Why Starting a New Book is a Little Like Falling in Love

To be honest, I was not planning to start a new book just yet. As you may know from my website, I teach full-time at MarianopolisCollege in Montreal. Usually, when the semester is in full swing, the way it is now, I tend to focus my writing energy on rewriting material I've produced over the summer holidays. But I recently submitted the second draft of a book that is scheduled for publication this spring... and to be honest, I felt kind of lost without a book to work on. Working on a book is hard work, but it's fun, too. The hard part is sticking with it when the writing isn't going well or when you're not quite sure what's going to happen next.... The fun part is watching your story come to life. I think it's sometimes useful that I am NOT a perfectionist. The way I work is that I write a first draft without worrying too much about how it sounds and whether I've got every single word right. It's like I just need to get the story out. So that's where I'm currently at with my Nunavik project. 

Another thing I'm really interested in is the link between real life events and fiction. I am starting my Nunavik story (for now, I'm calling it On the George River) with an event that happened to me when I was there last year. It's actually something bad. On my first morning in town, I took the dog who lived where I was staying out on my morning run. The dog was hit by a truck. Thank goodness, she survived -- but for a while, we  weren't sure she'd make it. Anyway, I've started my book with a similar accident. Only the person who's out for a run isn't a middle-aged teacher and writer -- it's a teenage boy. So you see, that's how fact and fiction met up today on my computer screen. That's all  for today. I'll be back next week to tell you a little more about the writing life.