I think I’m getting there. My Dad (who’s visiting) always used to say to me: “Read a thousand books before you try to write one. Read ten thousand.” Back in the days when I lied to my family to impress them with the quantity of reading that I’d done (I used to be an inveterate suck-up, much to my brother’s annoyance), Dad might have thought I was getting fairly close to this.

Since I was six, however, I have actually done a fair chunk of reading and over the last seven or eight months I’ve consumed about a hundred books in the genre(s) I’d like to write under the guise of ‘research’. Actually, its just been hella fun, and a good post-work diversion, but the essence is: I think I’m nearly ready to put pen to paper.

Not to actually start writing – but to start mapping out characters. Story arcs. Sketching floor plans of buildings that will feature. That sort of thing – think I need to get the detail right. But its all quite exciting.

Think I’m going to go buy an A3 pad and some magic markers today…