What am I working on?
It’s a very good question. About 2 years ago I mapped out a 3 year plan of writing projects. It was overly ambitious and I have not fulfilled anywhere near what I had in mind. One project is completed, my collaborative epistolary novel, Post Marked: Piper’s Reach. It is ready to send out to agents and publishers.
Every thing else is languishing and waiting. Some ideas I have abandoned, others I have modified. And I’m ok with that.
In the meantime I am pursuing a couple of smaller projects as I’ve mentioned before.
What happens on Facebook from time to time is writers tag each other to see what each other is up to. It looks like this:
“I was tagged in 77 for 7 by Person X.
Go to page 77 (or page 7 if you’re not up to 77) of your current work in progress. Starting on the 7th line, share the next 7 lines, then tag 7 more people.
The challenge will be finding 7 author friends that haven’t been tagged.”
I am working on a novella at the moment. Here is the working logline or summary:
When Jack meets Takashi at a bird breeding convention; Jack is displaying his birds while Takashi paints them, they form an unlikely friendship and begin to come to terms with their experience of World War 2 that shaped their lives, discovering that the very things that trap them are the things that give them the most freedom.
Scrolling through to page 7, and line 7, here is the following 7 lines (I made it 8 as it was a complete paragraph). Please note it is a draft only and any errors, grammatically or linguistically, are purely intentional.
The old man selected another brush, dipped it in the ink and continued his study of a bird in flight, transforming the caged bird into a bird beyond the confines. As the brush moved across the lightness of the page it appeared as if it opened the darkness beneath and bled into the contrasting whiteness. Yet the image appeared with a life and breath of its own; the finch alighting onto the imagined tree’s limb. The bird’s wing arched out behind it to capture the air and slow its descent. Its translucent feathers of black ink let the white of the paper bleed through, suspended in the descent as its claws were held infinitesimally away from touching the branch.
I am aiming to have this novella completed by the end of the year. I am also working on a verse novel, a modified idea I originally had for a YA novel. I will share some of it in a few weeks’ time. I also aim to have a draft completed of the verse novel completed by the end of the year. Will see how I go.
Go and be creative.
A Fullness in Brevity - Adam Byatt 