My First Draft

On Thursday I finished the first draft of my new novel. I have been ambitious with this one. This was my first full length novel. I am more of a fan of short stories. It was a thriller/mystery genre. Before I had specifically stuck to gothic fantasy. It was a challenge and I wasn’t sure about it for most of the time I was writing it. I liked 3 things about it (the beginning, the middle and the end) and everything in between felt a bit like a means to an end. Fortunately, actually reading back through what I have written, it doesn’t actually feel like that and some of those ‘means’ have actually made for the addition of interesting characters and development of the setting, so have probably helped me out a lot in the long run.

I have noticed a few things I am guilty of with writing a longer novel. I start off incredibly descriptive and then that level of description just wanes as the novel progresses and I speed towards the end. That is something I will have to fix in my second draft because I felt there was a lot of beauty in the description at the start and I just lose it by trying my best to get to the thrilling parts as quickly as possible. I am guilty of forgetting key bits of information as the novel develops- I kept changing my mind about some initials and they have ended up probably being every letter in the alphabet by the close of the novel. I am guilty of having terrible handwriting yet insisting on handwriting it all- that is going to be a bit of a puzzle when it comes to typing it up.

On the whole, I have enjoyed writing something a bit different. I have ended up creating something that is so much more about sisterhood and motherhood than I ever initially anticipated, and I am proud of the results.

I have decided I am going to leave it to settle for a while before typing up. I might distract myself with tidying up my writing space and making it feel special again (it has become a bit neglected over lockdown) and maybe creating myself a bit more of a rigid schedule. I feel like I have totally fallen into a lifestyle of doing what I want to when I want to do it which I know won’t be as feasible “in the real world,” and when I go back to work.

We’ll see if any of this happens in my blog post next week 😊

Why I love minor characters...

I have always, since childhood, supported the underdog. I was never a fan of the flashy, heroic head-lining characters who seemed to have everything going for them (or him, in most cases). I loved the sidekick, the underrated villain, the quirky character who pops up for some comic relief or merely as a plot function. They were the ones I supported. Not only because I felt they were undervalued but, in some cases, I was able to fill in the gap about them in my imagination. I didn’t know their backstory, wasn’t explicitly told what drives and motivates them, wasn’t exposed to obviously narrated clues to how they are currently feeling. I could decide. I could create them to be so much more of something in my mind.

My favourite character in the Harry Potter series is Narcissa Malfoy. Her love for her son and her decision at the end of the series (no spoilers) completely and utterly enthralled me and trying to truly understand her motivations, the intricacies behind her decisions, was something I wasn’t plainly told, I had to think about it, work it out. I am much more fascinated by Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest than I ever will be by Randle McMurphy and TV show-wise, having finally complete Pretty Little Liars, Mona has to be my absolute fave. (Some spoilers)-  I often found myself rooting for her over the others and was in complete denial that she was as cruel and sadistic as she was initially made out to be- I knew there was more to her and I liked second-guessing her motivations, her desires, etc.

I think those examples reveal that perhaps I am more fond of the morally questionable characters that skirt along the sidelines, inciting conflict, toying with being undeniably evil but then doing something that makes me wonder if that really is the truth in it, are they unquestionably antagonistic or is there more them than that? And I will never know, because they aren’t the narrator, they aren’t the glory-seeking protagonist. They are there, mostly as a function, something to cause complications or spur the main character on. I think that is why, in my own writing, I end up being more excited and intrigued my minor characters than my major ones. I end up loving them more and enjoying the fact that they aren’t revealing all, they are keeping parts of themselves hidden and unwritten and, if I ever do have any of my writing published, I hope readers really notice them, give them the time of day and try and fill in the gaps themselves.

My love/hate relationship with my current WIP

Does anyone else find that they have a love/hate relationship with their current WIP or is it just me? I didn’t have it with my first novel, but I think that may be because it was a series of short stories, so it was all love and no time for hate. It may be because I am branching out into unfamiliar genre territory as I am writing a thriller for the first time and, maybe, I am just lacking in confidence as it isn’t my go-to writing style. I keep finding that some days I am loving what I am writing and feel good about my chapters but others I get into an absolute slump, feel that my writing is dreadful, and the story is going nowhere. It may because I am being ambitious with this WIP. I am writing much more than I have ever written before, it is a longer narrative and doesn’t quite follow a linear structure in the same sense as my usual writing does…and I guess that’s hard. I loved writing my first few chapters and I have had a couple of climatic moments that have been really interesting to write (delving into a bit of gore and mystery which I haven’t always fully gotten into with my writing for a younger audience). It is just those lulls in between where I am working on character development or orchestrating situations to enable the next key moment to happen that I am finding hard. I wonder if that means I just don’t love my characters or world enough and if so, does that mean it is a project worth abandoning?

 Let me know if you ever feel the same way about your WIPs and if you have any advice for these writing slumps.