Robyn Anderson

I have started writing another book. It’s a follow-on from ‘I am not Joe Donovan’ and it’s amazing just how much I don’t remember from this world that I alone, created. Sometimes it’s so basic it’s embarrassing. Like how old is Saracia? Ummmmmm? I’ve decided 18 but I knew that sort of stuff before and of course, never wrote it down. That’s what I need to do. Write things down! This will be my third book and it’s taking less time to decide how to do it. Writing for me is – well, like this. I sit down in front of my computer and I write down what I’ve been mulling over the last 24 hours. I like to write myself into either an exciting place or a corner then leave it to be solved next time. The thing is – I usually have no idea how it’s going to turn out. I revisit that situation a few times while I’m doing the things that make for a habitable home, and usually by the time I turn up for work the next day I have an idea of how it might go. That is possibly the worst example of how to write a book. Every book I read about how to write a book, they tell you to plan it in advance. I did that once. I got very excited about an idea and over the course of one Labour Weekend, I wrote out the main points of the story on a big roll of butchers paper. It was thrilling. And when I found it several years later I threw it out. Why? Because I already knew what happened and writing it, word by word, page after page, sounded like torture. Of course, this slap-dash approach could be why I’m still publishing my own books (well, Tuatara Publishing is publishing my books but that’s me in disguise), but I don’t think so. I think it’s the reason I get enthusiastic responses to a story in a genre most people don’t usually read. So for the one reader of my blog who has been pushing me to write a followup since she read the last page of ‘I am not Joe Donovan’, Elias and Saracia and Aki and Scout are all stirring and getting ready for … well, something exciting I’m sure.

I’ll put a little bit of the new manuscript up for you to read and you can tell me what you think.

Happy New Year.