story — but finding speedy ways into a narrative [...]

Read: On the First Day