Well it's been an interesting week at my house. I am now over 35 weeks pregnant and am half expecting my boys to arrive at any given moment in time. Each night I go to bed and wonder, "Is tonight the night?" For some reason I can only imagine myself in labour at night...I may fall apart at the seams if it happens in daylight!!
But the insomnia that goes with being this heavily pregnant ("heavily" is actually a really good adjective for the situation I might add) - and that is that I am having time to write.
I have started a novel - yes, another one - but this one is going to be different; not because I'm a better writer (which I think I am compared to 5 years ago), or because it's more interesting (once again, I think it is!), but purely because this time I am going to finish it! It's hard to believe, I know. But armed with me NEO I actually think it's possible.
In my previous attempts at novel writing I have jumped ship when the waves hit. If I felt the storyline was slowing down or my characters were too one-dimensional, I would throw my hands up in despair and abandon the keyboard forever. This time around, I have experienced both of those sensations, yet I'm proud to say I have kept on writing. I have - honest! Because I can't critique what I'm doing on the NEO, I have written through the writer's block barrier (which I personally find more painful that the so-called pain barrier).
So, I am now six chapters into my little creative endeavour and am over 22,000 words on my way to the end. Where the end will be, I'm not exactly sure. But gee I'm having fun getting there!
"What is this novel about?" you may ask. Well, I was inspired to write about something that doesn't require a lot of research, something I know fairly well...so I am writing about the experiences of 5 women who become first-time mums. Of course they have wildly varying personalities and backgrounds, but they are thrown together by a maternal health nurse who links them to form a playgroup. Through their experiences you will get to see varying perspectives on issues such as circumcision, breastfeeding versus bottle, going back to work versus staying at home - none of which I am actually making a statement on. I am simply exploring the perspectives and attempting to show how good mothering means different things to different people. An one of the underlying themes if the devastating impact of post-natal depression...
So far, I like my characters a lot, and they are starting to become real. I don't like chapter 5 at all, but I will wait until I reach THE END to do anything about it. There may be something worth saving. In the meantime I'm writing a chapter a day (which involves me writing from each of the five character's perspectives around a similar theme or timeframe - or dialogue as the case may be). I'm finding the dialogue the hardest part - it's tricky getting the voice of each character right, but I think I'm getting there. I am hoping my boys will wait until I get finished or close to finished before they arrive. I'm writing on average 5,500 words a day so will have to wait and see how far I get!
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Go Karen! You are making great progress, it sounds like. I see now why you asked the question about writing from different characters' points of view. I think it's really important when you do that, that the characters be unique and distinct in your mind. And if you're telling each character's perspective in first person, there should be something unique in each voice too -- the kind of language she uses, her sense of humour, the way she observes and thinks about things -- so that a little ways into the book a reader should be able to recognize each character's unique voice and point of view. It's definitely a challenge to do, but it sounds like you are up for a challenge!
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