I have made the momentous decision to write a different novel in November for National Novel Writing Month than I had been planning. What's worse is that it is going to take a lot more planning and research, and I only have a little more than three weeks to get it done.
It will be a challenge because it is a mystery -- what else were you expecting? -- but will have parts that occur more than 60 years in the past and some occurring today. I haven't decided on how to handle the past elements but they are too numerous and complicated to disperse throughout the novel.
So, I may open with an entire section in the past with its own dramatic elements, and then open a second section in the present, where the novel will conclude.
I have been paging through one of my favorite novels, TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, to see how John LeCarre handled crucial past events in his novel. And there are a couple of other works that are inventive that I will consider.
The novel, tentatively titled THE TONTINE, is going to require that I step well outside my comfort zone. The protagonist may be a woman -- haven't decided on that yet, but at the very least a female will be a central character -- and I will stray well outside the mainstream or Black communities and into another ethnic culture altogether.
It should be fun.
Just to prepare you, I probably won't have a lot of time to blog next month. I still will be freelancing and also trying to write a novel. It will be crunch time and something will have to give. I suspect blogging will be part of the give, though I won't give it up all month.
I will let you know as we go along.
As for now, thanks for reading and don't give up.
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