And there were words

Histories - Part II - And there were words

As I was saying, for a long time all I knew of my book was that it would be wonderful, revolutionary and life changing. 

Eventually, while sorting through symbology, I came across alchemy and the twelve keys of philosophy, which are the steps that lead to the making of the philosopher’s stone, also known as the Great Work. And I wondered, ‘Well, what if these were physical keys that opened something, thirteen keys you had to get by proving yourself worthy’, and ‘lo and behold, my plot was born. It took me quite some time to realise that going after twelve keys would make my book drag on forever, and I settled for three.

But even then, most of my plotting was centred around references to Greek myths (you are more than welcome to look for them – they are still there somewhere).

The wonderful University of Essex, as empty as it was then.

Then in the summer of 2007, I don’t know what came over me: I started to write (it might have been that I was alone on an empty campus doing an internship in Essex). All I know is I spent my evenings actually writing scenes. Words came to me. In English. 

I have forgotten to mention something quite important. Until then, all I had written was in French. It was mostly notes, but it was all in French. I don’t know if my years of full immersion at university were responsible - or maybe my French was just getting poor - but the words were now coming to me in English. And slowly but surely they started adding up.

I didn’t write in any organised or planned way, though. I wrote scenes as they popped into my head, and I could write one scene in one sitting then spend months without putting down a single word.

The funny thing is I can remember very well where I was when I first wrote some parts – in particular at my grandmothers’, where there isn’t much else to do except watch Question Pour un Champion.

I built my world and my characters' backgrounds, which is slightly more useful than what card suit they represent. I developed my theme – I had finally picked one. But something was missing. It took a chance encounter while I was working at Waterstones to find out what, and that changed my story forever. 

Not to be overdramatic or anything…