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| Rising Crow Catherine Meyers |
The first novel, in fact the only novel I have written, took me many years. Part of why it took so long is that I didn't take the project seriously enough to do the writing. I did a lot of research, because after all, what does a scholar and researcher do but find facts to back up ideas? While this is somewhat important in fiction, the whole point of fiction is that it is make believe. It does not have to conform to fact, reality, or common sense. It does have to be credible within the context of the story you tell, so if you've moved a coffee shop to another city, you might want to rename it. And if you set a whole series, ala Sue Grafton, in a city everyone is familiar with, you either use the exact names and streets and reality of that city, or you rename it and make everything up. In that case you can still call Hwy 101 and State Street by their names, but they do not have to conform to the actual streets or highways to be believable. This is one of the joys of writing fiction.
Like I said, though, it still all has to be believable. We must keep track of what we've said before. Did Lincoln Blvd., run north and south or east and west? Did Lake Street run near a lake or was there no lake in sight? Did the main character turn right or left to get home last time? All these details are vital to remember so we keep the readers flowing through the reading of the novel. We want all the distractions to be in the plot and twists that turn the characters' lives upside down. Story boards are helpful for this. Making a map of any town or location you're writing about. This is especially useful for those of us who are visual and direction-impaired. Make a map, and sit in front of it while writing.
Another important device is doing character studies of your characters. That is in addition to having a readily available list or file of all the characters, their descriptions (age, heights, hair, dress, anything that makes the character stand out). Use file cards or use character software like that on Scrivener's software for writers. Scrivener's software is excellent. It allows a ever present character files, a place for notes and research, and a chapter by chapter approach to putting a novel together. Personally, I use as many devices as possible...story board, file cards, online character file, and a map to remind me who lives where. A really good idea, one I haven't done yet, is to put the maps in the book itself. Line the front and back covered with maps, or include maps in between chapters. This helps the reader, especially helpful when you're writing a long, complex novel. I often wished P.D. James had done this, though I found that her novels were worthy of rereading. They were more fun to reread because I kept finding new pieces I'd missed the first time though. Regardless of how you organize your characters, plots, and settings, using devices that work for you do help. One perspective that I have of the first novel I wrote is to experiment with different ways of maintaining tighter control of your characters, plots, and settings. This is especially important for those of us whose stories flow from the imagination and aren't planned out in detail ahead of time.
Having people edit and read what I'm writing, is helpful, only when I've reached a certain point in the process. That point, for me, is when I've established my characters and initial direction for the plot. In other words, when the story is underway and already set in a time and place. At that time, I find someone who can follow me down the path, picking up lost characters, finding missing pieces, or repeated paragraphs or events so that I don't have to backtrack and reread. For someone who has done as much editing work as I have, it is deadly for me to go back and edit a piece of my own work too much. What happens is I get bogged down in the minutia, and the story stops in its tracks. Having a reader/editor is key. Short of that, I'd suggest that you try to keep writing, stopping only periodically, say once a month or at some designated time, to reread. The editing and the copyrighting processes are and should be separate. Of course we do rewriter vast swathes of plot at times. And simple editing is both necessary and possible at times, but it slows things down considerably if we keep rewriting, editing and rewriting something to death.
When we haven't gone through an experience before, it always helps to hear about other peoples' experiences. Provided we keep in mind, individual differences, listening to others' talk or write about their experience with the writing process can be helpful. However, sour own experience will be different. It's kind of like having a baby. There are stages we go through. First we debate 'having a baby' either in our own heads or with our partners and friends. Then there's 'trying to get pregnant'. For some of us, this isn't an issue; for others it can be quite an arduous journey. Again, we have to go through it ourselves to determine what the experience is like, for us. Then there's being pregnant. Months of advice, usually by month 4, wholly unsolicited. We learn to either be patient or just say, "Thanks but no thanks" to anyone who starts in trying to help us figure it out. If it's our first pregnancy, we want to do everything right. By the second or third, I'm sure this changes, though I wouldn't know since I was blessed with one child. Her pregnancy in her late 30s, made me an older grandmother and mother. One day I recall her struggling with a newborn issue. She stood looking harried and at sea in the kitchen, turned and asked me, "What did you do when this happened to you."
I was at a total loss because it had been not years but decades since I'd been a new mother. Life and writing are all about living and learning. My lovely daughter figured it out. I did my best to help and try to keep my opinions and advice to myself, unless asked for. We do figure things out, for ourselves.
