Why do we do what? In my case, why do I write?
The easy and probably the most truthful answer is ‘because I can’. I hope that doesn’t sound too conceited but it’s true, I can write. I don’t always write well, I don’t always write interestingly but I always write. Every day, well, most days, after checking my emails, looking at the online newspaper, seeing if anyone has said anything remotely original on the Leyton Orient forum ( a remote chance but I check anyway) it’s on with the writing laptop and down to it.
OK, so I can string a few words together but how does that become a book?
With Boonie‘s publication date approaching fast, I thought it might be an idea to describe how that particular book happened.
It started with colours. I’d just about given up hope of finding a mainstream publisher for Dodger’s Lot so sat down to write something new and it was colours that came into my head. I wrote about things being the wrong colour. A landscape where the ground wasn’t brown and the sky wasn’t blue, the trees weren’t green. When the Sun wasn’t yellow I wondered why all this was so and the term ‘chemical landscape’ appeared on the page.
Now, I’m not a big environmentalist. Nor do I re-act in the standard knee-jerk way to what is called global warming but I do notice change and I thought it would be interesting to consider what might be the final result, the thing that might actually finish the planet off. I concluded it would be when the water ran out and that, dear (potential) readers, is how Boonie got started.
A dying planet with things the wrong colour because of pollution and no water. There you go. That’s what writers call Place; where the story happens. After place we need Time, that is when the story happens. I don’t do time much, just try to lay down a few clues in the story and expect the reader to know, work out or invent when the story takes place for them.
OK so I had the Place and an idea or two about Time but I did need a story so that’s what I’ll blog about next.
Byee.
PS. If WordPress keep trying to change colour to color I’ll scream.
