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.