One Foot In Storyland

“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.” – Franz Kafka

As a Literary Lurcher I love to write, but I can only do it through Annabelle, via smellepathy. When Annabelle is busy writing her own stuff, I don’t get to write much at all. That’s when my Dark Side comes out and I’m rude to other dogs on walks.

Annabelle acts crazy whether she’s writing or not. When not, she’s miserable and bad-tempered, but while she’s working on a first draft it’s a whole new kettle of crayfish. She wanders around in a daze, occasionally muttering or laughing to herself, unable to focus on the simplest task. One minute she’s preparing food for me and Pearl, the next she’s rushing back to her desk to scribble a snippet of dialogue and we have an anxious wait until she remembers she’s meant to be feeding us. We know it’s hard to concentrate on practical matters with one foot in Storyland, but there’s only so much we can put up with.

Err… isn’t there something you forgot to do?

Annabelle has been writing the first draft of her new book since May and from what I can gather she’s nearly at the end. Not that this is any guarantee she’ll finish it anytime soon. As she puts it, the only thing harder than starting a book is finishing it.

We hope the cuss word isn’t part of the story!

A famous writer once said that a first draft is mostly rubbish. We can see his point.

Werewolf pic: Werewolf Red by Dypsomaniart