At the March meeting, novelist Jane Bailey gave members a very comprehensive, interesting, and often amusing insight into the writing of a novel. Jane has, to date, written four and is now starting on a crime novel. The four already written were set in wartime rural Gloucestershire. There was quite a long gap between the writing of the first two and the last two because Jane developed serious eye problems which caused much difficulty. But with courage and determination she managed to complete the last two novels and now that her eye problems are, hopefully, being stabilized she hopes to continue writing. We learned the golden rules governing the writing of a novel. Careful research is important and can be great fun. It can be far reaching but often only a little is used. Imagination plays a big part, based on stories one hears, often from parents or other members of an older generation. Fictional writing should all me be up and never based on oneself or ones own experiences. Also, the writer must know what they want the ending to be before starting to write. It is necessary to mull a story over in your mind ‘incubate it’, get to know the characters before starting to write. Suspense is a necessary part of any novel and a little of it built in as you go along makes the plot ‘tick’. However, despite the many hours of work needed to write a novel, the shelf-life of a newly published book is only twelve weeks. At the end of her talk Jane invited questions and the number of members who responded showed how interesting the subject had been to everyone.
The winners of the competition ‘write your own first paragraph for a novel’ were Gilly Aspey and Yvonne Langridge.
The next meeting will be on April 6 and will take the form of a dabble evening. Visitors are always welcome.
