Yikes!

I know that this occasional blog is writing about writing and therefore not writing at all but it is worth a brief update.

When last we spoke I had a novel I wanted to write and one that I was lining up as a practice run or possibly a trilogy that I would use as a trial run. This was going to plan, albeit that the plan has been sabotaged quite badly by the arrival on my desk of rather a lot of work from my job which is monopolising my time. Also, there is still a substantial amount of plotting to do for both and also some research. I did think, though, that I might see may way clear to plotting out the first draft of at least one of them by now.

This week two unexpected things happened.  The first was that I had a "what if"? moment and an idea for a third novel/story came into my head and "felt" quite interesting and do-able. The second was that this morning, over breakfast, idea number four launched itself from the teapot, grabbed me by the ears and shook me around. In the case of both of these new ones I have jotted down some very brief notes of the core idea and some quick one liners that occurred to me during a walk to the supermarket and back.

The second of the ideas amused me: the first allows me to reuse something I wrote around the turn of the century - I can keep the first scene or two and completely rewrite what happens afterwards.

Both of them are essentially genre novels and within the broad family of science fiction. In each case the general idea has presented itself - I know the outline of the worlds in which the events will play out. What I need to work out is an actual story and introduce myself to the characters whose story it is.

Oh.