A Writing Connudrum

So, I have completed Part 1 of my novel - it will need another edit, but for now I have to it leave alone in order to embark on Part 2.  It has been tricky moving into Part 2 and so far, not nearly as much fun.  In Part 1, I had the opportunity to set the scene and ask some deliciously open ended questions.  I have been able to be very  playful and suggestive without having to make too many decisions or commitments. In Part 2, I am going to have to begin to answer or attempt to resolve some of the traps I have set for my characters (and myself). And as I write this, I also realise that I need  to come up with titles more enticing than Part 1 and Part 2.

Here is what I know:
I know how my book will end - there is a moment of castrophe that Kaye is heading towards and I know what that is. The book begins after the end, with a Prologue, and an older Kaye reflecting on her literally mispent youth.

Here is what I don't know:
How in the hell I will get to that end point, that denouemont.  But then, I suppose that is the point of writing a novel in the first place.  I am embarking on a journey and while I might know what my final destination is going to be and maybe even a few stops on the way, I cannot predict what is going to happen en route. 

And writing this Blog alongside my novel presents a connundrum. Until I started this, I was feeling pretty confident about my writing. The idea of people reading and commenting on what I might publish on here, of being interested and potentially critical does have an impact on the way I write, or at the very least on my attitude towards my own writing. There is no getting away from it. Every writer has an imagined or ideal reader, but hopefully not to the extent where they are writing to please them rather than themselves.  I think that in order to write anything worth reading, you have to have a vision and the best you can do is to keep writing  in order to clarify that vision in a beautiful and engaging way.  I couldn't imagine writing to please others and I don't see the point of that. I have this argument with a friend of mine who works in publishing.  I can certainly respect her point of view - she is someone who has to regularly trawl through hundreds of manuscripts, some of which are probably excruciatingly bad.  Her desire is that writers spend more time thinking about their market and their audience and I suppose that is how  publishers have to think - how something is going to sell.  But I don't think that is the job of the writer. In order for a writer to create some wonderful alchemy with words, they have to ignore what anyone else might think. This doesn't mean I am not interested in what people think about my writing and of course I desire an appreciation and respect for my work. But I think those anxieties about 'appeal' and 'markets' have no place in the space of writing. Think about them after you have finished the manuscript and sent it in to the jaded publisher, but not before.

I think this is why I haven't published anything on this Blog for almost two weeks.  I have however, done quite a bit of novel writing.  See, a dilema.