It took me six years to finish the first draft. I’d set myself a target of completing it in time for my father’s 80th birthday. I made it, but only by dint of writing non-stop during a family holiday.
It is finished ... not
It took me six years to finish the first draft. I’d set myself a target of completing it in time for my father’s 80th birthday. I made it, but only by dint of writing non-stop during a family holiday.
Among the early questions posted was one about Writer’s Block. Well, I never had it as such, although there was a massive obstacle I had to confront. The heart of the book was the events leading up to, during and immediately after the Holocaust. I was, perhaps understandably, nervous about doing this. There would be many opportunities to go badly wrong.
But I had always assumed that the book had to be written chronologically. I was wrong in this, and got some inspiration from a pretty obscure source. One of my favourite books is a Proust-length novel by the French Nobel Laureate, Romain Rolland. Jean-Christophe is the life of a fictitious composer. Rolland’s own biographer, the wonderful Stefan Zweig explained that he wrote this 10-volume novel (if memory serves) episodically, rather than linearly.
This was a real breakthrough. It meant I could write around the central section and then come back to it, rather than await inspiration before progressing. This liberated me to write episodes from his later life while they were fresh in my mind without waiting for ‘their time’, so to speak. So the last – most challenging – part, the epicentre of the storm that befell my hero, was actually written during a blazing Mediterranean summer.
But of course it wasn’t finished. Yes, I got a printed draft wrapped up in ribbon for my dad but that was, in many ways, a mirage, a cruel deception, of completion
Because the haunting then began. I’d lie there thinking about the book generally. Sometimes, gaping holes appeared in the narrative. On other occasions, new avenues of possibility opened up that made sense psychologically or chronologically.
In short, what I found was that that Churchill’s famous quote about El Alamein (“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”) rang with great carillons of truth.
And then began the biggest question of all. What the hell do I do now?
Ian Phillips is a freelance writer for businesses whose first novel, Grosse Fugue, will be published by Alliance Publishing Press on April 3rd. He’s tweeting developments @Ian_at_theWord.
Hello Ian,
Thank you so much for responding. I have been on vacation and just got back and I am delighted to hear from you. It is so nice to chat with someone who has the writer's mind because as you mention in your answer is this an opportunity, well, it is an opportunity for my two main characters to come together as the history of these records come to light. I do have more room since my history farther back in time and all my characters are fictional. When I mention the pace or time frame of the novel, I was worried it would extend it further and I need to cut nearly 50,000 words; you know how it is when you get in a really good writing mode and you just write and write. Yeah, I need to cut back on some of it...but while this will be my first novel published (positive thinking) I am still a work in progress. Thank you for easing my fears and giving me a different view of my dilemma.
As you mentioned that readers have an outside view, my editor did remind to go easy with my readers since they do not know the characters as well as we do. I was inspired by the earlier blog that the agent asked when you had actually met Mendal. What a compliment to write a character so believable that your agent is sure they really existed.
Again, Thanks so much and good luck with your publishing.
Hi Meagan,
This is an interesting conundrum and I'm not sure there's a right or wrong answer, to be honest. Because my book deals with what might be termed sensitive (and certainly more recent) history, I felt it essential to be as accurate as possible.
Your historical challenge is more distant and avoids the emotional aspects of mis-statement but the quest for accuracy is always an insistent one for me personally. Would it impact adversely on your narrative is you 'massage' the availability of records? Only you can say, of course.
Reading your post, I wondered whether it is actually an opportunity rather than a threat. Could you not make the search for records a sub-plot and build up the process of detection, discovery, false trails etc? As you said, that will impact on your pace, but it might make for an interesting and enjoyable diversion.
What damage to your overall structure would shifting the time-frame involve? I suspect your editor didn't mention this because they assumed it was accurate or didn't care over much. I had a similar issue but avoided it my a simple tweak.
Again, when we're writing there's an 'inside-out' view and an 'outside-in' view. We have the former, readers have the latter. I do find it difficult sometimes to move between those positions, and an editor's eye is vital to deliver that perspective.
Hope that helps!
Hi Luis,
Glad you find this community of value. We're all trying to learn from each other so do keep reading! Further blogs in this series will focus more on the publishing process and less on writing, so I hope you find reasons to return.