Over the Line

I'm still writing Over the Line, my book about footballers in World War One. I'm up to 32,000 words. 6,000 to go. In the first draft.

I have been reading exclusively about WW1 for four months. I have been watching films, visiting museums. I have been dreaming it. It's been intense. But I am nearly there.

But is it any good?

It's hard to say. I have never written about the past before. My wife and agent and co-author like the first 8,000 words. No one has read the rest.

I am going to France soon - with my family - to see remaining/reconstructed trenches, cemetries and museums about the war. I want to get it right. I think it is going to be a great trip. I think going to places where something happened gives you a better sense of what they meant. I will see things that I could not imagine. That's the reason I go to places if I'm writing about them.

Saying that, I'm not going to 1916, am I?

Have you been to the Imperial War Museum? It's amazing. There is a mocked up trench there.

Here's a picture: