This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
Well, I won NaNoWriMo, actually with three days still on the clock to complete. That means I’m being inventive with writing my words if I want to get all my badges and, in turn, that means that I’m getting this blog written. I’ve been meaning to write a NaNoWriMo blog all month (Virginia wrote one which is available here) but I’m only just getting round to it on 28th November.
I can’t share great words of wisdom, because I’m not a great researcher like Ginny is, but I can tell you that this is the first time I have ever – ever, mark you – completely pantsed a novel. Here’s how it happened…
Before NaNoWriMo comes Preptober, and I took it seriously this year. I came up with this idea of “Me: A 50 Piece Jigsaw”. This would be the story of a girl whose dad dies and so she joins the circus (or, more precisely, the fairground) whilst realising that she’s actually psychic. Oh, and there’s this villainous doctor in the shadows who is trying to “cure” people of psychic-ness and her friends with the same gifts keep disappearing.
I actually think it sounds moderately convincing. I assigned it an exercise book and planned each one of the fifty chapters, each one with a different story or focus. Her dreams played a big part in it, as did her budding friendship with a fellow psychic who takes her under her wing.
By 31st October, I was set and ready to go. The only problem was, as 1st November dawned, I was really dreading writing this book. The characters were all two-dimensional in my head, and the plot – which had initially been promising – had never progressed into being something which could excite me. I had the working day (1st November was a Tuesday) to come up with a plan and, by the end of the day, I had this sort-of-idea about someone who can see dead people.
Yes, I would describe the book I wrote in the end as The Sixth Sense meets Jacqueline Wilson – which I think is a reasonably bizarre combination. The spark of the idea was that this person (who I named Sam because I didn’t know initially what gender they were) could see ghosts, and it was making things really difficult at home. Not that home’s all that easy anyway, because her parents separated a year ago and now she’s finding her way around a broken home.
Of course, my worldbuilding is very important to me, and I love tying things in to my other books. Cue one of the main characters: Broughley Abbey – the stately home at the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens which I first introduced in The Devil’s Servant (short story published by Quill and Crow in Ravens and Roses), although the Duke of Broughley school was referenced in The Backwater. Broughley Abbey also features in my Histories trilogy and makes a fleeting appearance in the third instalment of The Rite Way, but these have yet to be shared with the wider world.
As I continued to write, I started to get to know the characters. Some of them remained a little 2D (but, hey! it's a first draft, so you have to cut me some slack!) but others grew into well-rounded and complex individuals. Finally, I added in the stranger with the chocolate-coloured eyes, and he brought things together very nicely for me, but I will admit that it was a surprise to me as well as Sam when he turned up!
By nature I’m a plantser (I had even awarded myself the Plantser badge before NaNoWriMo even began) but I can’t say I disliked having to pants this novel. It taught me a lot about me as a writer, not least that I don’t have to have* an exercise book for every project just to see it through from beginning to end!
*I’m likely to still have an exercise book wherever possible because, let’s face it, they’re an awesome instrument in the writer’s toolbox!
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