Get Closer

This week I had my fourth tutorial. It was very positive but there is a key area that needs work. On the plus side, my tutor is happy with the content and the structure and feels that there is a strong story. I am relieved as the last thing I want to do at this stage is start deconstructing the chapters that I’ve written so far. In addition, if I’m not telling a strong story I’m in trouble. Although my tutor is content with the characters and understands their motivation etc I still haven’t got to grips with the voice. We think that the main reason for this is that in my day job I have been required to write in a very objective way; stripping out all opinion and emotion. Interestingly, I seem to have no problem with dialogue and letters from my character. That’s because I am right there in her mind. As soon as I go back to the third person I become too distant from her. We discussed going back and writing her in the first person but this is too restrictive for the story that I’m telling. We then discussed my writing her in the first person and then changing it back. I have now started to do this and it has made a difference.
This week Emma Darwin has been blogging about this very element of writing. http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2011/10/point-of-view-narrators-3-external-narrators.html
She also suggests the approach that I describe above. Although I wish that I could have achieved the right voice from the start, I do feel that I have learnt something. If I were able to get the story, plot, narrative, characters, dialogue and voice beautifully from the start then I would have been extremely lucky!

Busy Week

This has been a really productive and varied week. I have worked on Chapter Eleven and am three quarters of the way through. I am now at the beginning of the second of three ‘acts’. For me, the middle of the novel is the most exciting. I have laid the foundations of my protagonist’s world and can now really put her through the various scenarios that build on each other and make her a different and better person by the end of it. I struggled when I started the chapter. It is a bridge between her old world and the new but the writing felt naive and lacked something but I was not sure what. I came back to the basic question; what does she want? Even though I was describing her new world it wasn’t enough. There needed to be conflict, however low key that maybe. Once I answered that question, a secondary/tertiary character came forward, the dialogue almost wrote itself and I learnt more about my protagonist. She came alive again. Creating something from nothing is extremely hard work but when it starts to happen it is a wonderful feeling.
I also attended a training session on exploiting electronic journals. It’s great that they are available electronically but finding what you need is not necessarily easy. I am now looking forward to setting a day aside to play with the various databases.
In addition, I have read a lesser known novel by Mrs Humphrey Ward – ‘The War and Elizabeth.’ I absolutely loved it. It did something that novels rarely seem to do for me anymore; it moved me.
Finally, I want to a fantastic seminar run by the Western Front Association. There were four speakers whose subjects ranged from Ploegsteert Archaeology (a subject close to my heart as my Grandfather was there and I have spent many years in all weathers working on an archaeological site albeit pre-historic) to women war artists and the representation of women in WW1 art. It was so good to get out of the study (and my own head) and meet like-minded people.