Yup, it’s that time of the week again when I present myself, head bowed with shame, to deliver this week’s writing update, which is intended partially to reassure myself that this book is progressing but mostly so that people will stop asking me if it’s finished yet.
Yes, that’s right. The emails and comments demanding to know when the Ripper Book will be out have begun. I’m a BIT unnerved by this as I’ve never had one of my books so hotly anticipated before and of course, being the bag of nerves that I am, this has had something of a stalling effect on my writing as I consider the possibility that such levels of excitement can surely only result in an almighty let down.
Anyway, enough of this mawkishness! On with the update…
The women of Whitechapel arming themselves against the Ripper. Nice work ladies. Photo: The Museum of London.
Ripper Book Progress, week ending 30th June 2013:
Current word count – 61,000/90,000.
Body count – 4/8.
Most overused word – ‘Whitechapel’.
Favourite line this week – ‘You know,’ she said. ‘When a woman’s flowers stop and she can’t have babies any more. They get really upset about it for some reason.’ She shrugged. ‘I have no idea why – it sounds like a blessed relief to me.’
Title – From Whitechapel.
Cover – currently either sepia lesbians or a pouty girl in a feisty hat.
Incidences of The F Bomb – still just three in the entire book.
Music on repeat while writing: Bjork/Skunk Anansie – Army of You. (Sucker Punch soundtrack)
Snogs – ONE. YES, THERE HAS BEEN A SNOG.
Drunken characters – none.
Alcohol consumed – too much.
Embarrassed footmen – one.
Burgeoning love triangles – two. Possibly three actually.
Tattoos – one.
Victorian girls behaving inappropriately – two.
Dreadful earth shattering revelations – 1/4.
Mention of ‘eels’ – still none. MUST TRY HARDER
Victorian ambience level – STILL RIDICULOUSLY HIGH. 14/10 on the Victorian Ambience Level Detector. FOG HAS BEEN MENTIONED.
Use of surnames from my Facebook friends list – thirteen so far.
Overall feeling – Who am I and what am I doing here?
Graffiti from Artillery Lane, Spitalfields. Photo: Melanie Clegg.
As you can see, some progress has been made now as one of the earth shattering revelations that lead to the climax of the book has been revealed. What a relief. There has also been a snog. Hurray.
Anyway, this week’s writing concentrated on a series of chapters narrated by one of the three main heroines. I generally think of the whole thing as a fugue or possibly a glee as the book is formed into unequal groups of chapters each narrated by one of the three main characters. I’m trying to give each girl relatively fair share of the narrative but have to admit that so far it’s been dominated by two of them, with the third just making brief appearances. This is about to change though as I’ve now finished one character’s bit and am going to let the third girl hold sway over the next four or five chapters, which will culminate in a dramatic increase to our body count tally.
Ultimately though, I am having so much fun writing this book. I’ll be sad when it’s finished. I watched Sucker Punch last week and quite apart from the soundtrack being perfect in mood and tempo for this book, I felt really inspired by the film itself. I know lots of people hate it but I love anything with strong female main characters. It shouldn’t be such a rarity still in this day and age but so it, sadly, is.
******
‘Frothy, light hearted, gorgeous. The perfect summer read.’ Minette, my novel of 17th century posh doom and intrigue is now £2.02 from Amazon UK and $2.99 from Amazon US.
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