Ever had that feeling where you couldn’t see the wood for the trees, so you uprooted them, tried to move them around a bit, gave up, and now you’re surrounded by logs? No? Just me, then.
Wins!
Since starting The Novelry’s Big Edit course a few weeks ago, it’s fair to say I’ve been going at the first draft of book #3 with a sledgehammer. Or, to stick with the metaphor above, one of those forestry harvesters with the enormous and weirdly autonomous chainsaws at the end of its arm.
Anyway, my recent win is that I’ve managed to line up my trees in some kind of order…
I might be overreaching in my ambition to create a book with both a forwards and a backwards timeline, but I’m excited to see how it could work.
Cue all the backwards timeline research… Evie Wylde’s All the Birds, Singing. And Memento. And that episode of Inside No. 9 which is like a mini version of Memento.
Got any other recommendations? Let me know.
Rejections
Well, my main observation here is that it’s pretty difficult to get rejected when you don’t have any work out there!
So, to produce new things or to focus on the ‘big project’?
In the past I’ve found the variety helpful, but right now I think I want (need) to replant my wood first. Or something that aligns with the forestry metaphor and doesn’t just sound filthy.
Learnings
Lots of brilliant craft tips courtesy of Will Storr's Science of Storytelling, including:
Brains love change. Change makes us curious, especially if that change hints at darker things to come.
Brains love solving problems. We become spontaneously curious when we have incomplete information, and we become more and more anxious to find the answer as new information comes along.
Active sentences mimic the way we notice things in the real world. This is why they feel more natural and engaging to read.
We tell stories all the time. The world is complex and confusing, and we constantly write narratives to help us make sense of it.
And many more!
Readings
Finished: Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You. This is a beautifully written book – it’s very controlled, with the narrative voice moving between the different characters in a subtle and fluid way. I thought this choice worked well because all the characters are withholding information from each other, meaning the story hinges on tiny instances of people not getting attention or being misinterpreted and not speaking out, and how these grow until it’s impossible for them to say anything.
Also finished: Clare Leslie Hall’s Broken Country (gifted via the brilliant Chapter & Choice). I bawled my eyes out at the ending… It’s a very clever book that seems like a classic romance but with so many twists built in that push it towards being more of a thriller. The pacing was intense (extraordinarily short chapters) and the flitting between past and present timelines is definitely something to study.
Currently reading: Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck. Some non-fiction to mix things up before Evie Wylde’s All the Birds, Singing arrives.
Musings
Recently I’ve watched several older films / plays as research for book #3.
Thelma and Louise – absolutely bonkers, and a great study in how you can love and hate (or, at the very least, be infuriated by) a character at the same time.
Harold and Maude – alright, this one is absolutely bonkers, and the final scene made me do a literal mouth drop.
‘Night, Mother – powerful, understated… an extraordinary depiction of a maternal relationship and suicide.
Memento – currently halfway through (no matter which way you look at it) and excited for the big twist…
Our household has also eaten our collective weight in pumpkins now that Halloween is over. Shame they don’t grow on trees otherwise I could have worked them into that metaphor somehow…
Till next time,
Vicky
