Wednesday 12 October 2011

Have I written a historical novel?

Interesting to see that Jarvis Cocker is joining Faber as an editor, what a quirky, lovely event. I love Pulp and listen to Jarvis on 6 Music on Sundays when I remember he's on (listening again is just not the same). Faber's editorial director was the agent who very much encouraged me to turn The State of Me into a novel, when I showed it to her  in 2000. Back then, it was a very long short story - maybe 20,000 words - called Through the Round Window. I did not think I had the stamina to write a novel, and had no idea about writing novels, but somehow I got there. She said I wrote 'clear, gorgeous prose' - that phrase has always stayed with me. She was no longer working as an agent when I eventually finished the book, five/six years later, but she was certainly instrumental in my keeping the faith that my writing worked. Self-belief, I think, is the greatest tool to getting your book published. Well worn advice but true, if you don't  truly believe in your writing no one else will. I think the final word count was around 100,000 but I would need to check. BBC Alba asked how I managed to write a novel, having ME. I could not write a whole first draft, which I imagine is how most writers write. I certainly had an outline, but I would finish one chapter, polish  it up as much as I could before going on to the next. I simply could not have faced having to go back over 100,000 raw words, editing from scratch, that would have been overwhelming. The book has an episodic feel - short scenes and pauses -  and I think that very much reflects the illness, the many necessary rests in-between tasks, the white space, the gaps where you 'recover'. Again, this was all unconscious, I wrote what I wrote, the way that I could. I remain so happy I got there, and especially now, with all the XMRV/WPI stramash, my novel almost feels historical, pre- any of this research/debate. I think though, although  it spans 1983-1995, it still very much reflects the truth of the illness, the chaos and hell we find ourselves part of. As always, my heart goes out to those who remain severely and unremittingly  ill.

4 comments:

Digitalesse said...

I believe that much of our creative work - editing, planning, testing our ideas etc - is done in a sort of abstract way inside our own heads, before we actually get down to doing the practical work. Somehow we 'know' what do do when we either have the energy for a creative burst of activity, or when we pace ourselves a bit at a time.

Like you, I've had a few supporters who have encouraged me and their support has been invaluable in developing that self-belief.

PS Thanks for your comments on the pics!

nmj said...

Hey Dig, I agree - so much writing is done in your head before it ever sees paper - or screen. When I was writing TSOM i used to have a notebook at side of bed as i would get images/words just as i was falling asleep and too many times they were forgotten by morning if i did not write down. I would LOVE to write another book but has just not been poss to start, i have managed a few short stories in 3 yrs since the book cam out. I have an idea for another book but i honestly don't know if i can go through the process again, it was certainly detrimental to my health writing TSoM, sustaining the process, though it was fiendishly important to get it written. I always smile at other writers giving tips for writing - and there seems to be a perpetual hunger for such tips - like write for 3 hours every morning, or write so many thousand words per day even if crap, I cannot relate to any of that (not the crap, can relate to that, more the enforced writing). Though I do believe motivation/self-belief plays a big part, but how you motivate with this illness is entirely individual and down to levels of 'wellness'. But we know that the Wessely crowd talk guff when they say we lack motivation. That is plainly nonsensical. PS Am enjoying your daily photos, they really are meaningful to me.

Crafty Green Poet said...

I've been thinking about this, history is a strange thing to pin down when you're talking relatively recently. For example the 1950s and the early 1960s have always been history to me, because i wasn't born then. But the 1970s and 1980s which I lived through, i'm not sure whether I can see them as history, just because I was there, but of course to younger people they have always been history...

nmj said...

Hey Crafty - hope okay to use this abbreviation! - I was really being a wee bit tongue-in-cheek, the XMRV/retrovirus saga over this last couple years has been huge in ME world, I will not go into it here, but the fact my book does not extend to it certainly makes it historical. But I don't honestly think the novel is historical - in my mind sth is historical if it is maybe a hundred years ago. But I rarely read historical novels and am no expert, that is def more your domain. In fact, I prob still think of eighties as contemporary lit! Maybe that is a staying young mechanism. ;)