Dear Jane,
Please accept my belated birthday wishes to you. I meant to get this letter out much sooner but you know how it goes with a busy family.
I hope you were able to celebrate in high style. A trip to London, high tea, a night at the theater, perhaps a stroll in the public gardens; these are great activities in my eyes. My birthday is in a few weeks, as you well know, and I have no idea how we will celebrate that event.
I have been thinking of you lately as I work on my first novel. I try to write 500 words a day and right now I am at Chapter 8 of 15. But recently, I looked back at Chapter 2 in order to present it to my writing group. I have not sent anything in for a while despite making real progress on the book. While going over the pages to take out any passive verbiage and tighten it all up, I realized that most of this chapter is terrible.
More truthfully, it sucks.
I am now considering re-writing it or ditching the chapter all together. It does not seem to fit or make sense with the rest of the novel that I have written. I think that I have not introduced the problem soon enough. Worse yet, I no longer love my heroine.
Did that ever happen to you? Elizabeth is so lively and charming that I would find it hard not to love her. Elinor, on the other hand, I can imagine getting a bit weary despite her wonderful qualities. Then again, she was a poor woman in Regency England who had known a better life. Her sadness at the loss of her father and potential husband must have been great.
Since working on this novel, I notice how I read a book has changed. I no longer simply enjoy the prose. I am paying attention to how characters are introduced. I listen to how different characters speak. I look at when the problem becomes a problem. The dead body does not always seem to show up by the end of Chapter One but one issue or another is presented that eventually leads us there.
I do no enjoy reading novels any less. I recently finished Kipling’s Captain Courageous and enjoyed the transformation of the rich boy saved by a fishing boat crew. Right now I am re-reading Jane Goes Batty by Michael Thomas Ford in which you are a vampire. I am discovering little things I did not notice before and quite enjoying it, which is the whole reason why I re-read books. Sometimes in my rush to read a book, I miss details.
Book Cover Image from Amazon.com
One book that has been quite difficult for me to get through is Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. I know her writing is wonderful and I enjoy the descriptions. I know the book was ground breaking for talking about mental illness – battle fatigue in particular – and making that character sympathetic as opposed to a maniacal fool.
It is the stream-of-consciousness style of writing that gives me a headache and I have to put the book down after a page or two. The jump between characters happens so quickly that I am not always so sure who is speaking. I hope that the book I am writing does not give others headaches should I ever finish writing it.
I appreciate any words of wisdom you can send me in this matter. And please let me know about your birthday celebration; I want all of the juicy details.
As always, your devoted friend, etc.
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Lovely post! This is a wonderful way to share your experiences with and thoughts about writing your novel. Congratulations for having gotten a fair bit of it down on paper already! May the work continue to progress at a steady rate. (And early birthday wishes — in case I miss it later!)
Thank you. I do enjoy my annual letter to Jane. I always hope she will write back but she never does. Perhaps I should try writing to a living author instead.
Nice post. I know what you mean about the way you read a book having changed now that you write. I try so hard to silence my internal editor when I read. With a really good book, I can do that. With one that’s not so strong, that editor keeps creeping in.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Nice of you to do.
My way of reading books has completely changed for the time being. My inner editor comes through some times as well, especially when it comes to names of characters. Thanks for stopping by.
Nicely done!
Thank you.
I really enjoy your conversation with Jane. (When and if she shares any secrets – you promise to spill them here, right?)
Writing is so hard. Hang in there.
I would absolutely share if she gave me some words of wisdom UNLESS I was forced to promise otherwise.
I wish I had the skill to write chapters, every time I try I tend to lose my way in the story
Some people outline at the beginning, others do it in the middle of the process to help them out of a jam like what you are talking about. I am simply plodding on. Thaks for standing by.
You have a lovely blog. I’ll be looking forward to a lot of reading!
Thank you for stopping by.