me, myself and I

Writing is more than words. Most people know this right? Well maybe not, because at the end of the day you either open a book to the first page, get swept away and buy it or put it back on the shelf. No harm done. Except to the author who slaved for weeks, hours, months and days on writing the very prose you just so casually disregarded.

It’s nothing personal. After all it comes down to taste and style. For this very reason I’m nervous. It’s hard enough to write, but it’s even harder still to get your head around the fact that the baby you are nurturing may one day, turn out to not be readable or in fact very good.

I have my own writing style, as does every aspiring writer/author, but I’m not arrogant enough to assume that this is the way people would like to read. So with this in mind I have been doing some research.

For a Chic lit style book you might ask? Yes, even though I have ‘experience’ in the world of men and women as well as dating and relationships including the embarrassing and hilarious situations you can often find yourself in, it still needs research.

I can’t stop thinking about the first page, I’ve written about nine chapters over the years (this needs to be 12 by the time I’m done) but it all comes back to the first page. I’ve written and re-written it a hundred times.

In thinking about this first page, the main thing I always come back to is tense. I have always related to and loved books which are written in the present tense and told via first person. When I open a book and the character jumps off the page and starts talking to me like a mate I’ve met for coffee. That’s when the true fun begins. Not when I’m reading about how the character has willowy size 4 figure, long ash blonde shoulder length hair, a cupid bows mouth and eyes which are a stunning aquamarine. That is more likely to make me think, who do I know like that? And do I really want to know more about them?

If it feels like someone you know or would love to know and who is or has been in the same situation as you, that’s when my interest is piqued. So this is what I’ve tried to do with the lead character in my book. Lisbeth. I have been writing Lissy’s voice for years but its only now as I ponder tense and read and re-read my favourite books that I realise the only way to tell her story is via first person.

While some of the stories and situations she finds herself in are inspired by real life and imagined events, it is very much a work of fiction. So it’s with this in mind I’m starting to re-write many sections of the book.

It’s a torturous but rewarding process as I start to hear her voice become stronger, more eloquent and relatable with every change I make.

Hopefully by the time I’m done, when someone opens the first page they won’t be able to stop themselves from turning to the next and the next.

But just in case, the next time a book on a shelf catches your eye and you skim to the front page, give it another 30 seconds and perhaps even turn to the second page. Someone’s heart and soul has been poured into that and you may just find yourself or someone you know hidden amongst the words.

Xx

J