Journey Of A Novel

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The tip of my tongue

Tanya V 15 February 2023

When lost in conversation, listening, sharing ideas and swept up in the momentum of back and forth I can have moments when the thing that I want to say, to share and express, is there at the edge of my mind but no longer fully formed. It was brimming in my mind not a moment before, but then wavers beyond my focus, and I have to wait because it will return. It’s on the tip of my tongue.

Wait, what was I going to say? Oh I just had it!

I smirk at the fact that the words I had formed in my mouth ready to speak are gone. I wait and let go of the need to speak and shake my head. The words will return when I stop searching my mind for them.

It happens to us all.

This same thing is happening to me now with my 4th draft.

It’s the first chapter that has me coming to my keyboard, pausing and looking off into space with purpose as if the words will appear there.

The beginning needs to be reworked. I have moved forward bit by bit making decisions for the start of the story to be stronger, imagery to be more on point, the character better introduced, and researched points to add. This is structural and detail though, the writing of it is challenging me.

Words elude me when I sit to write, I have a snapshot in my mind rather than a scene playing out.

So, the same as when the words are on the tip of my tongue I will wait for the scene to form clearly in my mind.

Refining my how-to

Tanya V 11 February 2021

I backup my writing in 2 locations but yesterday after much writing I couldn’t open files in either location. It was a scary half hour as I rallied myself to not succumb to angry monkey mentality and begin smashing my keyboard in frustration. There were almost tears but I got a grip and pushed through mustering patience. I tried and tried again and eventually my computer cooperated restoring from the recent files on my version of MS word – who knew that MS could be helpful and not just creepy!!!

Having passed that hurdle I am moving forward now with another level of file management. I am making a separate file for each chapter to keep the content minimal. I will keep a working copy in two locations. I will breathe, take my time and always include extra time for ‘computer speed’ or downtime as some know it.

Creating a timeline for writing is not as easy as sitting down to write, even if I write by hand I still have to type it up sooner or later. Writing is never just writing. With this in mind I’ll work at breaking my time into blocks and timing my writing sessions with a minimum time frame but never maximum so I can write to my heart’s content.

I’m happy with what I have reshuffled from previously written pieces and added to so far. My work is dense with ideas behind everything for readers to be able to invest their imagination as much or as little as they like. With this in mind I know that I’ll have stops and starts to the flow of my process when I stop to check details from resources; some I’ll include, some I’ll ponder and apply with a lighter touch. My aim is not to be precise or correct. I’m not writing a historical novel, I’m not interested in being up-to-date with the latest anthropological discovery or theory, I respect but don’t follow religions so I will construct a story that works for me and to the best of my ability.

My game plan for getting the work done is to keep following the narrative and work through the story chronologically to take myself on the hero’s journey along with my protagonist. Previously I’ve written according to prompts and whatever part of the storyline the prompt inspired. I got a lot of writing done in this way but will not use all of it as I was cycling over what I had already written and found myself stuck in scenes with no clear way into the next.

I’m up to a research point so the actual writing could be minimal today as I commit the majority of my time to collecting information. Even if it’s a few sentences though I will write today to include what I research, this way I will be free to continue writing when I write next time.

Where to start

Tanya V 10 February 2021

I’m starting at the beginning.

I’ve started at the beginning of my story many times before shifting the starting point and pondering the origin story – what it is, how to tell it, where and how does it start…

Imagery is important to me, I’m a visual writer often writing what I see in my mind and doing my best to document that vision as I tell the story. Sharing what I see is my story telling method which makes me a sucker for descriptive writing. Using the images that I have in mind also makes the narrative sketchy with gaps at times and caught up with too much thought around details that I question as necessary.

With my writing to date I have created a word document where I have pasted my work in order as best I can. I’ve done three things with this file for navigating my work.

1 – I’ve pasted the writing in sections of chapters as I currently see them to cluster story parts together which makes it easier to find the story part that I’m working on to save me time and frustration when looking for ‘that bit’.

2 – I’ve colour coded each piece of writing to help define different pieces that I’ve written over time, in part this has become unnecessary as I dissect and move the pieces about editing in new writing as I go. Colour coding has and still does help me to move through the writing referencing where I am at visually with colour though.

3 – The file is now my work in progress as I continue to shuffle what I have written, add to it, and use past writing as the bones of what I am working on.

For the past few days I have chipped away at how I will tell the story with a focus on committing to a style. I want to tell this old disputed narrative that sits in the intersecting realms of fantasy, religion, history, and origin with a tone that honours all. Can I do this? I really don’t know but I am going to get lost in that idea and give it a go. This type of story has always appealed to me, I get sucked in to the awe and wonder that they embody within their telling. If a story has me questioning I know that it’s a good one, I know that I can lose myself their and revel in my imagination. To root myself in that the lost time that imagination serves up I have a saying of my own that I always come back to when considering any story that provokes me in such a way and that is:

I don’t care if a story is true, I only care if it is good

With this in mind I will attempt to capture the feeling of being lost in a story because it is good.

Paving the road

Tanya V 4 February 2021

For the past 10 years I’ve been writing a novel off and on, and now is the time to get it done.

When I couldn’t find a writing buddy to establish a writing habit with I began teaching. In each session I would write with the group mostly writing toward my novel in an unplanned way to just get it down and get it out. That worked for creating content but not for finishing the task.

Of all the writing I’ve done over the years toward this I have written approximately 20 000 words that I could use so far, of these I’ll most likely throw away up to a quarter. Writing is after all knowing which words to keep and largely about writing down words then throwing them away to craft a piece with the best that you have, much like carving a sculpture from marble. Words are the raw material, they are beautiful with qualities all their own, but we can’t use them all, some must be thrown away.

Writing toward my WIP (work in progress) in this way has not served the purpose that I hoped for; I have not finished my novel and I’ve had more than enough time to do it. What I have achieved though is a great amount of insight and experience into the value of the creative process. With this I’ve guided many budding writers toward their goal and now it’s time to heed my own advice, take my own medicine, and practice what I preach.

Listening to the words that came out as I talked story, writing and literary devices in my classes I often thought – Hey, I should do that too!

So here I am to do the work and get it done. Now rather than paving the road for others then sitting on the footpath as they pass by, I will take the journey along the road of creativity for myself, all the way to the end.

I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken, 1920

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken