Editing

I didn’t realise how long it’s been since I last posted; I’ve been lost in the world of editing. It’s a fascinating process and I’m learning a great deal. I’m taking a chapter at a time and reviewing structure, setting, character and style. It’s difficult not to address all these elements at once so I’m very strict with myself and take each in turn. Setting is turning out to be interesting – I did include it in the first draft but am now looking at it much more closely from my protagonists’ point of view. My favourite stage is the review of style. Knowing that I’m content (at the moment) with all the other elements I can focus on the sentence structure, vocabulary etc. It’s as if I am seeing the manuscript through a magnifying glass and all manner of mistakes appear. Editing is a very time consuming process and requires a structured approach, as well as patience. It’s worth it. Only twenty eight chapters to go.

The Last Chapter

Exciting news – I have finished the first draft of the novel. I am actually more emotional than I expected. It is a milestone that I have been doggedly working towards for eighteen months and I feel a certain amount of relief that I have finally got there.

That is the good news. However, there are still many, many hours of work. What I have produced (I think) is a strong outline. I now have to go back, take a chapter at a time and build on the character and description elements. This should hopefully be more freeing than the process so far which has been slowed by the significant amount of historical research that I’ve needed to do. A key element will be to feed the creative side of my brain and, as I have written here before, just have fun with it.

Oh yes, I also have to keep reading and researching for my thesis. I aim to take some time off at Christmas but until then it is heads down…

Other Voices, Other Times

I recently attended a one day symposium titled Other Voices, Other Times; the aim of which was to explore representation in historical and fantasy writing. It was a wonderful, if rather busy day at one of Bath Spa University’s beautiful campuses in Wiltshire. It began with the keynote speakers Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes) and Professor Gerard Woodward on writing the seventies. It’s interesting that even when writing about a decade that many in the audience could remember, there are still debates to be had about what actually happened and what people remembered happening.
I then attended the ethical perspectives workshop which covered: the relationship between writing history and historical fiction (this was covered in depth at last years’ Institute of Historical Research conference); voices of the forgotten; and the question of authenticity (this kept cropping up during the day). A fascinating aspect was the role that creative writing is now taking in museums. Indeed, one of my favourite notes that I took of the day was ‘writer as curator.’
The second keynote speakers were Celia Brayfield (reading Fay Weldon’s paper as she was unable to attend) and Dr Ian Mortimer. The former suggesting that historical research need only be basic and the latter that there will always be a gap between the writing of history and historical fiction.
Finally, I went to a workshop that included a paper on one novelists’ experience of researching and writing a novel on the 1857 Indian Uprising. Although my novel is set in a different period, I could relate to the various issues and felt less alone. I came away from the day inspired and very enthusiastic about getting on with my novel (four chapters to go...).

Researching the Arts

This week I was allowed out from behind my desk to go to a Researching the Arts conference – research students from the School of Arts presenting papers and performing/reading. The creative part of the brain needs to be fed; this can mean pinning up inspiring pictures on the walls around your desk to visiting a museum. The conference was an excellent way of stimulating this creative side. The performances, whether they were readings from novels in progress or music composed on a laptop, were inspiring on their own. However, the accompanying papers made my brain work harder to find connections between the art forms. Two of the papers focussed on the relationship between music and visual arts. Again, I found myself wondering at just how different mediums allow us to express ideas so very differently. What would chapter six of my novel look like as a painting or a film? What would the accompanying musical score sound like? I hope to present at next year’s conference and am very much looking forward to it.  

The Last Push

I’ve been on my holidays and resumed writing last week. I’m now about to start Chapter 25. It’s so good to be able to type that. It was wonderful to have a complete break, particularly as the story is now taking place in a different country and the tone has changed. It also meant I could read novels that were nothing at all to do with my studies.

I’m now pushing really hard to get the final six chapters done (in first draft) by the end of July. I even found myself using a timer this week and aiming to get x number of words down in an hour. It does rather focus the mind and is working. When I did my BA I did a similar thing and rewarded myself with biscuits but I’m not sure I can do that anymore and get away with it. Of course, this is fine in a chapter that has not required so much micro research but it won’t be so easy when I get further along.

Romance of the Middle Ages

Yesterday I visited the Romance of the Middle Ages exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It uses manuscripts, printed books and art to explore the story of the romance from the Middle Ages to the present day. Exhibits range from a most incredibly illustrated copy of Le Roman de la Rose to a pen-and-ink drawing of a knight and lady by Edward Burne-Jones, a hand written page by Tolkien and a letter from the BBC to the Monty Python team regarding The Holy Grail.

There are many elements that I could write about here but the overwhelming feeling I came away with was my love for the physical book. This is beautifully illustrated (no pun intended) by an exhibit named A Shared Book. It a version of the poem Arthur and Merlin and is inscribed ‘This is Robert Jones his booke recorde of Steven Jones and of Robert Webbe and of Misteris Caterne Jones and of many mo good people in the parishe of Tolpudle’. I love the idea of it being passed around the village to be read and surviving to this day.

More on the exhibition can be found at http://medievalromance.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/romance-home

Plodding

I haven’t blogged for a while. The main reason is that I am going through a phase loosely titled ‘heads down and get on with it.’ The writing process is a little like a job at the moment. I sit down on my allocated study days, review my milestones and then keep writing. It’s a bit lonely sitting here in the office most days and self motivation cannot be underestimated. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying it but I just want to get to the end of the first draft so that I can go back and start having fun with it. I’ve now reached 80% of the novel although I expect that the estimated total word count will increase. There was a brief moment of panic a few weeks ago when I found a basic error when reading my research notes which rendered part of my novel plan useless. However, due to the joys of the excel spreadsheet I was able to move everything around and it’s actually much better.
Hopefully, by the summer I will have completed the draft. I will also be allowing myself out of the house to attend a couple of conferences.