Finishing my book

Tags

books, challenges, personal, postaday2013, writing

I’m looking forward to Nanowrimo (National November Writing Month) because it worked beautifully last year to force me into my chair to write, and those chapters were relatively easy to produce. This year I definitely need the structure of the challenge to help with the difficult last quarter of the book. I got my characters all the way to their transatlantic voyage and I am, for some reason, having a hard time getting a feel for how Madeleine will take to New York of the twenties. I have been watching as many programs that have to do with the gilded twenties in New York and Board Walk Empire has been a must see t.v, if only because prohibition plays such a strong role in the New York chapters.

I know why I have been having a hard time writing the last piece of the book. I am having a difficult time articulating in the most honest way possible, the ambivalence that Madeleine will feel, the culture shock, the excitement, the homesickness and the fear. Having been on a cruise ship, I have the overseas voyage mapped out and that will go well, arriving at New York and disembarking will bring Madeleine into a whole new universe. She knows Paris, but New York in terms of energy is Paris on steroids. Food is her passion, so that will be another challenge for me, how exactly to show the differences and her reactions, because though the food is different she is adventurous in her gastronomic pursuits.Family is another conundrum, Madeleine lives for her family and now she will be the outsider in Jack’s family and I have to figure out exactly, given Jack’s line of work, how much proximity there will be between Jack and his family.

I know how to portray their night life and their restaurant outings, it is the in between time that will be a little difficult. I don’t think that Madeleine will get a job, so what will she do? Will she be Jack’s partner in crime, if I am channeling my great-great aunt, then Madeleine will be Jack’s partner because my great-great aunt was a bootlegger, so Madeleine get ready to put your ingenuity to work. Writing this has made me feel better about my being stuck and the plan on getting unstuck. Why do I make i more difficult in my head? All that I need to do is sit down and let the words get out.

Exercising some discipline

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challenges, fiction, heroine, historical fiction, novel, postaday2013, protagonist, writing

Today is one more day that I have spent a few hours working on my novel. I think about it every day and you would think that with the amount of time that I spend thinking about the story, the book would be done by now, but for some reason, the typing process and the actual putting thought on “paper” is much more time consuming than simple thought streaming as you walk. As I walk and think, I get whole scenes that seem to transpire in a matter of steps but when I am seated in front of the computer, the flash in my head is many, many words that need to be typed and after a while my brain feels as if it is overheating, believe it or not.

I know where my story is going, the plot is outlined and I know where they are going and how they get there and how it ends. I just need to continue with the discipline of sitting down for several hours at a time to get it down. I don’t do well with sitting down for several hours, so I do get up and walk up and down the stairs several times during the hours and I take Jack for walks and sit back down again and continue typing. I could never have worked in an office because I have never been able to stay in a seat all day long. I need to move and stretch my legs often. Having said all that, it is no wonder that this exercise in novel writing is taking such a longish time. Two solid years and counting, however if I think this way I am probably just shooting myself in the foot and focusing on the wrong thing, putting unnecessary pressure on myself with imagined time constraints, I just need to focus on the positive, writing and continuing to write.

I am very happy that I spent a good deal of time writing my story today. I feel that the end is very near and it feels good. I am aware that I have said this before, every time my characters go out and do anything there is always food involved and those scenes don’t write themselves, but they do seem to have a mind of their own and take forever to get through. I can talk forever about food and that is what is taking so long. What may be taking me so long may just be the thing that distinguishes my novel from others. Only a finished book will tell.