Souffles!

Since I was done with the 'flu, I thought it would be nice to pass it on to LOML. I'm all about recycling. So he's in bed, and it's my turn to make cups of tea and nag him about drinking enough fluids and going to bed early (payback time, LOML!). I made it outside today - hurrah! - and found some amazing things to put in the next shop update. One particular dress is stunningly beautiful, but too small for me, which makes me sad. It will, however, make some small person very happy.

I spent the rest of today experimenting with the first chapter of the book. In case you're interested, here's a brief overview of the changes I'm making.

1) Narrowing the focus - originally the book spanned fifteen years. Now it spans three. As the lovely Rachael said to me, this is a common trap for books based on autobiographical material. You tend to keep events and characters in because 'that's how it was', and not because they're important to the story. Even though my book is (ostensibly, I see now) a novel, there was a lot of autobiographical flotsam and jetsam in there that wasn't really important to anyone else but me. I've zoomed in on the important stuff. This has the double benefits of making it read more like a novel and less like a memoir, and making the whole thing more urgent and pacey.

2) Cutting out redundant characters - some of the characters, when I really examined them, served a similar purpose. When these literary twins occur, I'm blending them together or erasing one of them.

3) Some under-used but essential characters are being inflated and are coming to the fore, and some characters who took up way too much space for their level of importance have been deflated.

4) The narrator was too passive - things happened to her and around her rather than being initiated and driven by her. I'm making her much more of a decision-maker in her own life.

5) Unnecessary sub-plots that served no purpose are being snipped out.

6) The stakes weren't high enough. I'm upping them. High stakes make for exciting reading.

7) I'm giving the 'villains' more of a human face.

I've learned a lot about novel-building from this book, which is fantastic. It has been encouraging, but humbling too - I get a lot of things right by instinct, but I also get a lot of things wrong. Constructing a novel is hard, and definitely not something you can do by the seat of your pants. I know all the things listed above probably seem glaringly obvious - Novel-writing 101 - and they were. Six months after I finished the book. Not at all obvious one month after. Just goes to show that you really do need to allow your work time to rest - to rise or sink, like a souffle. I think my book rose around the edges but had a big soggy indentation in the middle. Metaphorically. I wish I knew how to create the acute accent on souffle. Does anyone know how?

I hope all this made sense - it is quite late, and when I start talking about souffles, it's probably time to go to bed.

Big news in our household today - LOML and I are going over to the UK in August to see both sets of our grandparents, and we'll probably be in the States for a while as well. So excited.

I hope you all had a good start to your week!