Cole
is another thoroughbred from the Caroline Natzler writing class
stable. We both attended a writing group at The Royal Festival Hall
and collaborated on Chasing The Hypotenuse. In a 45
minute chat over chai and a slice of victoria sponge we talked about
old and new projects.
TRUE
PATH
As
you know, I’ve been working on this novel on and off for the last
six years, but there’s been some movement lately. A fellow writer,
Alice Hiller, read the manuscript and said, “It’s basically a
captivity narrative – have you thought about first person?” My
main character, Gen, is institutionalised to ‘cure’ her
homosexuality. At first I thought, oh no, do I really want to do
this? But I found it reads much better in first person than even a
close third.
When
you’ve been working on a book for so long, you can edit it to death
and lose heart. That’s what happened. I got up to chapter 12 and
stopped. Then fate lent a hand. An agent I met at the Festival of
Writing in York last November asked for the full manuscript. It
couldn’t have come at a worse time: I was swamped with my day job
(corporate writing), fitting in 50 hours of work in 35 hours of
availability. But give a busy woman something to do and she will get
it done. I’ve sent it off and am waiting to hear.
TRUE
PATH TO AN AGENT
I
recently got an email from Juliet Mushens, an agent I met in
November. I sent her the first three chapters and now she's asked for
the full manuscript! She’s the agent for The
Miniaturist, which has done
incredibly well. It's been on Radio 4 as Book of the Week –
narrated by Emilia Fox. Voice like honey. It's sold in 20+
countries. So fingers crossed.
CURRENT
PROJECT
So
yes, I've started a second novel after swearing I would never do
another. Its current title is Presumed
Dead. I was bored with
editing True Path,
losing enthusiasm. And I love the deadline driven nature of Naniwrimo
– for one month you just put everything else aside and push for
wordcount. It’s how I finished True Path in the first place. So
last November I dedicated to the new book and wrote about 30,000
words.
The
premise for the story has been kicking around for a while. Years ago
I saw a newspaper article about a body found at the bottom of the
lake 60 years after the person disappeared. So many questions hit me
at once: what secrets would the body reveal? Would the murderer be
unmasked? What kind of life had they led in the intervening years? I
thought it would be really fascinating to write about.
The
Plot & The Structure
I
use the basic plot of the newspaper story: the body of a 16 year old
girl who died in the 1940s is discovered 70 years after she
disappeared. It’s set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where I
grew up. The setting is very much a character as well: the landscape,
its unforgiving winters, the immigrant communities.
I’m
writing it in a very anarchic way at the moment, from multiple points
of view, across multiple generations. It’s everything I avoided in
True Path
because they say it’s a classic problem with first time writers:
too many characters, too many points of view, first person... But
now I figure I’ve earned the right to experiment and have fun.
WORK
LIFE BALANCE
Right
now I'm struggling – there is no balance. I'm working about 50
hours a week, which means cutting into family time. I don’t have 50
hours a week. I've got the girls from 3.30pm every day and try very
hard to stop working and be there with them, rather than shut away in
an office. So it's lots of late nights at the moment. I've just given
up on March. April we're on holiday and then I can have a more
reasonable lifestyle.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. It's much appreciated as is the time you take to write a comment.