Glorious sunshine!

 After a few days of being plunged back into the cold (they say it snowed in Hobart!) the sun is back. Yay! It is hard to stretch art work quickly in the cold. My studio is usually warmer than the house but my fingers began to ache while I worked so I gave up! Back to it now and I'll have my illo's packed up and away early this week.

I have been working on a novel. A 'novel' idea for me, especially when I reached 2000 words and couldn't believe I had hardly dented it with enough words to procure four picture books! Whew! After working so hard over the last few years to fine tune my ability to write more with less, it does seem strange to be able to write so much.

I found myself laughing at the idea that I could pull it off but now I have a completed chapter, I'm quite excited and find myself taking it seriously.The thing about picture books is the art of using as few words to paint a story of great depth or layers. A skill I think I will be working on forever....I'm a bit wordy (that’s what got me thinking about writing a novel). I'm ok at editing it back though after I put it away for a while, not so attached then. The thing about a novel (I'm finding so far and I am no expert, believe me) is that you can use plenty of words but not just for the sake of them. They need to be considered quite carefully. It's not like padding out an essay for grade ten to reach the word limit (not that I had that problem, verbal diarrhoea. My teacher’s comments always said I said too much in too many ways!)

Anyway, I'm quite happy with chapter one and chapter two is coming easier than the first. A nice way to spend the evenings and I plan to take it with me  while on holidays over Christmas as well as work on it when  in Adelaide for the May Gibbs Residency (March!).

 

Happy reading!Christina