| This was me post-completion. Don't you love my alter persona? |
I had a lot of fun writing this one because the main character had a very strong personality and naturally I spent a lot of time in her head as the novel is from first person POV. Surprisingly, the the writing process was different from MS #2, INGENICIDE. I know you're thinking well, Joan, you're writing a different novel for one, not to mention in a different genre. Of course the process is going to be different. And I understand that, but at the same time I had thought that the overall feel would be more or less the same, given the method I used for INGENICIDE was successful, as in I actually finished it and thought to myself: hey, this doesn't suck too badly!
Now in retrospect, I can see how writing IF LIFE WERE FAIR turned out to be a different experience than INGENICIDE. Firstly, I wrote INGENICIDE (65k) over the course of four months at the pace of a consistent plod. That means I had more time to afford non-writing days, days when I'd wait for some inspiration to strike (guilty!). In contrast, IF LIFE WERE FAIR (58k) is the product of a two month writing frenzy (which is still is far from the Nano pace, but it was a lot of me--I'm a slowish worker :). Why? Well, I still feel kind of sad for missing the dystopian bandwagon for INGENICIDE so this me trying to catch the wagon for upper YA/NA before I miss it and fall face-flat in the dust.** But that's beside the point. The point is that I didn't have the luxury of losing too many writing days with IF LIFE WERE FAIR. Which is probably why there were points in the story where I practically had to force myself to muscle through, not so much because they boring, but because I only have so much juice in me for a day. I've always been able to squeeze out some juice, but this was wringing.
Secondly, I wrote in a completely different style for IF LIFE WERE FAIR as compared to INGENICIDE. My CP's noticed this, and I, too, was aware. Bernadette, the MC in IF LIFE WERE FAIR has a lot of emotional baggage and is trying to rescue a personality that has been warped by her eating disorder. As a result, the syntax, word choice, and tone of every sentence in IF LIFE WERE FAIR were stark contrasts to the minimalistic and artistic voice of Sibyl, the MC from INGENICIDE. I had no idea how much this would influence the writing process! There were days when Bernie, oh-so-moody, just wouldn't speak to me.
And lastly, writing the ending to IF LIFE WERE FAIR was just as exhilarating, but more taxing, than writing the ending to INGENICIDE This is probably due to the fact that I worked myself into a last leg writing sprint and whipped out 8k in one night. The emotional impact of watching all of the story simmer down before my eyes in the matter of hours was unbelievably thrilling and sad.*** The reason why I was able to write this much at once for the end of IF LIFE WERE FAIR and not for INGENICIDE is because I had a clear idea of how I wanted IF LIFE WERE FAIR to end even before the halfway point of the story. That made the road leading up to the finale much easier to navigate.
All in all, writing IF LIFE WERE FAIR was neither easier nor harder than writing INGENICIDE, even though I had more experience under my belt. Regardless, I had a blast watching my characters come to life and weaving a theme and voice throughout the novel. Currently, I'm letting it rest for a bit before diving into revisions. Meanwhile, I'm so excited to start on this shiny new idea that popped to me during the sticky middle of IF LIFE WERE FAIR A post will be up for that soon, and I'll be adding it to the NOVELS tab.
For those of you who have written more than one MS, did you find the general "writing experience" changed (outside of genre related differences) from one MS to the other?
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*I think I might have carpal tunnel? I have an ache going from my right pinky down the side of my palm?!
**I don't believe in write the next trend. I DO believe in timing. If it just so happens that what you are currently writing might be garnering interest in the publishing world, well, why not try to seize the opportunity?
***I went to bed at 2AM and couldn't fall asleep for an hour because my head was buzzing with the story-residue. Plus, it was thundering like the end of the world. I had planned to brew myself a massive cup of coffee the next morning, but we lost power :( Needless to say, I was a zombie for the rest of the day until my awesome friend supplied me with chocolate and gingersnaps. Who says sugar isn't a remedy?
