Day 2 of my social media log (my somelog? The weblog of this era!). Yesterday I got more good research under my belt, plus I iterated on my book outline. I have the main topic and themes set and I have solid ideas on storyline and main characters. I should note that I’m easing my way into the book writing process, since this month also doubles as much needed relaxation and battery re-charging time, after nearly a decade of blogging and business-building. Plus, hey it took Tom Wolfe 8 years to write his latest novel! (mind you, he is 81… which makes me feel better about my own age… plenty of time for me to make my mark in the book world!).
Tom Wolfe really is The Master of the type of book I want to do: literary nonfiction. I’ve been re-reading his introduction to ‘The New Journalism’, a collection of literary nonfiction he published in the mid-70s. I first came across it, I think, when I was an English Literature student at University in the early 90s. It was very influential to me back then, although I didn’t do much with the principles the book espoused until I started blogging some 10 years later. Even then, it was more of an unconscious, ‘back of my mind’ influence. In fact I lost my copy of ‘The New Journalism’ somewhere along the years. But I stumbled across the book again last weekend, in a second-hand bookshop. A nearly pristine copy from 1980. Which is fortunate, since that book is now (inexplicably) out-of-print.
Over the past few days I’ve been etching my own blue pen marks into that second-hand copy of ‘The New Journalism’. Making my mark on it.