It’s pretty much finished.
The body, limbs and its beating heart are done.
(Sorry, there are plenty more
metaphors where that came from. Prepare yourself.)
I’m talking about the near
completion of Book Two of my trilogy, The Chronicles of Orphir.
It’s a huge relief to write down
those words Even though I know that I still have many hours of work ahead,
rereading, checking facts and continuity, editing – and adding more layers.
What’s nice about allowing it
to sit, while I get on with other stuff and feel out the nuances as I go, is allowing
room for it to grow, for its roots to nudge themselves a little more firmly
into the ground and its leaves unfurl.
Instead of rushing to get it
up on Kindle as soon as possible, this time I’ve forced myself to stop and
process what I’ve done so far. Writing a novel – particularly part-time – it’s
easy to forget bits and lose focus. I need to remember who my characters are,
what they’ve been through and where they are going. From time to time I even
give the same character two different names, and I forget their birthdays,
their physical and emotional scars, what they’re wearing.
It’s not so different when I
try cooking something for the first time – I usually overlook an ingredient – a
spice, a herb, the sugar or the salt – and the finished dish won’t taste right
unless I notice and remedy my omission.
I have found writing this
second book in my trilogy a complex task. The story was already to pour forth
when I wrote the first book, but this one needs not only to harken back to the
previous story, but stand on its own, while also paving the way for the next
volume. It’s a tough call, not to be underestimated, and as my imagination
leaps ahead, it’s tempting to start writing the next volume before I have finished
the last.
I’ve been audacious (or daft)
enough to attempt local dialect for some characters. It’s another gamble – I
don’t want a cast of West Indians sounding like Rastamouse, but I don’t want
them to sound like the protagonists of an Augustan novel.
They are multi-dimensional,
not just speaking scenery. I’ve raided Haitian and Jamaican culture and history
for my story background, and I want the characters to reflect that.
And then there are the book covers.
From the outset, I decided I wanted my own images. I couldn’t find anything exactly
right in the stock photo archives. And as author and fiction-writing guru, Rayne
Hall, points out, there’s always the risk that you’ll end up with a picture
that’s on a dozen other book covers.
I wonder, though, perhaps
that what people (readers) are looking for as they scan the pages of e-books–
the familiar. When one is selling an unknown quantity perhaps the stock images
of a headless women in period dress or disembodied hands clutching the hilt of
a sword encourage someone to part with their dollars and take a punt on your
book.
A few months ago, to discover
how potential readers might regard my choice of artwork I solicited feedback in
a discussion thread concerning gender stereotypes featured in historical
fiction book covers - something I hoped
I have avoided on the cover of Tankard’s Legacy. But, instead of useful
comments regarding the content and connotations of my cover artwork, the trolls
crawled out, and from behind their generic photos and nom de plumes spewed
scorn upon it before directing me to a photo library.
After I’d recovered from my
hurt feelings, I was reminded of what Malcolm Gladwell argued in his book, Blink,
that people don’t actually know what they want. And like the test screening of
Hollywood crowd-pleasers, if you ask them, you risk producing the kind of
anodyne mediocrity that aims to please everyone, but excites no one.
But, back to my
almost-finished novel.
My progress to this point now
frees me to read stuff that has nothing to with seafaring or pirates or the
background to my characters.
(Though somehow I find myself
picking up a volume about esoteric Japanese spiritualism and its relationship
to martial arts …)
And as you’ll see from my
previous post, Willa Cather has been one of the latest objects of my focus,
alongside my growing obsession for author and all-round fascinating person,
Elif Shafak, whose brilliant, chaotic and vivid personality has me in a thrall.
(For a quick fix, see her on TED, you’ll get the idea.) I’m tempted to wax lyrical
on this newly discovered member of my most favoured writers, but … She deserves
a post of her own.
If you fancy a bargain this weekend, Tankard's Legacy is available at 67% discount for a week starting December 28th.
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