Unpacking the bags

A writer is like someone who arrives in a room with a lot of luggage. In the first few chapters the writer needs to make sure that the luggage looks interesting. The bags need to bulge in an enticing way. A few objects need to stick out of the top of a basket or trail from an open bag so that the reader thinks - I want to know what's in those bags. And then slowly, over the following chapters, the writer begins to unpack the bags. The problem is - in which order should they be unpacked? That's what I'm battling with at the moment. I know everything that's in the bags but I need to unpack it in a way that makes sense. This means re-writing and re-writing and re-writing. Writing a book is often a process of working out what is really important, and then bringing it forward into the earliest chapters. It takes a lot of time to do that. There are moments when one loses one's nerve altogether. Today I thought - this book simply can't hold together. There are two many stories, too many people, too many time frames. But I'll press on. These worries don't help. All you have to do is to keep turning up at the page every day and one day you will have a book.