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.