Beginnings

Well, I officially started writing the regional saga. I formatted my file and typed chapter one, plus a couple of pages.
I did this knowing it will all probably change several times. I don't think I have submitted (let alone sold) anything where the beginning has remained consistent through all drafts.
But it is a start. A baby step. 350 more baby steps and I will have the first draft. The agent who asked to see it said that she wanted to see it when it was completed. So completed it shall be.
You have to start somewhere. It is the starting that is the important thing. It says to my muse -- right let's begin. Let's stop playing and start showing up. let's start thinking about writing more than one paragraph.
Over the past few weeks I have done a lot of thinking about the why am I writing this. In the end it boils down to one thing: I am interested in exploring the theme. I can't write unless the idea excites me and starts to take over.
There are lots of other ideas floating around in my brain, but this one is being forward and pushing itself into my conscience. Luckily, the Edwardian period is one I am interested in -- for one thing the house I live in is from 1908. I could try to analyze it and ask if the agent was not interested would I be writing the story?The answer again is yes as I do figure I can sell this story pretty easily --ie there are other agents/editors.
But all that is down the road a piece, first I have to get the thing written and then polished to perfection.
It is the starting that counts and the determination to see it through.

In other news: the chartered surveyor has been. The house is not falling into the dene. One of the wedges under the stairwell has fallen away and the stairwell has slipped causing plaster erosion. So it is a maintenance job rather than an insurance job. Annoying in the short term, but in the longer term, if it had been subsidence or landslip from the dene, the house would have become practically worthless.
But the man was very nice and we chatted about old houses and their quirks. His basic point was that old houses move and were built to take moving into account. New houses move but the builders forgot this little principle and so you can have much greater difficulties with wear and tear caused by thermal contraction.
The children are being relatively well behaved today. the youngest has a friend over. They simply went climbing in the dene while the man was here. Luckily the mother understands about wet boots and muddy clothes.