Renovations in progress

“How’s the writing going?”

I have a love-hate relationship with this question. On the one hand, it’s great that people are interested in the progress of my book. On the other hand, writing is such solitary, immersive work that it can be hard to explain what I’m doing on a day-to-day basis. I sometimes spend ages struggling with a scene or a character detail, but I don’t think this minutia is as interesting to anyone else as it is to me!

Luckily, we’ve just (finally!) competed six weeks of home renovations, and this has given me the perfect metaphor for this stage of working on my novel.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we just remodelled a big part of our second floor: bathroom, hallway, closets and office. Every day for six weeks, workers showed up at 7:30am and spent the next 9 hours hammering, sawing and drilling, along with dozens of other noisy tasks that drove me out of the house. From the beginning, they kept the finished product in mind, tearing out precisely what needed to go, framing new walls and fitting modern fixtures and tiles, so we ended up with a harmonious blend of old and new.

In terms of my writing, the draft I finished last summer has now become a house in need of major renovations. Like a designer/architect, I had to spend several months creating blueprints for my changes, then I jumped in to demolition mode: half the narrative was ripped out entirely, with the remainder set aside for later.

Since March, I’ve been writing new scenes for one of my main characters, gradually rebuilding that missing half of the book. I’m working on one chapter at a time, leaving spaces for the other character’s story in between these new sections. I want to build a strong new foundation for the novel.

Sometimes I’m able to reuse an old scene or description or moment from my last draft, but it usually needs to be shaved down or rearranged. Just like with our house renovation, I’m trying to be thrifty and smart with my time and energy, recycling and adapting when I can.

I’ve now reached nearly 15 000 words on this new draft; the work is going slowly but so far everything is fitting together well. I’m aiming for a finished draft of 90 000 words this fall; it’ll be much shorter but hopefully much better than last year’s draft of the book. Then I’ll be ready to revise the finer points of writing, just like workers leave baseboards and finishing touches for the last stage of renovations.