Losing The Plot by Lorna

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Losing The Plot: Finding A Voice

I’ve been attempting to write that novel for years now.  It’s not always the same novel; in fact, some of my earliest memories seem to involve an attempt to staple together a bunch of papers, featuring a stick princess with long wavy black hair on the front cover. (‘The Princess Without A Name’ -- could have been a best seller, that one.) Then there was the one about the hairdresser with auburn hair, and also the one about a posh girl turning up at a pikey school (or was it the other way round?) Then there was the story about Mrs Pepper Pot…not very original, that one. Anyway, I digress…

The fact is I never learn. The need to bash out a story or some sort of rambling monologue appears to be written into my DNA so that I never actually do more than pause for a while to get over the last rejection or catch up with my marking. In most areas of life, the constant ‘no thank yous’ and hours and hours of wasted time and effort would be enough to help you get the hint and move on. I know I should. It would be the sensible thing to do for me, my family, my day job, my social life, my health and fitness, my marriage and the housework.  Dammit, I am almost convincing myself! But here’s the thing: writing is just what I do. I like it. Nevertheless, when it comes to the novel, I just can’t get it right!

Since ‘The Princess Without a Name’, I’ve had lots of practise.  My first effort was a sprawling collection of lovely prose that was so lacking in a fixed identity that it was a mirror of anything I was reading at the time.  And I’m an eclectic reader, so that could range from anything from ‘Wuthering Heights’ to ‘Bridget Jones'. . . And it actually did. There were nearly as many ‘voices’ in that thing as there were at the time in my muddled head. There were a couple of characters who pulled the whole thing together, but it meandered along, pretty much plotless, through generations and decades and flat shares and marriages and anything else that took my fancy at the time. I finally let it go when I realised the impossibility of it shaping up to anything as recognisable as a proper story that people actually wanted to read.  That’s what I’d forgotten -- my audience. Elementary -- and embarrassing! A lost dream, but I learnt from those 60, 000 words it and moved on.

My next big attempt was a far more realistic one -- or so I thought. I identified the audience first this time: the massive Romantic fiction genre readership. And I identified my potential publishers and researched what they wanted: Mills & Boon and similar outlets. I decided to keep it simple this time and pegged out a straightforward ‘quest’ plot. (Yes, I actually plotted this time.  Always a good idea.) Off it went to any publisher who would take unsolicited manuscripts, and back it came every time with a no. Apart from one!  It was exciting to be taken under the wing of an editor and issued with a contract by a publishing house, however small and dodgy.  But they proved to be a bit too small and a bit too dodgy because they promptly closed down. I was relieved in a way. I don’t really read this kind of fiction, and so I had no business writing it.  I put my 50, 000 words away and wrote nothing for nearly a year. Another lost dream.

And now I’m working on my third project. This time it’s a science fiction -- one for girls -- and I’ve really tried to think it through.  I’ve thought about my audience, I’ve tried to keep the ‘voice’ consistent, I’ve plotted as much as I can bear, and I’ve made sure it is a book I’d want to read -- in theory, anyway. I’ve tried to make sure I’ve learnt something from those abandoned books. I’m currently a little bit stuck, but I’m hoping I’ll get over it. I’m on 30,000 words.

Have I found my novel? Will this be the one that finds itself a home and some readers somewhere? Somehow I doubt it.  The odds are against it, but I know I won’t give up. Writing is what I do. I just like it. Anyone out there think the same? 

Lorna is a writer and teacher. You can find her over at lsyred.wordpress.com. Find more posts by Lorna here...