Quicksilver

When I originally started Elias, it was intended to be a novel of four chapters and an epilogue. That has subsequently grown to twelve and an epilogue, and I am feeling that, before I get back into the swing of things, I need to decide which way the book should go. I could revert to my original short-ish novel of 200 or so pages, or carry on with the 500-plus page version. Having just started Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, which is 900 pages long and covers similar themes and roughly the same period, it might be an idea to return to the shorter version of Elias. I've always felt that it might be better to imply the beginning of the modern world, rather than to show it in exhaustive detail, as Neal Stephenson does. My other feeling has been that if I can get Part I finished, I will know where to go with the rest of it. Either way, it's a case of making time to write, which always seems to be harder than the actual writing itself; or, rather, the not making time means that the writing, when it happens, is harder than it needs to be.