More novel writing until it is finished...

So university is finished for the year for me. I am seeking to keep writing this novel and letting the story and central character reveal itself and herself to me as I go. I am resisting the idea of editing and being critical at this point. I am following the advice of many published authors who have said or written they wrote solidly for a number of years before they actually got the techniques or the craft of writing novels to where they felt it became more effortless. Phillip Meyer said he got better at writing good work, because he wrote for a few years with no success and probably bad writing until he understood intuitively how to successfully put the narrative together.

In many things practice makes perfect and writing is no different. I am seeking to write this narrative, for my own enjoyment as well as I would like to tell Sarah's story and to finish another novel. I have finished one. Peter Carey wrote three before he was well received by a publisher. I have realised I have written short stories for many, many years probably 20 years or more, and I have an idea how to write a short story. Now I have only been attempting novels for about five years, on and off, and only having finished one completely.

I am definitely learning from my university study and from feedback from tutors or other people and reading other novels. But, actually writing is going to teach me the most! So I want to do this every day. I wrote 1100 words today in an hour. That is not that hard is it?

Hemingway said to leave your idea with inspiration left so you are spurred onto continue the next day. Write so that you want to come back to it the next day. He even advocated not thinking that much about it until the next day and letting your unconscious work on it. He said reading other authors was a good idea so you didn't think too much about your work. I think this is good advice. It's good to have an excitement about what you are writing for the next installment.

In my novel I have an idea of the scenes I am going to write. They are in my mind. This morning I wrote some of them. I have also learnt that I need to slow my work down. To create scenes in a more full way. These are things you learn from feedback. I wonder if being a journalist goes against me in some ways cause our articles have to be so sparse and economical with words. I need to take the time to create atmosphere in the scene. I find I understand how it works in a short story but I need to translate this into my novels, exploring characters and backstory in a deeper and more interesting way. This novel I am writing I am seeking to work out how best to put in backstory and I am revealing things about her background through dialogue etcetera.

Peter Carey said in an interview with me, that each chapter he writes is like a mosaic tile, very important to the overall effect of the novel. He is so right. In each chapter, a sense of suspense, tension and climax should be created, so the reader is riveted and wanting to read onto the next chapter.

Once I finish my film subject next semester, I am thinking of giving university a break for a bit, so I can focus on writing. However, we will see, stay tuned for next year. I do love university. I found that it rushed my work last semester and this novel needs to breathe and live. But hopefully over this break I can write some substantial chunks of it. I wish to complete this novel for myself, and then rewrite it. According to what I have read, Jane Austen rewrote a lot of her novels so I need to get better at this skill.

These are my current thoughts. I have enjoyed writing this morning. I am going to try and maintain this momentum with this novel. Thanks for reading. If you are a writer, I hope your work is going well.

Disgrace by Coetzee

Hello

I just finished the book Disgrace by JM Coetzee. I loved his simple style and the way he used plain sentences that drew the reader into the narrative. The opening line is just superb about how this character has solved the problem of sex, for a divorced man of 52. Characterisation like this is enviable. His whole personality is expressed in this beginning and the novel unravels his demise at it progresses. Basically, he rapes a young student in his course at university. I found him detestable in the beginning of the novel but by the end not so horrible.

HIs faults became moderated and I think he achieved some self knowledge, even in the fact that he realised he had little self knowledge that is a form of honesty in itself. People living in denial do not know they are doing so, if they did know then they would no longer be living in it. :)

It was mentioned at university that he doesn't change throughout the novel. I do not agree with this. When I read the end of the novel he shows he has changed. Ever so slightly, but he has changed, his perspective, he starts to use the word love and he starts to believe animals have souls and he wants to protect his daughter. He has sex with an older lady who is not beautiful and starts to realise that his desires will not always be able to filled. He still has them but he resigns himself to a different life.

A novel that I didn't particularly like in the beginning did engage me by the end. The women characters seemed to be somewhat oppressed throughout the novel. Except for his daughter, who the reader feels slightly annoyed by for some of the novel but by the end she seems to make sense. She is seeking to be different, kind, and peaceful, and these things seem ridiculous when faced with violence and brute force. However, she is the most together character by the end of the novel.

There is a wonderful beauty in her embracing the ugliness of the situation around her and a wonderful scene where she is picking flowers in the garden and the sun is shining on her back. I think this novel - though it shows black African people as cunning and conniving, achieved some very subtle characterisation with the main characters.

The two African men and the down trodden African women in the book are less desirable characters. In fact the main black African character - David Lurie likes him in the beginning but in the end cannot abide him. So I know there will be racist interpretations about this. Sometimes though there are characters of certain racial backgrounds that we create that are not nice but this does not mean it is inherently racist. These were the particular characters in this story.

The white professor is not spared, he is violent in his own way, he takes sex from women and then drops them back onto the street. He is no better than the men who rape his daughter. So I think this is Coetzee's point. It is the women who have to put up with this situation. They are the wives, daughters, students, and veterinarians helping animals.

I cannot work out whether he has painted them with dignity or not, there is a comment on women and their subjugation that is a side issue, however, maybe as a woman these things are heightened for me. Women seem victims in this book but some of them rise above it, like his daughter, like the vet, like his ex wife, who seems strong and some don't I guess that is real. In some ways, they seem to make more sense than the men who are acting on impulse and their animal desires.

No wonder it won the Booker Prize, however I can also see that people could really dislike this book, for many reasons. But overall it has had a lasting effect on me. One thing was there was not a lot of beauty in it. But the characters stood out as real, and compelling and that is a major accomplishment!

Novel Idea (Noodle)

Why do they call it a novel noodle? I am not sure. Well I have to take a novel idea to university today and it is clear my novel idea is no longer the same. Over a year ago I had a clear novel idea and had developed this idea fully and written a plan and everything and then major events happened in my life and now this novel has changed. It has to change.

I no longer wish to write the narrative that I had devised. But now I am a little bit lost with whether I should try to tweak the idea and still use it or start a new one.

I seem to have these commitment issues to novel ideas. This happened when I did Veny's Year of the Novel. The problem for me at the moment is that I have lots of short story ideas and the longer piece is eluding me. But I need to take something. So I am feeling a little apprehensive about the fact that it is not fully formed.

The tutor tells me you can use an idea you have right now but everyone in my tut are so sure about their narratives and so well into the novels. As usual I am the one who is artistically unsure of which one to commit to or rather had one that I cannot write anymore. It has changed but to what?

Anyway, it's all interesting and crazy. Maybe I just like living closer to the edge or something. I have to have an idea I am sure of and that I love otherwise how will I be able to present it to the tut class? In the tuts they make you share out loud writing and ideas, however writers are interior people. I don't understand why we have to be exposed every week, when most of our lives if we get published will be discussing final products that have been edited and worked on for years.

Why should we read out something we have scrawled in a few minutes and feel so vulnerable when if we become published authors, journalists like me will interview us and we can comment on what we have done, not write something half baked for the journalist to snigger at in the interview.

I will keep you posted. If anyone else has had doubts about their novel. Let me know. I should get back to my Novel Noodle they call it. Why Noodle? Anyway it's all fun and games...