Monday, June 30, 2008

What's that novel about again?

OK, I alphabetized my books, did the laundry, cleaned up and now I am back to swimming in self doubt. It's hard to know what your new novel is about until after you've finished it, at least it is for me. I couldn't really do an elevator pitch right now, though I have my dramatic questions, my what if, and I have three characters I care deeply about. But I feel like I'm treading water and there are sharks all around. And they're hungry.

My writer friends tell me (and I always tell this to my writing students and clients. Ha. Easy to know what to say. Much harder to take your own advice) to just swim in the sea and see what happens, that meaning will rise and bubble to the surface and it isn't even my business to know everything about the novel right now. Get at the truth of the characters, they tell me.

I'm trying. But meanwhile, there are these sharks...

5 comments:

Sandra Gulland. said...

This really spoke to me, Caroline! I blogged about it here:

http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/2008/06/holding-up-lightening-rod.html

Caroline said...

Sandra, thank you so very much for posting this. It was something I really needed to hear and it makes me feel less alone in this huge sea.

Clea Simon said...

Sometimes I wish I could lobotomize myself so I could "just write," but I guess that would be self defeating, huh? Which is to say: I feel your pain! Now to read Sandra's blog.

Kass said...
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Kass said...
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