The (writing) dream continues #2

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𝑰’𝒎 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚,
𝑰’𝒎 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕.

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I’m working on the book and first of all I have to make the outline, which brings me to something I really like about writing about Alexander the Great and that is doing research. For me, do research has a broader meaning than just academic research, because it also means continuing to read to discover something more that wasn’t known before. A historical book, novel or essay makes no difference, cannot be written without adequate research behind it and for me it’s not about finding information on Wikipedia or from some website, but reading books. Since the beginning of the year I haven’t read much about Alexander the Great, because I needed light reading and then I knew that I wanted to try to write something about the Macedonian even if I expected that it would lead me to that kind of more demanding reading. If I want to write this book, I’ll have to read others first and take notes. I started out with the idea of reading two books and helping myself with some I had already read, but now I think that the books I’ll read will be at least four. Digging through bibliographies leads to discovering new books and seeking out academic articles: I just found one that I’ll definitely have to read to delve deeper into a particular topic. Real research feeds on itself and never ends. I know that my book on Alexander the Great will be nothing like one written by an academic or a famous author, but that doesn’t mean I have to make it shoddy or not even try.

Another thing I love about this project is that, although this first phase of research and planning is long, is fascinating and doesn’t weigh me down. One evening last week I intended to read a chapter in a couple of hours and then watch an episode of a TV series (the first season of House of the Dragon), but the hours flew by reading about Alexander and taking notes, because to make a good outline you have to read, re-read and re-read again… in total I read that chapter in more than four hours, from 9 PM to 1:15 AM but I was focused and intrigued by the reading and the time flew by.

Tackling a reading in this way requires four or five times the time of normal reading, but I’m filling out this notebook to take all the notes (and even more than necessary) that I’ll need during writing. Two notes about the notebook: the cover is my favorite color and the label simply says Alexander the Great but the real title of the book, which for now is temporary, is inside the notebook. It’s been years since I “studied” like this, since I made a diagram while I read, but I like it and it doesn’t weigh me down, it’s a topic that interests me and a project that I care about so I’m happy to do it because I want to test myself.

Another factor to keep in mind is that I’ll intend, over the years, to write other books about Alexander, counting on the fact that this one will be good. Which leads me to take notes also for the other books I’d like to write even if taking notes becomes longer than usual, I don’t want to miss some information that I know will be important for future projects. In twenty or thirty years I dream of having some agenda or notebook full of notes that I have used for as many books published on Alexander the Great.

I’ll always remember when, about fifteen years ago, while searching for books on Amazon, I discovered the existence of the book Il romanzo di Alessandro by Alexandre de Bernay (published by Rizzoli). At first I was convinced it was a duplicate of the Romanzo di Alessandro published by Sellerio that I already had, but while searching for information I discovered, and it was surprising, that there were many versions of the Alexander’s Romance and that of the French was only one among many. For the first time I had a concrete taste of the Alexander’s polymorphism. This is to tell you how fascinating it is for me to continue reading and discovering new things about Alexander the Great and it’s a joy to be able to concretize my readings in a writing project in which I will put all of myself.

As for the graphic aspect, I’ve already thought of some things that will make – I hope – the reading visually appealing and I’ll try to personalize my book. During the reading I found myself more than once taking notes also on elements to insert to characterize my book. At the moment I can’t tell you more, but they are very detailed and specific elements I have already defined. It took me a couple of days to perfect the idea but in the end I created something, with a relative variation, that I will definitely use because I think it’s a great idea!

I hope my work will be something beautiful and interesting for you too.

The reading, research and writing continues! And happy birthday to me! Today I went to visit a place that I can “connect” to Alexander the Great and I’m super happy! I’ll tell you about it as soon as possible and show you the photos of the day!