Novels

 

Novels are different than essays or even short stories.  I’ve got three novels that I’m working on right now.  Two of them are in re-writes, and one is just beginning.  The amount of focus and organization necessary to tame these beasts is a whole different discipline. 

But as I write them I get to submerge into another dimension of life, creating characters that breathe and act according to personalities that sprout in my head and then claim a life of their own.  That’s where the organization and focus comes in.  If they are to live as characters that allow ‘a willing suspension of disbelief’ (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) their attitudes and dreams and fears and actions need to be grounded in that which has gone before and as they come in contact with others the dance that is created must step to the themes of the story as well as the interaction of the characters and the environment. 

See what I mean?  Getting going is the most difficult.  It’s like raising a kid.  Who are these people going to be?  From where do they come?  How do they think and react?  And what is their story?  Once they start walking, it’s a lot like a child.  They teeter along and then they run.  It’s the initial stages where the false starts and falls take place.

So, next time you read a book, take a moment to embrace the work and passion that it took to gather all of this together and allow it to tell its story.  It’s quite a journey.