A Tale of Enchanted Love
in a Time of Religious Intolerance, War, and Occupation
E. Madison Cawein, Artist, Author
Thoughts and Musings
Writing a novel is a creative journey unparalleled by any other form of self-expression. It is to enter a labyrinth of personal fantasy, emotion, memory, and dreams. Some writers carefully map out their journey at the outset, while others simply set foot to path, allowing the unconscious to lead them. Which method works best is really up to the individual writer, however, the second method often produces many false starts, detours, and unintended story elements which require extensive revision at a later date. This has been my experience! Despite the occasional frustration, and the fear that I would prove inadequate to the task, or that I would never find my way through to the end, I must say that ultimately, it has been a deeply satisfying, enlightening, and profound experience.
The End becomes The Beginning
Naturally, having finally arrived at my long sought destination, I am discovering that my soul is urging me forward. I simply am not ready to abandon these characters just yet! I think about them constantly, they populate my dreams, they speak to me (and to each other) throughout the day and night, determined to continue the story that began with The Flamebearer. As is my usual style, the story continues in my mind scene by scene, without an overarching structure to guide me.
Oh, to be a gifted plot technician, a conjuror of the universal story! Alas, like my characters, I have no road map and no plan, indeed, I have no idea where I'm going or why I should want to get there. Perhaps, at journey's end, the true purpose of the quest will reveal itself. One can only hope. . .
Insights on Character Development and Story Crafting
Is anyone ever really “finished”? This project began over thirty years ago, got sidelined for many years (I needed to earn a living), and finally got picked-up again in retirement. To my genuine delight, I found that my passion and affection for these characters had not diminished in the slightest, even after such a long time away from them.
Darn good thing I saved a hard copy! What began in DOS on a floppy disc and graduated at some point to “diskette” and a very early version of MS Word, would probably not make the transition to today’s hardware or software.
After digging the coffee-stained, dog-eared pile of typed pages out of an old cardboard box, re-formatting and retyping the manuscript, I found it exhilarating to dive right back in. The lovers were at more-or-less the midway point, literally taking refuge in an enchanted forest.
The second half of the book practically wrote itself. (That is a bald-faced lie. Any writer who tells you that is completely full-of-it.) But it did seem to flow more smoothly than the first half, which went through hundreds of revisions, re-drafts, ruthless self-editing, and painful re-writes. And that’s when I did most of my historical research also, which in those days could only be done at the library. Most of the chronicled information I needed was so obscure, I’d be forced to order it from some university archive and wait weeks for its arrival in my mailbox. Today, I Google everything and acquire it instantaneously.
And, I had learned to express my artistic vision using an exciting new vehicle – computer graphics. It afforded me the opportunity and luxury of exploring my people and my fictional world VISUALLY as well as through language. Alternating between the writing and the illustrations enhanced both methods of self-expression and allowed me to experience my story on a level formerly unavailable to me as an artist. As I developed and fine-tuned the physical appearance, body-language, dress, hairstyle, & eye-color of each of my actors, I got to know them more intimately, see them more clearly, and place them in any environment I wanted to create.
Often, scenes I had only vaguely pictured with my inner vision evolved into vivid, detailed realities once I was able to render them in 3D. I am still limited by the scope of the application, and the capabilities of my current equipment, as well as by my own proficiency, as to how much complexity I am able to put into a single scene, but this is a medium I find obsessively fascinating. There is always more to learn and to explore.
This is one reason I think I shall never truly “finish” working on this novel. I tend to become enmeshed with my literary personalities. They provide me with such nuanced and deeply satisfying inspiration, I am powerless them go. I love watching them evolve, and I am still learning little things about each of them that endear them to me all the more.
April 13, 2014 Image Tagged characterization, finishing a novel, illustration, novelist, writing Leave a comment Edit