Commune building begins

Well, I couldn't help myself. The first 1,500 words of Commune came into existence this morning. As usual, I kicked off with a lots of exposition – I seem to need to 'explain' the characters to myself before the narrative can get underway properly. Considering the basic outline in my head has four major characters and a crapload of minor ones, that's some serious exposition. Usually I end up cutting out the passages of 'telling' in the first draft, but I've decided to cut them out at the start this time and just leaving them floating at the top of the document in case I need to remind myself of character names, traits or motivation.

I can't see any way this isn't going to be a long novel – 150,000 words is my minimum estimate. It's equal parts exciting and overwhelming.

My girlfriend is busy with uni stuff tonight, so I plan on making as many changes to Truck Me as I can before my eyes fall out and force me to my bed.

**ADDENDUM**

As I was coming home on the train, I started thinking about how best to tackle Commune and suddenly things began to escalate. New situations and characters started to suggest themselves, and as I rode this imagination wave, I realised I have no idea at all how to resolve it. Now, I try not to plot things too much, because it takes all the fun out of writing for me, but I can't go into this blindly with no 'working climax' so to speak. I'm going to let it turn over in my head for as long as it needs to and concentrate on other things for now. Disappointing ... but it would have been more disappointing to make this discovery with 200 pages under my belt, I suppose.

Oh, and apparently Aurealis has officially changed hands and the new publishers don't know who has been replied to and who hasn't. I just received an email apologising for not sending a response to 'Displeasures of the Flesh' and suggesting I resend it. Hmmm. Just teething problems, one hopes. Or is it a case of meet the new boss, same as the old boss?