Fantasy Writing

I have always enjoyed writing children’s stories, in much the same was as I enjoyed reading them when I was child, because I never quite know what is going to happen next. Writing as I go along is not something everyone would wish to do but much the same way as I never understand people who write a whole novel on cue cards and have everything settled before they actually write the first page, each to their own.

The fact that I make it up as I go along means that I can write myself into a  corner and have the fun of trying to think my way out of the problem. In my first book all the heroes were stuck on a piece of land suddenly surrounded by sea and in danger of drowning and I had no clue when I put them there what I would do next. I was very much on the adventure with them. I was told that book was too like C.S Lewis.

Of course the problem is I sometimes don’t have an answer or go off in another direction but that is why we have drafts and most of my stories can go into seven drafts before I begin to feel they read well. Doing this one’s mind has a breadth and depth of its own, like a natural metronome, and I never felt good about 20,000 words stories which is probably why my present story will be in three volumes of 100,00 words each.

Now there’s a story!