If I was drawing a picture instead of writing a novel then this wouldn’t even be the sketching stage. This would be me in kindergarten with crayons drawing a house and a tree and scrawling my name in the corner for placement on the fridge at the end of the day. Yep, I’m writing with training wheels, it’s helpful for me to accept this to push aside any angst over what I think I should be doing as opposed to what I am doing.
I’m making progress with slow and certain steps. When writing the page is as jumbled as the thoughts in my head, thoughts that are the story in fragments. Pressing through to create some clarity in the form is an unrelenting task. That’s fine though, I’ve accepted that it’s not something that will just fall into place. I have to keep going slowly.
With the majority of chapter one laid out in a document as bits and pieces of writing that I’ve written over time along with detail from different sources of the myth/ folktale that I’m taking some structure from, and character descriptions, and sections of symbolism – it’s all a bit of a mess right now. The writing runs together as a narrative that tells with little to no showing. For the past day I’ve been making notes at points where I want to show what’s happening. Points that show I can get to know the character/s, who they are, how they interact and what they are like as humans. Telling is a good option for sections of this as a tale while arcing the narrative with detail as showing to step into the story with the characters to inhabit their world.
The story is big, the tale is timeless, so I have room to let the story be the star against the backdrop of humanity. If my characters are removed from the foreground of the storytelling it won’t harm the telling of it. I do need to have the characters be up front and centre though to inhabit the role that they’ll play, to let them own it and be it and do justice to the story. These are the thoughts that run through my mind as I progress and why I know that I have to go slow.
On top of all these serious thoughts I keep pondering humour, I’d like to sneak some in. That’s what it is to be human after all isn’t it? A little bit funny or able to see the funny side of life. Something quirky, silly or absurd could be fun.