Yeah, I'm running with six characters. Six voices competing for airtime in my sloggy brain. To get their stories, I have to write six novellas, then condense, cutting and pasting and rewriting into a sensical story line. This stupidly ambitious book raises myriad challenges: Who to write today? Did I already write this scene in B's story? Should P narrate this scene, or should K?
But the greatest struggle is deciding each character's voice and tense. I've written my two main characters in both first present AND past, using past tense to orient the reader to scenes which are, in essence, flashbacks. Julia Glass used this technique to great effect in THREE JUNES. (I'm stealing from her.)
Two other voices also are in first present, largely because they 'talk' through diaries and letters. A fifth voice is told in third past, and the final character, an emotional vacuum, narrates in second voice (a challenge).
But maybe I'll do a total rewrite in close third; it allows head-hopping as well as the ability to peel back and view at a macro-level.
Choices, choices, so many choices, and lucky for me I am (still) writing at a tortoise pace, deliberately and purposefully with joy. Or some similar optimistic emotion.
How do you decide what voice and tense to write?
READING... Just finished A SEAHORSE YEAR by Stacy D'Erasmo, a tale about the unravelling of a modern family when their 16-year old son Christopher goes psychotic and missing. Dense, richly detailed, the book at times overreaches: gay mom dealing with unfaithful partner, gay dad falling in love, past childhood abuse and other baggage, professional frustrations, infidelity, menopause. I kept asking myself: what is this story REALLY about? The book soars when focused on Christopher and his relationship with Tamara, his complicit friend and lover; D'Erasmo writes his voice and experience with searing beauty. Told in close third, the book becomes un-put-downable halfway through.
LISTENING TO... Beyonce's SINGLE LADIES. What a super message - put a ring on it, guys. See the video - the dancing is amazing.
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