Almost every time I start to read a new novel I am once again inspired and challenged to try my hand at it. I am part way into Anna Quindlen's new book "Every Single One" and like the kid with nose pressed to the candy store window I yearn to have what she has i.e. the ability to write in this literary genre and to do it very well.
Thus inspired I had some technical difficulties to overcome (not my strong suit). I bought a PC last year and have never had all of the material from my IMac transferred to it. The novel that I started a couple of years ago must be retrieved by typing it, printing it and then typing it into the PC. At least that is true until I decide to pay a techie to do the transferring.
Faced with that I started the project only to immediately discover that my old printer needed new ink cartridges. When following the procedures to do this nothing worked. I got a bunch of instructions about changing fonts etc. that was totally confusing. So I had to let that go.
Then instead of working on the novel I decided that I would do a blog about how difficult I find this genre. I have recently learned how to upload photos to post on my blog and I enjoy this process a great deal. It is great fun for me to page through photos and find just the right one for my title.
So I did this. Again following the instructions Mary has give me I could not upload the chosen photo. Next up came an indication that perhaps I needed to order more credits to pay for more photos. I proceeded to do that and what do you think happened? Right!!! More glitches. Nowhere could I simply buy new credits on an already established account. When trying to order the new credits I was presented with a form to register (which I already was). I was then told that the user name I put in was taken. Of course it was taken!!!!! BY ME!!!!! So now I need to see if Mary can help me once more to unsnarl this credit buying thing. Result - no photo for this blog. But I can always add one later when the glitches are ironed out. There. You may be bored by all this but I feel better.
Now to what I have to say about writing novels. The only thing I could print up before the ink gave out was my musings about a plot summary. I will share that here. As I have stated in the aim of my blog it is about poetry and the making of poetry and other reflections. This post comes under 'other reflections' this being on the making of a novel.
As aspiring writers we are told to write about what we know. So what did I want to write about I asked myself? I discovered that I did have a theme and it was redemption. And pondering redemption it came to me that I also wanted to include the unredeemed. I wanted to investigate what that is. Is anything unredeemed? And what is redemption itself about?
Plotwise I will be taking much from my own story. I had held the idea that in a novel everything had to be made up. But then I discovered by doing some research that many writer's write about their own lives and the lives of people they have known. Virginia Wolfe and Henry James were two such writers.
A woman once reported that in reading a Henry James novel she came upon a description of a room that described to the last detail a room in her own house. I know that there are many novelists who indeed do make all of it up -the entire world of fantasy and science fiction has to be so. But since I see myself as lacking imagination I figured to go back to square one and write about what I know.
In taking The UnRedeemed as my title I reflected on the song Amazing Grace. As I looked at my own life and the lives of many that I knew there was a common theme. To some degree we were all living lives that we made up. Phillip Roth references this in his writing often. He makes up characters based on his life and the lives of those he has known and he tells us that these characters are inventing themselves.
So the question arises "If we are making ourselves up and we aren't really who we are then WHO ARE WE? WHO is it that gets redeemed?
My own story has been very intertwined for the past twenty years with Jordan's story. Now that our relationship has ended it seems a good time to take another look at what that was all about. I had managed a lot of research and had written about seventeen pages of text when I abandoned my effort on novel writing. I am ready to work on it once more.
The two main characters are in a relationship that is not about marriage. They had an astrological composite chart of the relationship done one time that said that the relationship was about two people trying to bring out the best in each other. The novel then would be about psychological development. I am tempted to go deeper and bring in self realization and non duality but if I have any hope (faint) of being published I don't think that would sell.
The two characters will constantly bump into how they are opposites while being held in a crucible by love. Initially there will be a power struggle which most relationships have.
Christian is the prototype of the unredeemed in a way that is very obvious. He does not have an exclusive on it because psychologically very few people are fully redeemed. Because he is so dysfunctional he is an easy rack upon which others can hang their projections. The Catherine character does exactly that with her own dark side. The story will show among other things the process of her redeeming that side of herself
Christian is doing his own projecting but it is the best in him that he disowns that he projects onto Catherine. She can see what he is hiding and it is what draws her to him. Over the years we see how their interaction can become the agent for transformation. Who gets transformed? And how? They are the lost of Amazing Grace. The novel will examine how 'found' they become and here we will have a deeper look at what is redeemed and what is unredeemed and is anything redeemed?
In addition to these main characters I would like to have some subplots for interest. I will look at the people in my life to see who might have a story that fits my theme. From my many Alanon meetings I think everyone has.
A couple of people stand out. My friend Claire has an interesting history. She is a psychic, an astrologer, reads Tarot. She has never married and has lived in some interesting places - San Francisco, Sante Fe and Mexico as well as being originally from New Zealand. I have known a number of people caught in alcoholism or drug addiction whose stories are very much about redemption. I will not be writing about anyone in my family. I did that once and it was not a good idea.
Until I can retrieve the material on the novel from my IMac I will continue work on the "God" book and I will revise poems and write new ones. I will write.
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