It's taken about 3 months, but I think I've got it.... when JM was wittering on about "story" in TRF I couldn't quite understand the full import of what she was saying... I thought I had a story - that the heroine was developing etc. But I see now - after my tutorial with Tara - that the scenes have to be more focussed on "the story" - that the heroine has to change - develop - to have learned something by the end of the book. It is not enough for her to get her old boyfriend back. Actually, I thought she had changed, but apparently it was so subtle that no one noticed. Clearly it needs to be hammered out with brawny, blacksmith like strokes! So I am hammering away at the poor, battered old text. It is a sad business - the more I hammer and bash it into shape, the more it loses its beautiful passages of exquisite writing.... Jeez. I bet AS Byatt never has this trouble. And actually, when did she last write a story? I contest that The Children's Book while full of fascinating incident and anecdote doesn't really have a story - or does something happen to the mother character in the end - has she stifled her son in some way and finally realises it? I don't remember anymore - which suggests that the story was not really very strong. And as for Possession? Actually it did have a story - but it was blighted by all the faux Victorian poetry. I would like to like ASB's stuff more, but I secretly think that her sister's book The Radiant Way was more to my liking (even though I can remember nothing about that either - only that I felt full of love and recognition when I read it). Even though ASB is meant to be the more "literary" writer - Booker prize an' all, doncha know.
Of course literary novels have stories - but they are not quite so blatant, and I think JM was trying to get me to do something much, much more commercial. I realise I could, but is this what I want to do? I am pretty sure that with what I now know Conscience Vol 1 will be a much better book. The other day I heard some lovely person saying "Of course there are lots of writers who write beautifully and never make it" and I felt very irritated... yes, it's possible, but I've only been at it a couple of years full time - David Almond said it took 20 years before his breakthrough - I reckon I might manage a bit quicker. Sometimes I feel like a very slow learner - but the good thing is, I didn't need to go and spend £400 on the Faber Academy - it was enough to get a decent critique...that finally jogged my understanding onto the next level. The downside of this epiphany is the awareness of the amount of work that's still needed on TRF before I present it to the next agent.
Of course literary novels have stories - but they are not quite so blatant, and I think JM was trying to get me to do something much, much more commercial. I realise I could, but is this what I want to do? I am pretty sure that with what I now know Conscience Vol 1 will be a much better book. The other day I heard some lovely person saying "Of course there are lots of writers who write beautifully and never make it" and I felt very irritated... yes, it's possible, but I've only been at it a couple of years full time - David Almond said it took 20 years before his breakthrough - I reckon I might manage a bit quicker. Sometimes I feel like a very slow learner - but the good thing is, I didn't need to go and spend £400 on the Faber Academy - it was enough to get a decent critique...that finally jogged my understanding onto the next level. The downside of this epiphany is the awareness of the amount of work that's still needed on TRF before I present it to the next agent.
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