How to Begin a Novel

This week I unexpectedly found myself signing books in a bookshop. This is a first for me, and I hadn’t been expecting it. It hadn’t crossed my mind when I delivered a box of books to Emma at Collected Books in Durham, that she would want me to sign them. I think you can tell I hadn’t thought about it from the photograph below, given that I’m wearing an old raincoat. Had I considered for one minute that Emma would ask me to sit down and sign books, or that there would be a scary photo opportunity (I really don't like having my photograph taken) I might have given a little more consideration to what I was wearing. Still, I think you can see from my face that it was a very happy occasion, if on a very rainy day. And, as it happens, I like the photograph, taken by John, a lot.

The beauty of the independent bookshop for a writer like me is that they will stock my books. Waterstones will not stock my books, the exception being when I took part in the Durham Book festival. (They are contracted to stock festival books.) Despite my publisher, Linen Press, approaching them centrally it's been a no go and whenever I've contacted them locally - several times, by email and a visit to the store, I've been ignored. Not so much as a polite no thank you. Luckily, this is no longer a concern of mine as my books are now displayed in a beautiful indie bookshop, among awesome titles, where they serve great coffee, hold exceptional literary events and are all round lovely people.

As Emma has put, The Silent Women, up for sale in the shop, and pre-orders have now been sent I think it could be said to have been published a week early. Official publication day is in fact today! But I won’t be celebrating, I will be doing that next week, on and after the launch in Durham. Speaking of the launch, if you can join me, please, please do. You can buy a ticket here. I’d love to see as many familiar faces as possible, new ones too.

It feels a bit like a safety in numbers thing. A new book out in the world is a roller coaster ride. These days, post publication, feel highly charged. While there is much to celebrate, it’s easy to have a wobble! I admit to veering between feeling proud of the book and feeling it’s just not good enough. The exposure and vulnerability that come with having your words out in the world, up for both praise and criticism are not always easy to contend with.

It’s mostly a good place to be, on the whole readers are very generous. This week, a complete stranger contacted me and told me that she was reading, The Silent Women, and was completely hooked. It was a life saver. It rescued me on Saturday when I was definitely on the bottom of the roller coaster. I hate roller coasters. I cannot see the attraction in scaring yourself half to death. I am a coward when it comes to fairground rides.

There is really only one thing I can do now, and that is let my book go off, out into the world to make its own way. I can launch it, talk about it, write about it, but in the end, it will find its own way. Experience has taught me that a book changes with every reader. Readers find things in your work you didn't know were there or have forgotten about, things you didn’t think were necessarily important may have great significance for a reader. So, you have to trust the reader and let your book go and be discovered, for good or bad.

Of course, the end of one book signals the beginning of another and with it the questions: can I write another book, if so how and what? With this in mind a recent episode of the Verb, caught my eye. The Verb is a programme I often enjoy for its ‘deep dive into the world of words.’ The episode was How to Write Novel, wrongly titled in my opinion. It was really mostly about how three writers, Kate Mosse, Phillipa Gregory and Douglas Stuart, go about beginning their novels. I found it somewhat self-indulgent and not particularly useful for anyone really wanting to know how to write a novel. I do not recommend it, though I enjoyed Douglas Stewart’s contributions, just as I enjoyed Shuggie Bain.

 How do you write a novel?  How do I write a novel. Where do I begin? All of my novels have the ghost of a short story, or a fragment of writing, behind them. It may be a character from a story who lives on - Alice Semple in, The Silent Women, is just such a character, appearing first in a short story I wrote that never saw the light of day; nobody much is interested in publishing historical short stories. It may be a place, the first short story I ever wrote (which also did not see the light of day) was set in the landscape of my first novel. And now I have two fragments of writing that are calling to me, one in the voice of a woman painter in seventeenth century Delft, another, scrawled on the back of an envelope, of a young woman in 1971. Who knows what will emerge? But for me novels begin in these small ways.

