We went camping over the weekend and one night, while it was pouring with rain, I had a revealation – the start of my first book is technically wrong. I know I can claim that this is my book, I control it and I am the master of its particular universe, but after reading about Charley Boorman and the Dakar race, I realised that travelling in the desert is not necessarily as easy as I have written it, and I now need to change it…
Fundamentally, you will not be able to walk a straight line through a desert, especially when I mention that there are sand dunes, therefore, people will have to walk over or around, or both. Also, the sand is not necessarily going to be hard and compact – the opposite in fact – it is going to be soft in some places, enough for people and horses to sink in, there may be a track, but even desert travellers take a different route everytime!
Then I thought that I could really do more description on their trek to Vaught – but I don’t want to pad the story, I just want to tell it, but I also want to describe it too – its a fine line between description and padding… :o}