This weekend has been relatively peaceful. Following East End Fun (check the photostream) on Saturday – I’ve not been out and about too much. Some dim-sum and novel planning on Sunday, a quiet dinner with Sheila and Dave on Sunday, and most of today – watching rubbish TV and working on the novel.

Not made huge progress – in that now I’ve kicked off properly I’d like to be able to write more than 1,700 words in a weekend. But this is one of the first pieces of fiction I’ve worked on since I was about 17 that I haven’t wanted to tear up within a day of writing it. So a good start.

It helps that people keep asking me what the novel’s about. It means I have to think about it; do things like write what it would say on the jacket, think about who the novel’s target audience is, who the heroes and villains are, what the plot complications are… etc. You know, obvious stuff, but which when all you have in your head is “I’d like to write a novel” you don’t really process it all.

So the planning’s been important. Been tapping stuff down in notes all over the place and just about got it under control, and the first few hundred words, characters, sets, scenes — they have got me pretty excited about it. And the filler — the descriptive stuff that I was vaguely worried I’d struggle to write (I’ve been practising concise, functional writing for years now) — well, that seems to be working out ok too.

It’ll be a little while before I publish anything here. I think I’m going to stick to my original plan not to put the straight text up here but perhaps to record podcasts. Hopefully get one up by the end of this Sunday, but we’ll see…

Wish me luck! For what its worth, the working title of the novel is Elemental, its set in contemporary London and it is slightly fantastical in nature. My dream would be to hit a tone somewhere between Eddie Izzard, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Joseph Heller, Phillip Pullman and Martin Amis.

Hey, I said it was a dream. Wish me luck!