If you have an inkling of a novel that you want to write, here is one way of getting it off the ground. I can’t claim ownership of this idea, it comes from a workshop designed by my great friend and mentor, Wendy Robertson. One very cold and dark evening in North Wales I sat in on just such a workshop and this is where the seeds of my first novel, The Sweet Track, were sown. I’ve used this since in workshops, it is especially useful if you have the germ of an idea lurking in the recesses of your mind, but it can also work cold, from nothing.

Take a large sheet of paper and draw six large circles or bubbles as I call them (as large as the paper allows. Now give each bubble a heading: People (you need 3 of these) Place, Time/Context, Plot. Now fill your bubbles in as freely as you can with any ideas that come to mind. Try to do this without thinking too much. When it comes to the Plot bubble just write any idea you have, it might be a situation, an event, a consequence, something somebody wants. When you’ve completed the bubbles draw lines between them where there are connections. You now have an early map of what the novel might become. You might only use one part of this map, one character, one idea, one connection but it will provide you with many possibilities and get you thinking about the novel as a whole. Now all you have to do is start writing from one of the bubbles. You might want to make a list of possible scenes and begin writing them. Don’t worry about linear progression. You do not have to begin at the beginning, allow your characters, themes, ideas to emerge in the writing.

My bubble map was a far cry from the novel I eventually wrote but there were elements of my novel in that early map, and drawing it definitely set off a chain reaction of writing and thinking. I started writing and just saw where it took me. It was a Bird by Bird, thing for me as outlined by Ann Lamott in her wonderful book on writing. I just wrote, by hand in my big notebook, one word after another. I sat in my room and wrote. I went out to cafes and wrote. I didn't worry about sequence, I sometimes wrote scenes I thought may occur later in the story. I wrote fragments and stuck them in the notebook. After a while a story began to emerge and I began to plan and revise, but my plans changed frequently.

 I mostly wrote in longhand and then transcribed it onto the computer. For the first draft I still like the freedom of paper with all its potential for scribbles and crossing outs. Once the work was transcribed, I edited it over and over again - sometimes after a long break when the words were fresh - to me it's important that every sentence is the best it can be.

As the novel progressed, the research kicked in. I bought a number of books about Somerset, especially photographic collections, maps, natural history, history etc. and later on I went back to Somerset with my notebook to get fresh impressions as well as those from my childhood. I used accounts from local people too - the kind you pick up in visitors centres. All of these sources inspired me.

It wasn't until quite late that I discovered The Sweet Track itself on a visit to the Peat Moors Visitor Centre in Westhay Somerset. Suddenly my whole novel, including the title, fell into place and I began to write the ancient time slips.

I was a year writing my novel and was fortunate to get an agent almost immediately, but it was six years later, after a number of disappointments and a change of agent that it was finally published. There are no quick fixes! You need to be in it for the long haul.

This is still very much how I write my novels, though I sometimes, not always, do more reading and research first. The difference now is I have a better idea of the pitfalls and a more honed craft.

When I start writing a book, I have no idea where it’s going. If it’s a historical novel I’ve researched the period and the place, but I don’t know what story I want to tell.  Isabel Allende

This week

I listened to Soul Music, Dancing in the Dark, on iplayer sounds - what a great programme Soul Music is, what a testament to the emotional power of music.

I watched The Sixth Commandment, B.B.C.in awe, couldn’t take my eyes off Timothy Spall.

I found solace as I often do in Satya Robyn’s substack on Envy. I recommend her writing, it always hits the mark for me. She is powerfully honest.

Because I’ve been travelling and in transit a fair bit lately, I chose Michael Connelly to keep me company, especially when flights were delayed, so much to admire in good crime fiction.I love Bosch and Ballard. But I’m all 'crimed,' out now so any new recommendations are very welcome.

Last but not least - if you’re around in the North East on Saturday August 5th do come along to the Weardale Book Fair. I’m helping out there and really looking forward to a fun day. Lots for the children too, including, The Story Train, leaving Stanhope Station at 10.30!

Thanks to everyone who has bought a copy of, The Silent Women, I really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading

Avril x