{"id":1895,"date":"2011-02-07T16:31:46","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T22:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=1895"},"modified":"2011-02-10T16:48:17","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T22:48:17","slug":"beginning-a-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=1895","title":{"rendered":"Beginning a new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve pretty much finished work on my second book, which will be published later this year on October 1st, and I’ve begun writing my third.\u00a0 As with my second book, the third is going to be something new and different from what I’ve previously written. I have the general idea of the story, and I’ve begun the research I’ll need to write it.\u00a0 The beginning of a book is such an exciting time – for me, the most<\/em> exciting time. Right now, this book could be any kind of book it wants to be.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, author China Mieville wrote a brilliant essay<\/span><\/a> in which he compared the mystery novel, and more specifically its resolution, to a collapse of quantum state vectors, wherein all the myriad suspects, and all the possible narrative explanations of the crime are “winnowed” down to one single truth.\u00a0 Whereas before the detective pronounces whodunnit, all theories are possible, after the pronouncement, all theories collapse to a single reality and the perpetrator is exposed. This, Mieville explains, is why all mystery novels are inherently dissatisfying even when done right.<\/p>\n

I’ve thought a lot about this idea, and for me, the same principle applies to all<\/em> of my storytelling. When I begin to write a new book, the story seems impossibly and thrillingly immense to me.\u00a0 Before I’ve started laying down the words, a story can be anything, and contain anything.\u00a0 Because it hasn’t yet been written, the possibilities are endless. I don’t yet know which path my characters will take, nor even still the choices that will be presented to them. I won’t know any of that until I am there at the crossroads to observe it, when all the previous possibilities clear away like fog, and I’m left saying to myself, “so that’s what happens next.”<\/p>\n

It’s rather difficult to explain. The simplest way to describe it is to say that when I begin a book, it is big<\/em>.\u00a0 So big it scares me. But as I write, and the words turn into sentences, and the sentences turn into pages, the book gets smaller<\/em>. With each character, scene, and choice, the previous possibilities diminish. The characters and story assume a trajectory from which they can no longer deviate without violating their truth. This is exciting in its own way, this momentum, because it means the story has taken up its own life. But it is also disappointing to realize all the things the story will not, and can no longer be.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I would experience this if I outlined. But I don’t, and so writing for me is an act of discovery. While that means I face an inevitable deflation when I stand at the end of a book and look back over it, there remains the quiet joy that comes from seeing something for what it is. And it has to be that way. Stories about everything are really about nothing, and offer no meaning, ask no questions, and provide little truth.\u00a0 I don’t yet know what this new book will be, what surprises it holds for me, but I’m looking forward to finding out.<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

In other news, the Salt Lake Tribune did a short piece on me that you can read here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

And here are some links to a few more reviews of The Clockwork Three<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Mrs. Behnke’s Blog<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Kiss the Book<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The Star Phoenix<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yearning to Read<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Teens Read Too<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Pica Reads<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATE: One more review<\/p>\n

YA Books and Reviews<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve pretty much finished work on my second book, which will be published later this year on October 1st, and I’ve begun writing my third.\u00a0 As with my second book, the third is going to be something new and different from what I’ve previously written. I have the general idea of the story, and I’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-the-clockwork-three","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mtjQ-uz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1895"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1940,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1895\/revisions\/1940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}