Why?

Writing can feel very much like falling in love, complete with the attendant anxiety and urgency, I wrote in my LiveJournal back in May 2012. Holding back on a project exacerbates that, and for too long, that's what I did with The Stowaway.

I fell in love with Captain Hook when I was four years old and pestered the teachers at preschool endlessly to play the Disney soundtrack record during naptime. At home I played Wendy as often as I could convince my mother to be Peter Pan and rescue me from the plank. She told me later that she found this interest of mine somewhat disturbing, and remembering this made me hesitant to tell her about this project. 45,000 words in, I couldn't keep the secret any longer, and was ridiculously relieved that she now finds my take on it fascinating rather than worrisome.

I usually feel like I should keep my projects secret till they're near completion, although I don't have any reason for it. Not this one. It also feels like it wants to be done soon--to keep someone else from getting to it first? Enh, probably because it's taken so many years and it's tired of waiting.

Anyway, to do it right, I think, requires getting a hold on a number of topics. Foremost, the psychology of James Barrie, which I think I'm actually getting close to as we have some familial similarities. Also Edwardian life and sailing ships (more on that later). One thing I have learned during this process: When an author's article about his own book makes him sound like a crackpot, I do my research somewhere else.

Original version of this post June 22, 2012, in my personal LiveJournal.