How was
Gus:
The Life & Opinions of the
Last Raffles’ Banded Langur
written?

“46. I think of novels as being like a visitor from another planet, the sentences being like the circuits of a vast and beautiful machine that communicates the creature. A creature of pure meaning.

47. Or a distant relation I’ve never met, from another country and with a language barrier between us. He tries on clothes and wigs I give him, hops on one leg, imitates strange animal noises, and soon I have the wig. I am hopping, hopping, hopping.”

— “100 Things About Writing a Novel” Alexander Chee, Yale Review

Brainstorming & Holding it loosely

In early 2021 during the dark days of the pandemic, started brainstorming ideas for a project named ‘Blue Monkey Zombie Project’ and scribbling notes and sketches in a notebook and in longhand. I expanded key characters by exploring what they yearned for and why. I drew mind maps for settings and action.

You can see examples of my drawings and illegible hand-writing in these notes.

Research & Imaging — still holding it loosely

I free wrote strange scenes and collected images of monkeys and examples of my key characters.

I read about primates’s and animal and human consciousness.

Building Scenes on Index Cards — still loose

I started to create scenes and write these in pencil on index cards, and began to order and rewrite the index cards seeking to find coherence and arcs for characters.

Creating Complex Spreadsheets — Less loose

I summarised the scenes in complex spreadsheets and outlined each scene. Once I was happy with the basic story I re-ordered and outlined each scene and chapter again.

Writing the Novel in Scrivener

I transferred the outline and scene summaries to Scrivener and began to write each scene in detail. I rewrote and rewrote, and revised and revised and revised.

Read an Excerpt from Gus

Listen to Jon talk about Gus