Claire Fullerton's Blog: A Writing Life - Posts Tagged "writing-aim"

The Spirit of Intention

“There’s a road in Spiddal that leads down to the sea. It’s lonesome as it meanders between an ancient Catholic church and miles of green, rolling fields separated into geometric prisms by grey stone walls. The gravel on its path is scattered from wind, and rain, and years of neglect; it is part of the ambience of Spiddal, part of its history. At the end of the road is the Spiddal Pier. There is no sign that would indicate this, but its common knowledge -- like a lot of things on the western coast of Ireland.”
And so begins my novel, which will be out in early 2015. Soon enough I’ll go through the editing process with a complete stranger, whom I hope will understand the feel of this book. When I embark upon a long body of work, I have a point in mind, an underlying message to the story being told that I’d like to present to readers in hopes that the act of doing so will add a little something positive to their life. This is what drives me on as a writer: the sense that I have something to share, and my impetus is to get better at it throughout my lifetime.
To me, writing a novel goes beyond the sum of its parts: its semantics, craft, ebb and flow, attention to tense, point of view, and chapter breaks. All of these are necessary vehicles in which to parlay the spirit of intention in a novel, which exists as its own living breathing entity.
Without seeming lofty or grandiose, I think it’s a novelist job to add a bit of personal commentary to this business of living; to go out into the world and report ones understanding in whatever manner they choose to present the story. There is a plethora of ways to do this, many vantage points from which to depict a story, but the aim is always the same, and it’s contained within the intention of a body of work.

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Published on May 03, 2014 12:01 Tags: intention, writing-aim

A Writing Life

Claire Fullerton
A blog dedicated to what's on my mind. ...more
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