Date: 2009-06-01 07:55 Subject: Starting out Security: Public Tags: dragons of mars, writing

It seems to me that starting a new novel is a bit like storming an unknown castle. (And, why yes, we did visit a castle this week, thus the visit by the Department of Extremely Predictable Similes).

First up, you start by circling the castle, looking at the walls, the towers, the moats, the gates, those nasty little holes in the battlements where the defenders pour out boiling oil. You look for weaknesses, places where the defences have been neglected, routes where you might break through to the heart of the castle to raise the flag of victory and execute the tyrant of, er, something (strained similes, possibly).

Occasionally, you send in a probing attack, only to have it repulsed.

So far on the new novel, I have had men repulsed by arrows, the aforementioned boiling oil, and something nasty that really can't be mentioned in polite company, or here.

I have yet to breach the defences.

Of course, if this was a perfect simile, I would have been able to just pay the same £6 admission charge to the metaphorical castle as I did to the real one last week. And there would be a nice cafe.