The Writing Process

I should be working on my novel today, but instead, I'm catching up on the trivial business of life that I've neglected for so long. I also want to take a minute to give my readers an insight into the complex process of writing.

The novel that I am currently writing is based on my family's history, up to and including my maternal grandmother's life. In chapter one, I established the time period (the early nineteenth-century) and the geographic location (Ireland). I also developed my first character (Peter, a linen weaver) based on a Certificate of Marriage obtained through Britain's General Register Office. The next step involves telling the story of his son's emigration to England following the initial devastation of Ireland's potato crops in 1845.

Now the real work begins. First, I must research the means of transportation available to low-income travellers at the time, and familiarize myself with the areas through which Thomas travelled. Roads were maintained by each parish through the free labour its parishioners then, and most were unsuitable for vehicles. Horse-drawn vehicles were expensive and only landowners, merchants and some clergy were likely to have access to carriages. Railways were in their infancy, but canals were being used extensively to transport goods. It appears walking was Thomas's most likely mode of transport though he might have been able to afford passage on a canal boat for part of the way.

Of course, my research involved several hours and uncovered many details not presented here. Even armed with my findings, I had still to understand what the journey entailed, so I obtained an ordinance survey map completed in 1842. With it, I plotted Thomas's likely path from his home to the port of Dublin, from which he would have to embark on a steam ferry to Holyhead, Wales, before continuing on to London.

I noted the bridges, villages, locks and loughs he would have encountered and researched those that I felt might have attracted his attention. In fact, I tried to become Thomas in my imagination and travelled with him to Dublin step by step. Now I'm wondering if I should actually go to Thomas's birthplace and undertake the journey myself in an effort to better understand his experience.

There you have it – a sliver of the process by which I write. Of course, my first two books were works of first-person non-fiction, so the research was primarily to ensure accuracy, but writing authoritatively about the experiences of others requires a great deal more effort.