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Writing a novel #4

BIG WRITING TIP I call this a big writing tip because it is. So many times people sit at a computer or look at a blank sheet of paper and think that they need to start at the beginning or square one. NOT SO. The best advise I ever received about writing was from a high school teacher who said, “start with what interests you. Start with what you know and love.” That might be at the beginning of a novel or short story or article but it might not be. That’s okay.

There are 24 chapters in Fireflies. I’ll be honest, I didn’t start at chapter one or two or three. On my first draft I started with the last chapter, number 21 at the time, because I wanted to find out where my characters were headed.

There is no wright or rong (make that right or wrong) way to write a novel. Of course there are guidelines but it is the creative, innovative, fun ideas of the author. Just maybe the “fun” word is the most important here ~ because that it should be.

As the words and phrases of Fireflies unfolded on paper, I realized that this was more than Audrey’s story. It was a tale of Iowa, her people and her places; those who had left her boundaries and those who had never wondered about or wandered beyond them. I set forth on a journey in exploration of a man’s emotions. His pain, his desire, and his needs were spread before me and calling my feminine spirit to tell his saga.

Writing a novel #3

Enjoy the jar of fireflies ~ I do. Now that you know about how and why I selected Audrey’s name its only fair that I tell you about my Stephen Grant. I choose to use the name Stephen Grant as my main character because I thought I’d been looking for him for over 45 years. It was a random search and one that holds no real logic or direction. One that follows no reality but is based rather in that state of being we call a dream.
It was a dream, an adolescent dream of a very young teenage girl that drew me to his name. I remember sitting up in bed one night and the name Stephen Grant came leaping forth from my head just as sure as sugar plums had danced there when I was even younger.
I’ve never met a man by the name of Stephen Grant, but I always knew that he was out there, out there somewhere. He’s been a part of my life just as sure as the Stephen Grant in Fireflies has become a part of who I am.
Yes, the Stephen Grant of my fantasies does have a face to me, but the one that holds me in his arms has a name, Tim, my husband of 42 years.