A novel journey
For Christmas I received the above pictured journal. It's not my typical decorative choice, but I saw it in a local bookshop and pointed it out to my husband, who took note of my affinity for it. I didn't know what I would write in it, but something about it called to my heart, and suffice to say my hubby was glad for the gift idea.
After we returned from our Christmas sojourn, I scribbled a few entries, nothing more than trying out various pens and pencils. It sat to my right on the sofa where I hand-sew, quietly trying to muscle its way into my evening routine. It wasn't having much luck until I started my nightly edits on The Hawk, where I decided to loosely keep track of the revisions. Magical realism figures heavily in this book, so this particular journal seemed perfect for the task.
Those edits are going more quickly than I first imagined; a couple of nights I've read through three chapters, merely because the story is so captivating, lol. I haven't read through it in a long time, forgetting parts of the plot. I had considered placing this story under the genres of women's fiction and fantasy: historical, yet to my pleasure last night's chapters concentrated on a man's memories of serving overseas during The Korean War, not really a women's fiction sort of element. Perhaps I'll leave one qualifying genre as literary fiction, but include fantasy with a sub-category of historical.
In addition to mulling that over within my journal, I'm keeping track of the word count chapter by chapter; I excised over forty words within the first chapter, but less than a dozen in subsequent chapters, a fascinating discovery. I'm also taking note of the outside temperature and time of day, merely in that as I continue these edits, the seasons will alter, ha ha. It's been great at the beginning of each evening, then amid the revisions, to denote this or that sense as I immerse myself back in a era many decades past, as well as a hint to the life I was living when this was written, in a world full of hope, change, and dashed expectations. Yet the story continued, and boy did it continue! Currently I'm at the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, so unaware of what sneaked up on me later, not merely the length of the novel, but the breadth.
I think that's why I'm scrupulously taking notes of this experience, needing a touchstone of what this book meant to me in the crafting, and how it continues to affect me as a person and author. I consider it my first seasoned novel, in that as I wrote it and rewrote it, my skills with prose gained strength, plotting techniques improved; they certainly should have for how long I honed those skills, hehehe. I'm enjoying this immensely and am thrilled to have such an insightful purpose for a journal that aligns to its aesthetics, otherworldly themes right up this notebook's alley.
I'm hopeful one journal will do the job, but if I run out of room, another trip to the bookstore won't be a problem. Maybe tracking this journey is a story in itself, which is probably indeed the case. Writing a book is one path, revisiting it another. Delving into it a decade later is even more compelling, and I can't wait for this evening to see what happens next!
