Dear Diary

Many books and websites on writing often recommend the keeping of a diary or journal. This can range from the recording of ideas and overheard conversations to a record of your actual life. I am always interested in this piece of advice as I have kept a diary for the last twenty two years and have some diaries going back further than that. This week I took them out and had a look through them. The first thing that I found was a constant thread relating to my desire to write and I was also amazed at the number of books that I got through as a child (I have always recorded the books that I have read but not reviewed them - that would be too detailed even for me!). I was also interested in the amount of decription relating to my feelings. I don't remember writing that much but it seems I did and it took me straight back there. Some of them made me cringe but I won't ever throw them out. If anyone finds them when I'm gone then I won't be in a position to care.

A New Chapter

I took leave from work last week, as well as study, in order to get the house and garden clean and tidy now that spring has arrived. I am one of those people who cannot relax when I know there are jobs to be done and this can be difficult when I’m at home writing for most of the time. Now the major jobs are done, I can get by with flicking a duster round for the next few months as well as pulling out the occasional weed.
I did manage to get a bit of reading done and finished reading Ian Hay’s The First Hundred Thousand (1916) and Carrying on after the First Hundred Thousand (1917). These were the fourth impression and first edition respectively that I picked up really cheaply in New Zealand. They are barely disguised autobiographical accounts of training prior to embarkation and then life at and just behind the Front. Although it could be argued that they are not novels, they are still addictive reading and full of well drawn characters.Today I started Chapter Two of my novel. I knew that I would struggle with it as it’s a bit of bridge before the next piece of ‘action’ but it’s needed in order to show the protagonists’ motivation. In addition, it isn’t an action packed thriller and there need to be periods of reflection. Starting on a Monday morning with a difficult chapter is not a good idea. Basically, the main character needed to write a letter and I started to describe in two or three sentences that she was sitting at a desk etc but it was dull. In those first few sentences I needed to be clear about what I wanted to say about her. This brought me back to the key issue of point of view. I am writing in the third person but how could I use that to best effect? Rather than use the third person in a very neutral way, I have developed it subtly (I hope!) to reflect how the narration would sound if in the first person. I need to be careful with it but it does create a more distinctive voice rather than a ‘he said,’ ‘she said’ approach.

Bits and Pieces

It's been a busy week or so. I've finished Chapter One and won't be looking at it for at least a week. I have also read one and a half novels related to the period I am writing about, read two literary criticism books and been to the Imperial War Museum to do more research. Are these distractions? No. I not only have to write a novel but also a thesis (hence the lit. crit. and the novels). It may be just indicative of the historical novel but even if I weren't doing a thesis I would need to do both of things in some measure in order to write to a good enough standard. So far this week I have learnt the following about WW1 novels (pre-1930): their polyphonic nature; the common basic pattern of a single protaganist; the balance between the diarist, the novelist and the historian; and personal specifics versus the epic. I don't have to follow the direction they point to but it has given me a greater understanding of the structure of my novel. I have addressed some of these areas almost instinctively but it is good to be able to articulate it. I don't have to produce a writer's journal for my PhD but as I mentioned in a previous post, I continue to do so as best practice.