The sunny summer weather has meant a few trips to the seaside. Having got The Apple House (the dodgy first novel) into a much more reasonable shape, I've spent a little time working on the latest novel, The Sound of the Sea, trying to use the aforementioned seaside trips to bring a little colour and life into the story.
The Sound of the Sea has two sections: 'past' and 'present' and the narrative jumps between the two. Well, I hope it doesn't jump, I hope it floats seamlessly, though that's possibly a question for another blog post.
I've just finished reading two novels with 'past' and 'present' sections. However, as I read, I find that one section - usually the 'past' - is more interesting than the present.
I'm also finding this as I write the 'past' sections of The Sound of the Sea. These sections seem more alive and to have more resonance than the 'present' sections. Perhaps that's because the landscape of the past (both physical and emotional) is partly based on my own childhood so they seem very easy to write.
However, the 'present' sections feel a bit clunky - somewhere between a bad chick lit novel and a diary entry after a trying day at work. Paradoxically, I feel this is because the character in the 'present' is too close to me.
So, I'm going to try the following. Now that the main character, Clare, finally has a sense of humour, I'm going to try to give her things that are as unlike myself as possible. I'm going to make her a passionate cook and give her a fractured family and a dodgy husband, who may or may not be all he seems.
I'm also going to give her stuff (that's the literary technical term!) to do, so she doesn't just float around, mooning about the past.
So maybe it's OK to have the 'past' section stronger than the 'present', as long as the balance evens itself out in the end.
ends
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