Despite attempting to start the bloody novel 4 times today I've finally found a voice for my lead character. I've purposely withheld the name from you for no significant reason other than I hoped to shock you with its extreme unshockingness. Her name? Yes, it's Sophie. What? Wouldn't it have been weird if her name had been anything else? Anyway... here's a bit about how the book got underway this morning.
I tried starting the bloody thing 4 times (yes I know I already mentioned that but I figured it was worth repeating), each time getting about a thousand words in to the first chapter before doing a Control+All, Delete. Let me draw an analogy for you to help explain.... I'm quite free about what I'll post on my websites, both on Lumiere and here, but in a sense I've also been very careful about the type of content I post. From sopheava.com's inception I knew that time would cement for me a "body of work" whether I wanted it to or not, and on the whole I wanted my body of work to be as much of the 'positive' persuasion as possible. Seriously. Who wants to read about years of bad jobs, bad breakups, bad bagels, and being pissed off at the world? Yeah. Not so much me. So... you could say I've been somewhat selective about my writing on sopheava.com. All the gloom and doom that is my life is safely locked away because that's not what this place is about.
THAT is exactly how I feel about starting this novel as well. I wanted to set a tone that wasn't depressing, wasn't overpowering, and neatly led in to the many adventures Sophie's going to embark on. A tone that communicated her frustrations with the world at large without making the reader want to slit their wrists or pick up War & Peace as a viable substitute.
Lo and behold, three thousand words of gloom finally ushered in 2080 words of w00t! SOPHIE LIVES! Not only does she live but she has a gorgeous best friend named Eve, is the proud owner of a pair of sexy, knee-highed black stilettos, and is already getting more ass than me. I can't wait to see what's going to happen to her tomorrow, though I suspect it ain't gonna be great if I'm going to get her out of the city and in to a Finnish sauna by 10 thousand words.
Current word count: 2080.
Comments
Good for you! I was going to write about my alter ego going on happy adventure but I just couldn't bring myself to do it espcially when my life is not in that direction right now. Your novel sounds absoutely delicious and I can't wait to read it :)