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.