(November 16 -22)
I had a moment of inspiration for one of the new stories that I’ve been struggling with. It’s a timey wimey one, but with a gothic flavour, so finding both the correct tense and voice has been a particular challenge. It doesn’t sound quite right in the past tense, so I’ve been writing in the present tense, which is coming out too sterile for my liking.
In trying to work out the right voice, I then imagined it being read aloud, and suddenly had this image of a classic M.R.James type narrator sitting in their drawing room, dusty old book open before them, telling us the tale.
Somehow this nailed it for me. The present tense helps emphasise the times-wimpy ness, but the classic gothic narrator voice sets exactly the right tone. I’ve gone back and reworked the first few pages of the story and, yep, I think it’s gonna work.