Jaye Marie's Blog, page 1913

Now it begins…

Most people will know me as one half of the writing partnership Anita & Jaye Dawes, currently to be found at http://anitajaydawes.blogspot.com.

We decided to run separate blogs to avoid confusion, at least that was the theory…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I finished writing Nine Lives, my first ever novel a few weeks ago, I mistakenly thought the hard work was over.

Stupid thing to think, for I have spent the last ten years or so editing other people’s books and should have known better. Editing/proofing is something I have always enjoyed doing, and never considered it hard work.

Apparently, the fact that this book is mine has turned everything on its head. I don’t understand why it has suddenly become so hard, and can only assume that I must have come up with a lesser quality of book than I am used to working on. In other words, it was probably a pile of rubbish.

I can’t think otherwise, now can I?

In the past, I have written short stories and poetry, but reading has always been my favourite pastime. The thought of writing my own book always appealed to me, just never seemed to get around to it. Life has a way of getting in the way, doesn’t it?

Last summer, I was plagued by these characters. First one, then another and more of them talked to me (and each other) and I became fascinated and involved all at the same time. When I decided to write some of it down, these same characters went into overdrive. What I thought they should be doing was blatantly ignored, to be replaced with their own agenda. In the end it was as if they were writing the story and not I.

The ending was a bit tricky, as they wouldn’t let on what was going to happen and I worried constantly that it would all go pear shaped. Maybe they didn’t know, and then what was I supposed to do?

I didn’t think this was how you were supposed to write a book. Surely, you were supposed to have far more control than that?

The oddest thing that happened to the plot as it went along, totally beyond my control, was about one of the cast, the ex-husband of Kate, the main character. He started out as an ordinarily bitter man with a small axe to grind, suddenly turned into a vicious serial killer right before my eyes, taking me completely by surprise!

The other thing that surprised me was how hard it seemed to be, even with a very cooperative cast. Writing anything (other than a book) has always come easily to me, but creating a novel turned out to be so complicated. Continuity was a constant problem, as was remembering all of the characters history, their likes, dislikes and foibles. I learnt to keep a running timeline and a storyboard for the plot. This was necessary after the characters had decided whatever they would do next and was one of the ways I kept up with them.

In addition, I am ever thankful for all the attributes of Microsoft Word. Without their Find, Select and grammar checking facilities and all the other helpful tricks, I think I might have gone completely mad a long time ago.

Back to the editing.

It was always something I loved to do, so is it different now because this book is mine, or because I am a lot older now?

Maybe my brain has had enough and is starting to slow down and miss things all together? For instance, I don’t recall having this much trouble with ‘Passive sentences’ before. And the over use of certain words, like ‘that’.

I have nearly finished the first draft. I will leave it to settle for a few days, putting it out of my mind before I run through it again. I figure Nine Lives might be ready to publish by the beginning of October…

Bless you all for listening…