Today I reached a milestone with my new book, with 50,000 words written of the first draft. My main goal at the moment is to get everything down in more or less chronological order, so that I can see where the story is going and find any gaps that need filling with more research. I estimate that I’m about 70-80% of the way through the first draft.

My previous book, Susan, was only 54,000 words in total (not including the notes and bibliography) so it looks as though this will be a rather more substantial book. Since I tend to write quite tightly, even in the first draft stage, I’m likely to add more words than I subtract when it comes to rewriting and editing. After I’ve finished writing the bare bones of the story, it will be time to expand it with more explanations, commentary and digressions (not too many of those, I hope) and move things around if necessary to make a better story.

Here’s another taste of what Perth was like in the 1900’s. It’s a video taken in 1907 by Leonard Corrick, one of a family of entertainers known as The Marvellous Corricks, who shot it as part of a promotion for a performance the following night. The street fight caught on camera in St Georges Terrace was probably staged by the Corricks themselves.

A milestone reached