Journey Of A Novel

Menu

8.5th chapter

Themes, imagery and the spaces in between

Tanya V 28 December 2021

I have read back over and made a few adjustments but I’m nearly done with another chapter. It was a good chapter to write with some ideas that I’d thought about a lot but never written previously. There was some back and forth of ideas that I’d not considered that happened as the words appeared.

A main scene in the chapter belongs to three characters which had me thinking and writing in such a way that I hadn’t before. The writing of it took this three handed scene in a direction that I’d not considered causing me to create gaps that I filled after rereading then rereading again to make further adjustments and fill in those gaps.

I kept returning to it after thinking it over in much the same way that I do in real life when I think I should of said/done/thought such and such a thing at the time. The difference between writing the scene and real life though is that I could shape it as best I can with hind sight stepping into real time to guide the interactions.

Writing this chapter has also had me reflecting on the background, bigger picture, undercurrents and sustained elements that are the story travelling along through the narrative accompanying the action and words. To map this and create a consistency that I am happy with I’ve created a new file to map the chapters which includes lists of imagery, themes and other elements that inhabit the spaces in between the happenings.

The wrapping up of the story is about to begin. To tidy up the details I’ll have to write one chapter, then another for the climax and resolution. How all this will work I don’t know until I write it. So when I am done with this chapter I have at least two more to write, of course that could change though.

The work that I have to do is becoming clearer the closer I get to the end of the first draft. There’s a lot of work still to be done, work that I want to get started on, work that is the next level from where I’m at, but first I need to finish up draft number one.

Back in the saddle again

Tanya V 28 November 2021

For over a month now I’ve had plans to write, to get writing and to keep on writing but life got in the way. Nevertheless I followed through tonight and got another 1000 words written.

When I revisited where I had left off I was surprised to find that I had written more than I remembered, and I was happy with what I read over before I started writing again. The flow that I had been in when I wrote before had been good and the ‘all downhill from here’ feeling came back along with a satisfied smile.

The 1000 words that I wrote are for chapter 8.5, well that is what it is called for now while I push on through the last happenings of the narrative to wrap up the chapters. My original plan was for 9 chapters but through the writing of them I began to think it will be 11 chapters for the first draft, and may even make it to 13 chapters or so by the time I finish with the next draft.

Chapter 8.5 is the spilling over of chapter 8 into a new self contained set of scenes that needed to be included in more detail than I had anticipated. On the cycle of the hero’s journey formula this chapter is the hero’s return in a personal sense for the protagonist as they come face to face with the embodiment of who they had been asked to be and who they had failed at being. Beyond this it is also the return to a point of their life where they were a victim and now return as a victor ready to save another from a certain fate, but having to come to realise that all must take their own path regardless of suffering.

Having saved themselves the protagonist hopes to save another but instead comes to terms with the fact that they can only be their own hero and must leave others to also be a hero to themselves and become triumphant in their own lives.

Chapter 8.5 most likely will become chapter 9, I’ll leave the number as 8.5 for now to save confusion chopping and changing numbers along the way. Once I have written to the end and can see what I have to work with I will do a number reshuffle of all chapters.