“But words are things, and a small drop of ink falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.”
- Lord Byron
One of the strangest things a writer can experience is being host to a cast of characters day and night! I suppose it serves me right for embarking on a multi-generational saga that starts in Norway in 1867 and ends in Madison in 2020. There’s bound to be a lot of people. But I don’t welcome them into my bed at 4 in the morning. I wake and my brain is filled with faces, conversations, dramas — all fighting for my attention while I desperately try to shoo them away and get back to sleep. I toss and turn, do yoga body scans, and enumerate the cranial and spinal nerves (remember, I used to teach neuroanatomy!). Sometimes I leave my warm bed and climb into the chilly one in the guest bedroom, firmly closing both doors. But the characters always manage to find me. Some writers find gems in these waking hours, scribbling on a bedside pad for recollection and elaboration the following day. Not me. If the stories are compelling enough, surely they will resurface in the morning. Then the characters are welcome to crowd onto the page, and we can have a proper party!
Recently someone asked me to describe the shape of my new novel. Usually people ask about theme, so I was flummoxed. After some consideration, I’ve settled on a Maypole. The pole is set deep in the ground and represents a 14-year-old boy who fetches up in Wisconsin in 1867 after a harrowing voyage from Norway. This boy is at the heart of my story and his journey to the New World is written in the form of a novella. Throughout his life he dreamed of building a mansion, and finally in 1920 he succeeds. The mansion is the above ground part of my Maypole. Now, imagine 10 ribbons hanging from the tip of the pole. Each ribbon represents a stand-alone short story, one per decade from 1920 to 2020. But just like the ribbons, the stories are linked. In sum, I’m writing a novella and ten chapters. If the walls of this mansion could only talk…
I best get back to writing!
- Lord Byron
One of the strangest things a writer can experience is being host to a cast of characters day and night! I suppose it serves me right for embarking on a multi-generational saga that starts in Norway in 1867 and ends in Madison in 2020. There’s bound to be a lot of people. But I don’t welcome them into my bed at 4 in the morning. I wake and my brain is filled with faces, conversations, dramas — all fighting for my attention while I desperately try to shoo them away and get back to sleep. I toss and turn, do yoga body scans, and enumerate the cranial and spinal nerves (remember, I used to teach neuroanatomy!). Sometimes I leave my warm bed and climb into the chilly one in the guest bedroom, firmly closing both doors. But the characters always manage to find me. Some writers find gems in these waking hours, scribbling on a bedside pad for recollection and elaboration the following day. Not me. If the stories are compelling enough, surely they will resurface in the morning. Then the characters are welcome to crowd onto the page, and we can have a proper party!
Recently someone asked me to describe the shape of my new novel. Usually people ask about theme, so I was flummoxed. After some consideration, I’ve settled on a Maypole. The pole is set deep in the ground and represents a 14-year-old boy who fetches up in Wisconsin in 1867 after a harrowing voyage from Norway. This boy is at the heart of my story and his journey to the New World is written in the form of a novella. Throughout his life he dreamed of building a mansion, and finally in 1920 he succeeds. The mansion is the above ground part of my Maypole. Now, imagine 10 ribbons hanging from the tip of the pole. Each ribbon represents a stand-alone short story, one per decade from 1920 to 2020. But just like the ribbons, the stories are linked. In sum, I’m writing a novella and ten chapters. If the walls of this mansion could only talk…
I best get back to writing!
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