The Joined Up Writers are delighted to share Chapter 3 of our community novel, in which we meet a new character, Valerie, later in the evening on the day of the fair. Valerie has come to the village to house hunt but has found herself tangled up in the strange and tragic events of the day. Sitting in the kitchen of Tregethlan Manor she has a conversation with her husband Derek on their WhatsApp family group, but is interrupted.
The dialogue betweenValerie and Derek towards the end of the chapter was originally written by two of the Joined Up Writers in WhatsApp, complete with emojis, exclamation marks and predictive texting. We have decided not to correct the words that came out scrambled (as they often do in texts), but to leave it as it came out.
A few years ago The Guardian newspaper asked some famous writers about their routines. Michael Frayn, playwright and novelist, had this to say: “In my case I look back over what I was doing the day before and make a few small corrections, often to typing errors, then maybe a few grammatical errors, and then I see a better way of putting something, and gradually you get drawn into the world you’ve created and you start rewriting what you did the day before…”
Novelist Michael Holroyd said: “What I really like is rewriting, but you cannot rewrite until you’ve already written, and that is terrible. And then rewriting the rewritten text, and so on, up to 10 times, hoping always to get it shorter, more condensed, pack more energy into it… You have the energy from the first draft, the momentum, the “go”, but then you try to shape it more.”
Both of them are saying that writing means re-writing. No one should ever expect to write a story just once; it takes many drafts and – crucially – willingness by the writer to go over and over what they have already put down on paper. It means reading what you have already done with fresh eyes and re-writing it until it is the best it can be.
That is where we are with the community novel which we began work on almost a year ago. After weekly meetings stretching back to autumn 2018 we have the ‘messy first draft.’ It is stored in word documents, some it in DropBox, and in a big concertina file, the sort a lawyer or accountant uses to keep documents in correct order.
Our drafts cover the carpet
Over the summer Jane, who is guiding the process, spent several weeks sorting through it all. She sifted through hundreds of emails, attachments, handwritten sheets from our weekly meetings, and pieces of paper put through her door or even slipped into her bag while she wasn’t looking. The writing we have done so far is complemented by a growing collection of photographs taken on smart phones and iPads. We have records of writing sessions in which we have mapped out our entire story with plot points and a detailed ‘back story’, and sheets that describe the personality of each of our central characters.
Joined Up Writers in the cafe at Mylor Harbour
It’s an achievement to have got this far. We’ve been writing in various locations around the parish: Tremayne Hall, Mylor Harbour Café, Flushing Sailing Club, the Lemon Arms, The Pandora Inn, and the community garden behind All Saints Church in Mylor Bridge. We have thrashed out our story and now we are ready to polish it.
Bear with us while we work on our opening scenes; we will be back here soon with the first installment.
joined up writers 