Hard Lessons To Learn

A typewriter with a sheet of paper saying Chapter I.

Learning new writing techniques is not as easy as Andrea Kon expected.

February 4th

Only nine of us turned up to the 'Novel Approach' class, and this week's second 'reader' sent a message to say she wouldn't be coming any more! Other commitments etc. What a shame. Especially as there is a waiting list!

We all had to read our 100 word synopses. It was fascinating to see the different approaches everyone takes to turning what might potentially be an 80,000 to 100,000 word novel into a mere 100 words! It certainly makes you crystallise your own characters, their importance to your story and your own plot in your own mind. I ended up with 116 words. OTT again. Some people did actually manage to get down to 100. The more I'm thinking about it, the more real my own characters are becoming in my head.

We are given two texts to read for homework, including one on 'The Writer as Researcher' which is pertinent to my own work which is involving an enormous amount of research. The other is 'The Mechanics of Improvement'. The more I read about writing a novel, the more I fear that I will never get mine finished. The experts talk about writing, rewriting and writing again. And all the fact checking! Am I capable of doing all that and do I have the stickability to really get my novel written? I'm not sure. Having written self-help books which are an entirely different breed, I'd hardly recognised quite how different novel writing would be. It's an entirely different craft.

Andrea Kon is writing a weekly blog about her experience of going back to school. Check next week for her next installment.

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