I'm now some way into the new book. Let's not bother with word counts on this occasion since they would be deceptive. What I know at this point is that the story idea appears viable and I have sufficient enthusiasm and interest to be willing to devote what may be another six to nine months trying to bring this project to fruition.

How do I reach that conclusion? What do I need to know in order to commit to a project and feel comfortable that it's worth pursuing? Here are some of the things that have happened over the past few weeks.

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<ul>
	<li>I've worked out who the principal characters are going to be. Some are pretty well mapped out. Others are just cards with names and brief descriptions. But I don't expect there to be any surprise new members of the cast. They are there.</li>
	<li>I've run through the story idea with my agent in advance and she liked it. In the past I wouldn't have done this but I recently changed agent and it seemed a good idea to float a rough idea, not least because this one is a little different. Confirmation that one isn't completely mad is encouraging. Part of an agent's job is to reassure authors that they're not insane and, of course, to point out when they are.</li>
	<li>I've been to Venice and worked out the principal locations. The canvas for the book, the world which will enclose it, is pretty much established.</li>
	<li>I have a beginning. An event that kicks the story off. The shot that will hopefully pull the thing into focus at the start and make the reader think, 'OK, I'm with this one.'</li>
	<li>I have an ambition, a very precise, specific one, not just 'write a great book'. Ambitions are good. More of them another day.</li>
</ul>
Fine. Now let’s list the things I don't have.
<ul>
	<li>An outline. Never done them, suspect I never will. I have various vague staging points along the way and a note for the final scene. How we get from one point to the next will be determined by the characters under my control, not by some godlike authorial plan imposed from above.</li>
	<li>Any idea how long this is going to take. Sometimes books happen much more quickly than I expect. I started preparatory work on this project last autumn. I'd expect it to be complete by October at the latest. But it may be sooner.</li>
	<li>A label. Is this book a thriller, a mystery, a crime story? Don't know. Don't care. As always my three key aims are: popular, intelligent, original. If I can hit those then someone else can find the right tag.</li>
	<li>A title. Several in mind but they can wait until the book is finished. I hate floating titles for an unfinished book. It seems pointless and deflects the mind away from the real business which is writing the damned narrative.</li>
</ul>
It's part of the insanity of being a professional author that one can devote a substantial chunk of one's life to a vital project on such a flimsy basis. But if there's another way of achieving this end I've never found it. Nor am I looking.