Christ Church, Spitalfields.
I know, it’s been a while hasn’t it but I decided that these writing updates were probably best kept as a monthly thing rather than weekly, mainly because not much changes on a weekly basis when I write a book but it looks like I’ve done loads if I only post a word count once a month!
An overwrought Victorian young lady. As one of the main characters is my own great great great aunt, I decided that this picture of myself in Victoriana get up is may well be how she actually looked in real life.
Anyway, without further ado here is the current state of play!
Current word count – 87,930/90,000. NOT FAR TO GO.
Body count – 6/8.
Most overused word – ‘gin’.
Favourite line this week – ‘Oh, how wonderful and was the letter written in blood?’ Lucasta’s eyes shone. ‘Oh please do say that it was. I can’t imagine anything more delicious.’
Patrick grinned. ‘Naturally,’ he said, still not looking at me. ‘I believe there is a law somewhere that states that murderers aren’t allowed to write in anything else.’
Title – From Whitechapel.
Incidences of The F Bomb – Several. It went a bit crazy in the last part.
Music on repeat while writing: Example – Change the Way you Kiss Me and All The Wrong Places.
Snogs – ONE. And it was a GOOD ONE.
Drunken characters – Too many.
Alcohol consumed – Far too much.
Shoehorning in of my favorite pub, the Princess Alice in Whitechapel – three.
Dreadful earth shattering revelations – 2/4.
Mention of ‘eels’ – None. Jesus Christ, what sort of an amateur am I?
Victorian ambience level – STILL RIDICULOUSLY HIGH. 100/10 on the Victorian Ambience Level Detector. The chapter I’m currently writing takes place in a ‘retirement home for overwrought Victorian young ladies’ while the last one took place in a music hall and the next one is at a seance. Yes, I’m really laying it on thick with this book.
Use of names from my Facebook friends list – nineteen so far. Sorry guys!
Overall feeling – Blessed relief mingled with terrible panic.
So there we have it. The word count MAY well suggest that this book is heading for the end but alas that is not the case. I was advised by an agent to keep this book to a tight 90,000 words but that has proved impossible so I think I’m going to have to extend it to 100,000 words to allow for the six or seven chapters that I think are left. Ah well.
The Princess Alice, Whitechapel, which features prominently in my book. One of my characters recovered here after being clobbered over the head and the other two like to come here to put the world to rights over a couple of beers.
Otherwise, it’s all going well. I intended this book to be young adult (like The Secret Diary of a Princess and Minette) and I think that it still is although it has become rather darker over the last few chapters and the length will apparently be a problem. I’m not sure about this personally as I was gobbling up War and Peace, Vanity Fair and Clarissa as a teenager but then again I was an annoyingly precocious brat who preferred books to boys so maybe I wasn’t entirely typical.
This book has been, oddly, a lot of fun to write and I’ve definitely changed my style rather a lot in the process as well as, I think, becoming rather more technically adventurous. I don’t know yet if it works the way that I intended it to but feedback from the two people I have been passing chapters on to has been extremely positive so maybe I’ve got something good here? Who knows.
Mitre Square, which featured rather a lot in the last part of the book, which culminated in general mayhem on the streets of London and two of my characters having a very close shave indeed.
Anyway, there it is – The Ripper Book is only a few chapters away from completion. I’m intending to spend the rest of September and most of October finishing it off then working on a serious edit to a. cut away any superfluity and confusion and b. replace it with more world building that has occurred to me along the way. I’ll be taking a couple of breaks though and in fact will be in the East End next weekend to do some ‘research’. I can’t wait!
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