The novel is finished now and gone to my agent. For the first time in years I don’t have a major project ongoing to constantly think about or try to stop thinking about. That could all change of course very soon and I could find myself revisiting and rewriting  aspects of the novel all over again. But for the moment I’m letting it go, and leaving myself free to pursue other aspects of writing.
I’d like to write more (and better) poetry this year, but I’m also keen to go back to the short story too. Not that I’ve been away completely; I’ve written maybe three over the course of the last year. And then there are plays. I intend to expand my hour long play Story into a full length play for the stage this year, and with that in mind I’ve already been re-reading it and making notes on how I might vary the pace and the tone more.
This is the the second novel I’ve written and both times I’ve found myself, at the end of the process, wondering would I ever have it in me to write another. The good news is I already have the bones of a story that could be a novel floating around in my head. But I’m going to leave it there for the moment – of course I’ll be thinking about it from time to time and probably writing up notes here and there. And when you get an idea like that, sometimes music or stories you hear or books or newspaper articles you read hold themselves before you in the light of that idea, so that you begin to see a way that this simple plain idea could possibly grow legs and maybe even wings some day. Some day. We’ll see.
For the moment it’s going to be stories, poems and plays. That’s enough to be getting along with I reckon.
Best of luck with the completed novel and all your new projects, Brian. I love the picture on this post 🙂
Thanks Valerie!
I like the way you descibe an idea growing legs, or wings even…its a stage I love, the free range stage – Congrats on finishing your novel.
Thanks Niamh – we’ll see what happens now…