RIP Jake

11/06 and 23,000 words in. If you're going to write, write. 

Hundreds and thousands of people think they can write a book and I'm sure they can, but the first step is to write and keep writing. Of those words, about 18,000 are usable; I've gone off on some tangents and down some murky roads. I'm going to see The Heroine down South and do some editing work on it in two weeks. I still hope to publish it on June 30th.

Saying that, I didn't write a word yesterday. I contracted evil manflu again, the fourth time this year. If you're reading this, please send an ambulance. I am very ill indeed. No one has ever been more ill in the history of the world. Thank you.

I am seriously looking at this healthy lifestyle thing. Its all a great big conspiracy, I think. Luckily, I did a bumper writing session on Saturday, most of which I can use, and I'm 2,000 words in today.

I am so deeply into Emily (and the hapless Alan) and her life in Nottingham's inner city that I can't find a space for Jake. 

When I first started writing, the book began with Jake, was all about Jake and ended with Jake. I'm gone in such a different (and for me, surprising) direction that he no longer fits the story. I cannot find a slot for him. 

So, with the writer as God and grim reaper, its RIP Jake. 

I keep trying to dig him out of his grave, but like a shambling zombie, he just gets in the way. 

There's a third character who has appeared from nowhere who is stepping increasingly into the story like an evening long shadow. It's almost as if he's taking over Jake's role in the trilogy. It's Emily's ex-boyfriend, possibly the only man who Emily has ever loved.  He's a young, shadowy, ambivalent, bad boy figure who appears on Dawn's great front cover. He's amoral and fly by night and sneaky and silent, but they seem to have something together and because of this, which I didn't expect to happen, Jake seems to be have become superfluous. 

I don't know. I'm just musing. There is a brilliant story in Jake. He first appeared in a half written bleakbook I have on my stick called Keith The Philosopher about an unemployed genius who no matter how hard he tries, can't get a job. I'm 30,000 already into that, but I became bored of it when I wrote Kid Atomic and accidentally cheered myself up. I've not touched it since. I have to include him somewhere because his unfortunate demise is just too good not to write down.

I spoke to Dawn last night about plot. She's a romance novelist and what I'm writing is a dark romance. I started writing something else, but the more I spoke to her, the more I realised the truth. I don't need Jake, nor his demise to make this a top quality read. We'll see.