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Thursday 29 November 2012

Do you have anything to say?



I recently met another writer who said something along the lines of: 'I need to know if I have anything to say.'

This made me think. When I studied Shakespeare, Chaucer, Austen, Wordsworth etc for English Literature A-Level at school, much time was spent analysing what these writers were trying to say. Often someone in my class would pipe up with: 'But I'm sure [Shakespeare] wasn't intending to say that at all.'

Stephen King says in 'On Writing' when talking about 'the first read-through' of a novel he's written: '..I'm asking myself the Big Questions. The biggest: Is this story coherent? And if it is, what will turn coherence into a song? What are the recurring elements? Do they entwine and make a theme? I'm asking myself What's it all about, Stevie, in other words, and what I can do to make those underlying concerns even clearer. What I want most of all is resonance, something that will linger for a little while in Constant Reader's mind (and heart) after he or she has closed the book and put it up on the shelf.'

When I analysed my Book 1, 'The Grandson' whilst editing I realised that the themes had more or less written themselves, coming from my subconscious whilst I focused on the plot.

Some of the themes are ones which appear often: love, the role of women, marriage and family relationships. I'm fascinated that a difference in time can influence how someone lives their life. Currently I'm engrossed by the eighteenth century for Book 2, 'The Painting' and how this impacted a woman's choices. For 'The Grandson', I found I'd compared a woman's options during World War II to the 1990s.

Which themes have you written about without realising or do you have any other comments?

Ps. I had a great time at the RNA Winter Party last week. There are a few photos on my Facebook page: Anita Chapman Writer

Pps. Best of luck to everyone finishing NaNoWriMo this week!

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11 comments:

  1. Really interesting post, Anita. I think you're absolutely right. Your novel must have something to say and if you're not sure what that is, your novel probably isn't there yet. Love the sound of your second novel. You must tell us more about it! Happy writing. x

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    1. Thanks so much for visiting Michelle and for your comment. Lovely to hear from you! Can't wait to read your published novel next year! x

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  2. Good thoughts. Tho Stephen King's comments are a bit scary! I have toask myself constantly: is this bit relevant and advancing the story? If not, don't put it in. It;s finding the fine line between hearing the story and ignoring the self-critical gnome that constantly tells you you're writing rubbish, isn't it.

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    1. Hi Carol, thanks very much for visiting and for your comment. Yes, that gnome is a pain...!

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  3. This is an interesting post. I find that I might start with one major theme in mind and then one or two others might appear by themselves during the writing process. Bullying became a theme in a draft I wrote recently, and it happened completely by accident.

    The comment about Shakespeare really resonates with me -- I often wondered if any of the great writers we studied in English Literature at school actually meant what my English teachers said they meant in their writing!

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    1. Hi Stacey, thanks for your comment. It's amazing how a theme can appear by itself. Looking back, I think I learnt so much about writing from English Lit A-level. But we did used to wonder if those writers intended to say what the teachers thought they were saying!

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  4. That's such an interesting post Anita. I felt with my novel that I got more into the themes and had more to say about them as I went along ... I didn't start out with a big theme. It turns out my novel is concerned with motherhood, romantic love, loneliness and the past. Roughly in that order! I think it's about sacrifices too, but I wasn't really aware of that in early drafts. My novel sounds similar to yours, in that I have a protagonist in 1940 and another in 2010! They are grandmother and grand daughter.

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    1. Hi Louise, thanks for your comment. It's amazing how some themes reveal themselves after the novel is written! Your novel sounds interesting-mine has some journal excerpts from WW2, but most of it is set in Siena in the 1990s. The protagonist's grandmother appears in the journal excerpts and in the 1990s.

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  5. Sounds really good Anita. My 1940 character takes up roughly half the novel and is written in third person past tense, while her grand daughter takes up the other half and is written in first person present tense. Hope it works :)

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  6. I love seeing what people get from reading my books. Sometimes it's a message I meant to have come across. Other times, my readers pull their own messages from the books, and I love that. I think the great part about reading is that a book can mean so many different things to so many people.

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    1. That's so interesting Kelly-it must be great hearing how readers interpret your books.

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