The Weight of Things Removed | Novel
| Milo
I am sure that to anyone who has followed The
Milo and Moose Show, and my contributions to the blog, that it is no surprise
that I want to be a writer. I want to write novels, poems, articles and essays
that connect, entertain, transfix and maybe even transform people’s lives.
My first attempt at writing a novel was an
interesting experience. The 'novel' was called Fulfilment, and was written
between 2011 - 2014. On the one hand I learned a lot from the experience
however it was also an incredible frustrating and ultimately futile
endeavour. My burgeoning abilities as a writer were clearly improving and
yet each improvement revealed my earlier forays to be juvenile and self-indulgent.
The novel lacked structure, was needlessly verbose, had far too many characters
for its 60,000 words and was hard to follow for anybody who was not me. I
suspected all of this, but had these fears confirmed upon my acquiring of a
professional editor to review my novel.
He was less than complimentary, and I can't say
that I didn't agree with most of his quite blunt critique. If I learned
anything from that awkward encounter, it was that I cannot be precious with my
ideas and hope to successfully develop them in my own little bubble. At times I
am overly self-satisfied and at others woefully and overly critical on anything
I do. Therefore I would like to try to craft a novel in a completely public and
open forum: this blog.
A year removed from that baptism of fire, I have
started from scratch with a new novel titled: The Weight of Things Removed.
It is a story about the struggles of a man named Leonard Whistle, as he
attempts to come to terms with the role he may, or may not, have played in the
death of a child which occurred a number of years before the novel begins. My
hope is to write a story that is both exciting and thought provoking, that
touches on philosophical questions without losing sight of being an enjoyable
and engaging read.
I invite anyone and everyone who reads this to
join me on this adventure, to offer any feedback on what I am doing well as
well as to engage with the various issues Leonard faces. I will serialise The
Weight of Things Removed on this blog, and am aiming to release a chapter a
month in fortnightly chunks. As this is a work in progress there might an
occasional delay some weeks, likewise some chapters may take longer than a
month to complete. However by the end of it I'll hopefully have crafted and
released a novel for everyone to read and enjoy as they see fit. Moreover I
have recently been struggling with complacency and writers block, and I am
hoping this will keep me motivated and focussed. I'll shortly be releasing Chapter 1 (Part
1) for your literary pleasure, fingers crossed it's a good read!
Needless to say this is my original work and property, and so I would appreciate that any readers respect it as such.
Miles "Milo" Carabine
Update 15/02/2016
Chapter 1 (Part 1) is now on the blog, and I have also created a contents page which will be updated as new chapters are written and released.
No comments:
Post a Comment