Alankria - April 27th, 2008

I’m getting very excited about a novel I want to start writing this summer, once draft 2 of The Bone Queen is done.

Originally I planned to work on The Ephrebet Bed, the novel I wrote 50,000 words of during Nanowrimo last November, but for various reasons I no longer want to. A driving reason is that TBQ is a fairly straightforward novel, albeit a bit weird in places, and the idea of writing a novel that's even more straightforward after completing TBQ doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm. Writing a more unconventional novel, however, has the opposite effect.

The novel is currently dubbed [novel told by various texts]. As the temporary name suggests, it will be told via a collection of various documents. I know what three of them will be:

1. A report for the king, written by a minister or someone in another important position, detailing what's happened so far in the war with the river-women and algae-men. The facts of what happened will be tainted by at least two agendas: his own, and his government's.

2. A woman is translating some documents (however they're written/presented - not on paper, not expressed in the same way as human language) written by someone(s) from the water/algae-peoples society. There is both the viewpoint of the water/algae-person who wrote the original material, as well as notes revealing what's going on with the translator. (NB: 'river-women and algae-men' are only the terms the humans use to describe these 'people'. There will be some gender playaround in here.)

3. As chapter titles/quotes, there will be excerpts from the river diaries -- daily records kept by various administrative bodies throughout the kingdom, detailing the height of the rivers and making other observations.*

There will be two or three more threads.

One thing I find interesting about this idea is that, on the surface, it has potential to be a pretty dry, character-less novel. But it actually won’t be. Each text (excluding the river diaries) will be highly driven by the person writing them -- their motives, ambitions, desires, and so on. What is included and excluded will be completely decided by the characters. I’m hoping to get a balance of slightly drier, fact-emphasised content, such as the report for the king, and more personal content where more personal dramas can get through to the reader.

Not everyone will find the human element compelling and deep enough, I’m sure, but hopefully I can make it interesting and enjoyable for a lot of people.

I’m certainly looking forward to it. =D

Of course, first I need to finish The Bone Queen. My revised self-deadline for draft 2 is the end of June. That may or may not be possible; if necessary, I’ll consider turning June into a Nanowrimo-style push to get it done.

In the meantime, I have my eye on a "short" history of Thailand that I plan to buy, as the world of [novel told by various texts] is a secondary world loosely based on Thailand. Later in the year, when I've finished TBQ and am planning this one more thoroughly, I'll need to get a reader's pass for the British Library so that I can look at some more specific books. The necessity of going to the British Library fills me with glee; I love that place. (If the zombie apocalypse comes, I'm setting up fortress in one of their storage-buildings.)

I'm hopeful that looking forward to writing this book will help spur me to finishing The Bone Queen.

*The idea for these came from the Babylonian(?) astronomical diaries, which kept records of each day’s weather, as well as occurrences such as eclipses. This is how we know that it was raining the day Alexander died.

Tags: [novel told by various texts]