While writing per se was not new to me, writing fiction with an aim to finish a mystery novel, was. As much as I knew about mysteries and the process of writing, I had not done it myself before. In fact one of the main reasons it took so long to write is that I was writing thousands of pages of other kinds of writing: theses, dissertations, essays, articles, research for books, a memoir, poetry, and even advice columns. Ever so often, I'd pull the three-ring binder and my index card file off the shelf and head out for a 3-day retreat, or a week away on vacation where I'd work on writing. By work on writing I refer to the process of deciding who to write. I outlined to death. I worked on character sketches. I read books on writing. I read other fiction writers write and talk about writing, and I even helped other writers hold book events and co-hosted workshops with other writers. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I decided to let someone else read what I'd manage to write. Five chapters. That's right, in all those years, just five chapters. I knew the characters though, very well. They had traveled around with me, living on the edge of my imagination for decades. I also knew the town where the action took place. I had visited that town many times over the years. In fact that was where the idea for the story was born.
Five chapters though, isn't much. But I wanted to know if what I had written would hold anyone's attention. Because if it wouldn't, I'd have to rethink whether I had any talent for doing this. A woman I had struck up an acquaintance with, kept saying she wanted to help me if she could. She'd worked in publishing, and was interested in seeing if she could help me. I took her up on her offer, reluctantly. I was terrified she would think my writing was awful. Fortunately, she didn't. In fact, she liked it, and as we talked, I realized, I would listen to her. I would be able to trust her with my baby, and I'd listen so that maybe I'd learn how to do this properly. For you see, doing things properly is a thing with me.
Well, and I'm sure I've told this story more than once or twice, we began the journey of me doing the writing and her following behind, finding the potholes, and urging me forward. That got me through from beginning to end.
Then began the editing and rewrites and edits, and well the list goes on because this is one of the hardest parts. Fixing things so they are ready to go to print. And then when I'm also the publisher, I have to change hats, and separate myself from the work to get things ready to print and proof. That is hard, and I wish I could hire the job out because really, no one should try it. Let's just leave it at that. The good news is, when I had to go back and re-edit the book, I had enough distance on the writing to actually enjoy reading what I wrote. Once the book was in its final form, and I won't go into all the software and finding the right programs headaches I went through, but final form did happen. And somewhere in the last few days of this crawling through snakes in the desert on the hottest day of the year experience, I realized, enough was enough. It's done and I'm pleased. It's on the market, and the pr and marketing is another skill set I'm still working on, but the writing, the pleasure is done.
And what made me think of how important perspective was is the new writing I am doing. The sequel to my first mystery novel was born almost right away, after writing the last lines of the first book. I put myself in the mode of writing again, and began heading in daily to write a new chapter, work on characters, and get going. I'm up to chapter 30 already, but somewhere a week or so ago, I started hearing that voice in my head shouting, "Faster, faster, you've got a deadline!" And then I started feeling weighed down and counting the years I had left and wondering if I had what it took to do this. And then that magic moment hit. That bubble over my head moment. Aha. The first book was years in the works in my brain. The actual writing took a little more than a year. I was the one who set the pace and could remove the deadline any time I felt like it. What I loved about writing the first one, was the joy of writing. So instead of worrying about when it's going to be done, or is there a new idea ready to roll out onto paper or not, I'm back to doing what I love. Writing and letting go of the need for things to fall into place in a particular way. That understanding alone, released a lot of energy.
This morning, I received a message from a friend who had just finished reading my book. He wanted me to know he liked it, and couldn't wait for the next one. That kind of encouragement energizes my creative spirit, and I can discipline my mind to let go and let my imagination take over. New characters are born, ideas flow from scene to scene, and I'm as curious as anyone to see how this is all going to play out. Who knows what we can do when we get our of our own way. I remember a few summers or five ago reading about one of my mystery writer friends who was working on the final writing of her first mystery novel. C.Hope Clarke, was writing about her own desire to follow through on the dream she had of writing her novel, Low Country Bribe. I was working on something else, a book of poetry I believe, but we wrote occasional notes to one another encouraging each other. I recall that by Christmas that year, she had finished. I also recall her going through the rewrites, edits, and other grunt work. At the same time, she was beginning her second novel. That all seems like a long time ago, but it's not.
We are influenced by the best and worst of what we experience, by who we connect with, and by wha we go through. We write in spite of accidents, births, deaths, daily life, elections, and the demands and stresses of our lives It helps though, once in a while, to step back and look at the whole process from the inception of an idea, the first niggling sensations all the way through to the 'okay it's enough' point. Our lives are full of many successes, some miserable failures, and a whole lot of exciting and challenging hard work and joy in between. Hope you are contemplating doing something that pulls at your soul. Let something come to life now, to be born of your blood, sweat, tears, and joy.
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