Today, I had the day off and intended to sit down and work on my second novel, Viral Hatred (about a society reinventing itself in the aftermath of a virus that strikes at the heart of empathy). I had the first page of Viral Hatred assessed at the December 12, 2009 Humber Writers’ Circle by Kate Cassaday and Antanas Sileika. I thought their comments were great. Kate Cassaday of HarperCollins Canada seems to be the most caring, compassionate editor one could ever hope for. I was impressed by how well she understood the emotion & effort that goes into each manuscript. She reflected this appreciation when giving feedback on our written work – wow! I had been going for a rather powerful opening and perhaps I overshot the mark – both thought it tended to the excessive. The best quote was, ”This is heavy metal and I’m into Peter, Paul and Mary.” I admit that the opening shocks the reader but it is actually based on a true story (in describing the scene, I did not exaggerate or embellish as much as I normally do). The story lightens up after the first page and will be another thought-provoking tragic comedy (I hope). So, I am going to leave the beginning as is until I have a full manuscript. Then I will see what my readers think of the book as a whole.

I had decided not to work on Viral Hatred until after my first novel, The 29th Day is published, but I was in the mood for it today and I had the time. I’m waiting for a new round of reader feedback on The 29th Day. I’ve finished preparing the questions for John Bemrose and Anar Ali and have finalized Pasha Malla’s interview, which will be posted on Wednesday Feb 17th. Plus, how could I resist the temptation of getting into a new story over a long weekend?

This morning, I went to my favourite café for writing, The Cafe Florentin on Queen Street East and read the 15,000 words of Viral Hatred I wrote in August 2009. I had forgotten much of it (perhaps not a good sign?). What I had was a number of random scenes involving five unconnected characters. I had no idea how these pieces fit together. I thought back to a schematic I had sketched out on the back of a pamphlet a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I lost that paper and could not remember what I wrote.

After the excruciating process of revising The 29th Day, I was quite determined to write an outline for Viral Hatred this morning. I thought of Terry Fallis’s 65 page outline for his new book, The High Road. Terry’s first book,   The Best Laid Plans inspired me to write The 29th Day so I expected brilliant plot twists to shoot out of my fingers, leaving me with a smattering of bullets on the page. But nothing happened. I had no success plotting point by point. I opened The Art and Craft of Storytelling by Nancy Lamb, and tried to list my characters’ defining features. Again, nothing came to me.

I reverted to what felt natural: writing a scene inspired by something that I had seen, heard, done, or dreamt. Yesterday, I encountered an older man with a walker. He stood at the bottom of a flight of stairs steeling himself to carry his walker up (there was no accessible option). Yikes. I shared the load with him. I worried during the climb – what if he fell? What if I fell? We made it to the top. He thanked me and continued on his way, and I on mine. I was in awe of this man (and of course, disappointed that such barriers continue to exist). Inspired by this man’s dignity and resolve, I wrote a scene involving a similar situation and a different character — a person I did not know at all — with a walker. Like this man, my character had to navigate a physical obstacle. With every step she took, I could see her better. She overcame that challenge and I started to understand her. I saw a glimpse of her future, her friends, her interests. I don’t know where this character fits into the narrative as a whole but I do know I like her – she has a good sense of humour and real personal strength. I am curious about this character and what she might do next. This feeling of wanting to know what happens next is what will make me want to stay up late writing — it’s the same feeling I have when I stay up to read a good book (for example Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce which I am reading this week).  Incidentally, novel-hating sister #1 hasn’t recovered from the first 30 pages of The 29th Day which she read in one sitting, while novel-hating sister #2 has read 3/4 of The 29th Day in three sittings over the past couple of months (50 – 75 pages of the single-spaced manuscript at a time!).

So, I think I have found a workable approach to writing fiction and I am just going to go with it. This is what it looks like: I write scenes of about 500 - 1500 words in short stints (usually while I am out and about — on the bus, at café’s, in the car, while I am waiting). Then I put the pieces together like a puzzle (in the evenings on my home computer). Throughout all of this, I have the premise in mind and various themes that I intend to draw out as I develop the story. This results in a first draft that I then have to revise and refine until it can be considered finished. It is an inefficient sort of trial and error, quite different from my approach to writing for work (where I can quite capably write an outline and roughly stick to it). Today, I realized that even when I have a full day, I prefer to spend only three hours in the morning writing, do a variety of other things until my kids go to bed, and then spend a few more hours writing in the late evening. I think this ties into the feeling I had as a university student when I crammed for exams or wrote essays the night before they were due – I always had the best ideas under pressure. I’ve been writing this while watching the gorgeous Olympic Opening Ceremonies but it is time to focus on that instead … I love the part with the spirit bear puppet and the dolphins! And my favourite singer, Sarah McLachlan!!!