Don't Look Back, You Can Never Look Back

I've been writing. I've changed my routine to fit with the write everyday mantra I espoused a couple of posts ago. Specifically I have consciously fought the urge to go back and revise what I wrote the day before.

Normally something I write has been redone to within an inch of its life by the time I get to the end of the first draft. Then I revise some more. This time, I haven't bothered even to read what I wrote the day before, but just carry on regardless. This is very, very hard for me to do. I know there are gaping holes in the story and the writing is flabby and I'll end up with an incoherent narrative that I must go and fix right now.

Anyway, I'm 13,000 words in. Unusually for me, I don't have a working title yet. I find a working title helps me focus my thoughts as I write, but so far so good. My overall aim is the bastard child of Dan Brown and the Umberto Eco of Foucault's Pendulum, though veering towards the latter in content.

That last isn't to knock Dan Brown, by the way. I know it is fashionable to do that, but I'm not going to. Why? Well, I was in a bookshop the other week and a couple of tourists were in looking for something for the flight home. One of them recommended The Da Vinci Code and was totally genuine about it, enthusing about how much they enjoyed it and were gripped by it. That strikes me as a good thing.