I’m out of the blocks on my 5th novel…

Looking back through the archives of this blog, I seem to have a tradition of announcing when I’ve actually started writing the manuscript for each of my novels. You see, the writing is the very last step in the process for me. I spend a long time, many months, concocting the story, mapping it out, and finally developing a full, chapter-by-chapter outline. This means that when it’s time to write, I really only have to focus on crafting sentences. I know the story already.

Well, I’m pleased to report that I have officially started writing the manuscript for my fifth novel, tentatively called Poles Apart. I’m about 10,000 words in, with about 90,000 more to go. It’s always a good feeling when the actual writing starts. The story and characters instantly feel more real to me, which makes it easier to put words to my outline. Poles Apart continues the exploration of family dynamics I began in No Relation (though the two novels are not connected in any way), and also indulges my long-standing interest in gender equality. Feminism has lurked in the background of my four earlier novels, but takes a more prominent role in Poles Apart. I tend to write about what I know, or have experienced, or care about. This new novel is no exception. Gender equality has been an important social issue to me since my days in the student movement in the early 1980s. As in my first two novels, both political satires, I’ll try not to veer over the line into preaching and proselytizing, but I may not always succeed. Rather, the plan is to let the funny story and the quirky characters carry the social message, I hope with a light touch. So I see this novel as satire, not pure comedy. But in the end, you’ll be the judge of the that.

The hope is that I’ll finish the manuscript by early in 2015 so that McClelland & Stewart can publish and release the novel in the fall of 2015. Now, back to writing…