I had a new idea for a novel yesterday. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every idea translated itself into the sort of novel that you want to read?
When I was at University we had a speaker from the Arts Council. He asked us a question. When we die what did we want our body of work to look like?
I wrote that I wanted two decent (?literary) novels, eight romances (yes, my heart lies with romances), a poetry collection and some articles on the subject of therapeutic writing, and process optimising creativity. I am also planning some articles for a local magazine (therapeutic writing and origami). I also edited a midwifery magazine for 18 months before becoming a mother.
I think this projected body of work is achievable, so long as I don’t lose my faculties or shrug off this mortal coil before then. I’d like to think I have time.
Talking about our plans makes us accountable to the people who are listening to us. It means that, when we start to see the things we envision becoming real, we are proving ourselves as someone to be taken seriously. That’s why I write about what I hope for.
At the end of my first year of my MA I dropped a grade in the communication element. There were two of us that dropped the same grade. The other person was offended and left the course in a huff. I asked why it had happened, and asked for help to improve so that I’d get a better mark next time. My tutor told me that it was because I didn’t take myself or my writing seriously enough. I laughed at myself when I shouldn’t. So, I listened, took it on board, and worked really really hard to prove that I could be a serious writer.
I also knew that if I was going to have my writing taken seriously I needed to be ‘teachable’. Being teachable involved accepting editorial advice and being prepared to adapt my writing and change my approaches. I also changed my working life and went back onto night duty. It gave me longer shifts but more days off, and more time to write. It was a good decision. Deciding to be teachable was harder. I had a vision for what I was writing, and how I wanted to carry out my assignments, and there were times when I felt completely bent out of shape by the advice I accepted; but it payed off. I learnt so much about the process of editing and after the thoroughly painful processes of learning about it I have reached a stage where it is a relaxing and enjoyable part of the creative process.
You may be reading this and think that editing is the same as SPAGing a piece of work. Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar. What you learn to do for GCSEs. It isn’t. It is looking at the story. Is it a story worth telling? Whose story is it? Are they the best placed to narrate the story? Whose point of view should you write from, and how close to that point of view should you get? Is it a story happening now, or in the past? Is the language the same language that your protagonist would use? Where are the parts of the story where the plot loses heat? Which bits were hardest to write? Are there lovely bits that you enjoyed writing, but that add nothing to the character, plot or location; and if included would make no one but you happy?
Editing and revision is about re-examining the characters and coming to know them so well that you know what they have in their pockets, and how they mark the place in the book they are reading. It’s knowing what their understairs cupboard looks like and if they had a pet guinea pig as a child. It’s becoming intimate with them, whether you like them or not; because if you can’t do that then your reader won’t be able to do that either.
But it starts with that novel idea. I think my new idea has legs. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is in November, and I think it might be just the time to start N21. It might not be either of the more literary novels I was considering but it will be a pleasure to write, and in the end that is probably the most important thing.
