Grind Show

Ffrogwhist will for the next couple of weeks be put to a very different use. No longer will it be a collection of daily writing exercises, but instead a chronicle of my attempts to write a new novel. Not entirely new, to be clear, but more a rehash of an old one. Grind Show. Demon hunters racing and battling out against the forces of darkness across the desolate landscape of the Mojave desert. I wrote some 25,000 words last time, racing bullet fast through the chapters, throwing shotguns, car chases, rock bands and merciless bounty hunters around like a desperate juggler attempting to keep the attention of a waning crowd.

Now I'm going to try my hand at it again. Not simply pick up where I left off, but rather go back, right to the root, the first Chapter or two, and see if I can do it right this time. It's to be more of a commercial novel, something that can actually sell; but that doesn't mean it's any easier to write. Something that became clear over the year I worked at Penguin is that the big selling 'commercial' novels are every part as challenging to write as the more literary ones.

Why? Consider Howard and his creation, Conan. There have been hundreds of Conan knock offs, but nobody has achieved the fame and excellence that Howard did. The reason is because he believed in his creation, poured his heart and soul into it. Conan walks and breathes and glowers and roars on his pages, where in the other books he never manages to be anything but a two dimensional hunk of muscle and steel. Same with Lovecraft; despite his at times terrible dialogue, purple prose and contrived endings, there's something about his body of walk that has captivated and mesmerized generations of readers, to the point that today he is still actively read, with new collections being released yearly with forwards by the likes of Joyce Carol Oates and China Mieville. Lovecraft believed in his creations, and thus others are swayed.

So if you're going to write something, you have to care about it. Or people will notice, and toss is aside. That's why people who decide to write a 'commercial' novel for a quick buck rarely succeed; their audiences can hear the silent sneer, detect the patronizing tone, and kick the book to the curb.

There's my challenge. Write something fast paced, compelling and fun that I'd want to read, something dark and harrowing and sarcastic and smart. I've already edited some 5,000 words into the beginning of the new book, lifted from the first draft. I'm going to go from there, day in, day out, and see where it takes me.

Wish me luck!