Two Pages (31/10/16)

This morning’s pages were really strong, robust and inspired. Yesterday’s work was getting the ideas out onto the paper, today was about playing with that material, like clay or paint. You can communicate a large amount of information through the application of action and interpretation. That is done entirely by the reader, if you’re good at it. There are scenes and images that can pay off later. It usually comes through editing and organisation, and I’ve often found that the theme and idea of a book comes to my attention as  edit. Subsequent edits then become a matter of uncovering and illuminating the argument for and against the ideas, which is where you get the dynamics of the book emerging. I am now 15 pages into the new book, I’ve sent She’s Here to the agent and I am awaiting feedback from that. Things are going well.

I am now halfway into Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. There is a point where it all just clicks together and you’re lost in the torrent of words and images that he wields. He writes with such courage and potency of execution, allied to phrasing that’s just exquisite and ribald all at once.

I will be posting more fiction today. A poem and a short story, to acknowledge that it is Halloween.

Thank you for reading.