This November, my classmates and I took on the task of writing an entire novella in just one month. National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo, challenges writers to complete a novel in thirty days. It wrapped up Monday, and despite only reaching 83% of my goal, I’m still proud of myself for taking up the challenge. Today, I wanted to share some excerpts from my novella and give you a little insight into my experience writing them. This won’t be so much about the time constraint I was under while writing this, but more so about the writing itself and why I made certain choices within the work.
About a quarter mile further stood a modest, rustic house, waiting to welcome them home. The pale, light blue paint on the exterior wooden walls had been chipped away over time, and the same could be said for the dull, white coat that covered the small front porch. Two handmade wooden rocking chairs looked down at them; the cushions occupying them were frayed and the once vibrant colors of the cloth were muted by the heat of the blistering sun. The outline of a large, burgundy barn could be seen peeking out from behind the residence.
As she often did, the young woman observed the surrounding scenery, taking in the beauty of the lush, green grass and the boldness of the scattered patches of colorful wildflowers. Some were short with a deep, golden color covering the tiny petals, and others were meek, sporting wispy white floral leaves, and several tall, lavender flowers were sparsely scattered across the land.
I rewrote this description at least half a dozen times. Certain drafts, I felt, were too short, and others were too long. I kept teetering between not providing the reader with enough imagery so they could properly envision the scene, and paying too much attention to detail to the point that the chapter was getting a bit stale. There’s no perfect answer to finding a balance between these two literary evils, but I always recommend that writers take a moment to close their eyes and imagine what the narrator is seeing. If you stay there long enough, you’ll be able to successfully depict the setting, but if you linger too long, you might lose yourself in insignificant details. With this illustration, I chose to write it in a way that would make the reader think of the farm as fondly as the main character does; she sees it as a safe haven, and I wanted to establish that sense of security in the reader as well.
Like she did nearly two years before, Rose spent a few hours gathering the strength to tell Oliver that if he did not leave the company, she would leave him, except this time, she was painfully sober. He chuckled at first, sending a dismissive wave her way and immediately returning to his work. When none of her sweet laughter filled his ears like he expected it to, he turned to face her, and his stomach dropped at the sight of her placid face and teary eyes. He told her all of the things he usually did when she brought up something he did not want to talk about. First, he asked if the conversation could wait until he was finished whatever he was doing; next, he tried to convince her to push off talking about it until morning; and finally, he would try to embrace her, mentioning something distracting like the errands they needed to do tomorrow. Somehow, he always roped her in, but not this time; she could no longer shove this issue into the deepest corner of her mind and pretend it did not exist. They argued for hours, but Roselyn did not remember what they were saying to each other, only the suffocating lump that formed in her throat and the agonizing ache that enveloped her heart when Oliver began to cry.
This is an excerpt from a very long reflection that takes up the majority of the first chapter. For context, the protagonist, Rose, used to be in a relationship with another character, Oliver, but she left him after giving him an ultimatum to leave his job, which brought a lot of turmoil and danger into their lives. The novel takes place a few days before her wedding to another man, Thomas, whose home was described in the first excerpt. In this section of writing, I wanted to not only inform the reader of their history but also give them some clues as to what their relationship was like before the split. There is a recurring pattern of manipulative behavior shown by Oliver that Rose previously chose to ignore, and the fact that she is no longer allowing the issue to be dismissed tells the reader a lot about the severity of the situation and how important it is to Rose that he quits his job. As both a reader and a writer, I find that it is more effective to walk the reader through events and allow them to build their own understanding of the dynamic between two characters rather than simply saying, “Character 1 is this type of person, Character 2 is this type of person, and this caused a problem because…”
This morning, she woke to warm, orange rays of sunlight delicately dancing across her skin; her eyes fluttered open and she tried to absorb the brightness in the room but ultimately succumbed to the comforting shield of her hefty, dull white comforter. She found solace in its weight. It reminded her of the way her mother embraced her as a child when she got in trouble: excessively tight and accepting, despite knowing about her flawed behavior. The comforter understood the lies she told and the confliction she felt, and it spent countless mornings absorbing the guilt-ridden tears that were brazen enough to slip out. It held her in a way she could never allow Thomas…
I highlighted this moment from Chapter 2 so the reader could get a feel for just how lonely the protagonist really is. She feels ashamed for still having feelings for her former partner, so she is not completely open with her current one, but she also feels guilty for not being the partner she feels Thomas deserves. She is left in a truly isolating position, and in many ways, only has herself to turn to for comfort, which manifests in her connection to an inanimate object, like her comforter. The average person might not compare the weight of their blanket to a mother’s hug, so the analogy gives the reader a bit of insight into her mental state and how much pain she had endured from being in this situation. The way people interact with physical things can be very telling to who they are and what they’re going through emotionally; it is a tool that many writers, including myself at times, forget to utilize.
This is all I’ve got for now, but I hope you enjoyed reading a bit about the thought that went into these bits of writing! Catch you next time :’)
