The ghost novel

The spookiness of process

Halfway through writing my last novel, Cursed Bread, I threw it out. That is too dramatic, maybe. I didn’t even delete it; it still lives on my computer, called CURSED BREAD V2 or V3, maybe, for I go through at least 20 drafts and maybe more. When it comes to writing novels I am careless until the point where I become very precise. Words are thrown, cut, but always saved.

The only way I can write is by stripping any notion of preciousness from the words I write with, to completely squander them and tell myself every one is provisional, every one can be changed, if it has to be and if I will it. Otherwise I will just sit there and terrify myself with the idea of perfection. I know not everyone else writes like this, that for some writers a good writing day is five flawless sentences, thought over carefully before committed to the page. For me a good writing day, at least with early drafts, would be 2000 pages of dross.