And now for something totally unrelated: I find myself having difficulty getting the right balance of character development and story progression on my 9/10/01 novel. As the title suggests, the book follows a number of different characters (including two of the terrorists) on the day prior to 9/11.

But I decided early on to NOT use any flashbacks or similar devices because to me that almost felt like cheating. Part of the concept here is that we only have insight into a single day of these peoples lives and its up to the reader to fill in many of the before and after components to the story.

Initially I didn’t think it would be such a challenge to confine everything to a single day but it has proved more daunting than anticipated. I’ve been making progress though and about to crack 100 pages so I’m about halfway to my goal.

Here’s hoping I can hang in there and see this thing through.