How Emily Schultz and Jane Warren have influenced Evadne Macedo’s writing
I had the pleasure to meet Emily Schultz at the March 27, 2010 Humber Writers’ Circle (sadly, the last of the year!). Emily Schultz has agreed to be interviewed later this month and I am halfway through her most recent novel, Heaven is Small. Yet again, I am amazed by the incredible talent of Canadian novelists — this book is entirely the kind of book that I like reading, and writing. These days, I read with three purposes in mind: (1) just to enjoy; (2) to identify questions for an interview; and (3) to deconstruct the technicalities of the writing to help me improve my own. What I notice most about Heaven is Small when reading with with point #3 in mind are the descriptions — Emily Schultz really has a flair for putting characteristics together. I also like the way she has constructed a parallel world and her use of humour. These are also elements I incorporate in my novels (in my own amateur way) and so I pay close attention to how it might be better done. I learn as I read and write … and luckily I am doing a lot of both these days.
I submitted the first page of Novel #2 for assessment at that Writers’ Circle and got some great feedback from Jane Warren of Key Porter Books and Kim Moritsugu of the Humber School for Writers. They both got what I was trying to do, and would have wanted to read more. I completely reworked the first page based on feedback from Antanas Sileika at an earlier Writers’ Circle and Pradeep Solanki’s writing group — it is now pretty engaging and funny (if I do say so myself). I moved the “heavy metal” elements to the end of the chapter so the reader is already hooked by the humour and then gets some foreshadowing of the darker side to come. I am really pleased that I am starting off with a good beginning as I think this shows I have learnt from my mistakes in The 29th Day — I had to re-write the first page 5 times until I got a page that was positively assessed by Sam Hiyate and Kim Moritsugu.
From page 1 of Novel #2, I am writing with the reader in mind. Not a dictatorial reader with limited tastes. No, definitely not that reader. I have in mind a reader who wants to be entertained and think about things differently, but who does not want to have to work too hard (at the end of the day, we all just want to kick back with a good story).
Thus, I have decided that I want Novel #2 to be an easy read with widespread appeal but to still be literary. I explained that to Jane Warren and asked her what category she would put Novel #2 in based on the first page. Without hesitation, she confirmed that it is literary fiction (yippee). She even said that it kind of reminded her of Jessica Grant – whose novel, Come Thou, Tortoise was just named the winner of Canada Also Reads (wow, really Jane Warren said that … unless I imagined it — I am finding it hard to keep fiction and fact separate these days!). Assuming that was not a dream, I now know that I can write funny stuff (according to Sam Hiyate, Kim Moritsugu, Jane Warren, and Terry Fallis … in addition to my most valued and trusted friends). And, that what I write is still literary (which is important to me, for some reason). So, thanks to Jane Warren I continue as I have been but with much more confidence — thanks again!
Update on Novel #2
I’ve written about 31,000 words of Novel #2 and have also sorted out the overall structure of the novel — the perspective shifts between the two main characters chapter by chapter. In the chapters I have written so far, I feel like I have achieved a good balance between the two main characters and that I have two equally engaging story-lines. I have developed this plan based on input from one of my book-hating sisters (if you recall, she got to page 38 of Novel #1 and has needed many months to recover … I now fear she may never recover and am focusing my efforts on writing Novel #2 for her reading pleasure (ha ha). Like Don Quixote I am dreaming the impossible dream and hoping that she will read a novel from start to finish and that it may be one I have written). I have consulted her in determining how Novel #2 will be written. I was going to have 5 or 6 characters, with the Point-of-View (POV) shifting from one character to the next. However, my initial consultations indicated that it would be difficult for readers (including my sister) to bond with any of the characters, and this would impact on their overall bond to the book. I also realize that my bond to the characters is an important element of getting the book written – I quite like my new best friends and am happy that they will be with me for the next few months.
I am also using Sam Hiyate’s idea re: what makes a book a best-seller (he described it to us at the Humber Writers’ Circle he attended and it is absolute genius). The last piece of my plan is to use input from my sister and Pradeep Solanki’s writers’s group as I write — their feedback has already been tremendously helpful to me in identifying errors in POV at the outset so I am now mindful of them as I write. Based on all of this, I anticipate that the first complete draft of Novel #2 will be quite close to the final version. My plan is to finish writing Novel #2 and have a few friends comment on Version 1 at the end of the summer (or later, depending on how busy things are at home & work). I will then revise for a month or two based on their feedback and have Terry Fallis read Version 2 (if he will). Then I will revise the manuscript one more time and consider it finished at Version 3. Hopefully, I will have an agent to submit it to.
Update on The 29th Day
My manuscript is officially in search of an agent and/or publisher as of April Fool’s Day. That’s all I’m saying about it until I have some good news to report. Wish me luck!!!
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