Turning a Page

Last week I received a proof copy of my second novel, The Price of Secrets. It is such a magical gift to hold this book in my hands, this story of family and love, loyalty and secrets and revenge.

It’s an amazing experience to have a manuscript, almost 300 pages of a story I have lived with and labored over, characters I have loved and not loved, wondered and worried about, transformed into a book. Because this is my second novel, I had the thrill of adding an “Also by Norma Murphy” page, with my first novel, A Better Life, listed. It’s not exactly a list, but it’s exciting just the same.

Turning a page of a manuscript, a loose page, is so very different than turning a page in a bound book. Yes, the words are the same, but they are transformed, as if given a promotion of sorts. Elevated. That’s the word. And now the story is nearly ready for the world to see.

The Price of Secrets will be published and available on December 9. I am in the process of organizing a book launch and will get that information out as soon as possible.

I am in a unique place as an author, finished with the writing of this novel, beginning the promotion and marketing, while working on my third novel. Between two worlds. And turning a page.

Endings

In life, endings can be messy. Endings can be complicated. When readers reach the end of a novel, however, they are not looking for messy. Readers look for happy endings, or at least some sense of resolution for all the problems and travails our characters have gone through. But what if the end of a story is both joyful and sad? What if things are resolved but new challenges still lie ahead? Does this mean it’s messy?

I am struggling right now with the very last few paragraphs of The Price of Secrets, satisfied that what happens is true, but not quite satisfied with how I have written it. Yet.

I did a brief search online for “Writing Endings” and came up mostly with ways stories end, checklists of things endings should include. I wasn’t searching for a formula; I was searching for advice and inspiration, or maybe inspirational advice.

After looking through my writing books, I pulled out one of my favorites, Hooked by Les Edgerton. It’s a wonderful book about beginnings, advice on engaging the reader from the very first sentence. I picked up the book, checked the index and found “Endings.” When I turned to page 14, I saw I had underlined this when I first purchased the book, more than ten years ago:

All good story endings and resolutions should involve both an element of a win and an element of a loss.

Yes. Exactly. My ending isn’t messy; it’s complicated. Like life. Now I just need to get my words as right and true as I can. I want to leave readers of The Price of Secrets still wanting to know how the characters are doing long after they finish the novel, but satisfied I have told their story.

If Only It Were This Easy

My five-year-old granddaughter wrote and published her first two books last week: Spring is Here and The Chick Finally Hatched. After some discussion, she dictated her story as I typed, and once it was printed her sisters helped her color and illustrate, and voilà! She is a published author, so proud of her work. Going through this process with her, I thought, boy, if only it were this easy!

After working on my second novel for more than three years, I have lost count of the number of drafts I have completed so far. There was a time about a year ago I thought I was close to finished, that the story was just about as complete and true as I could get it. How wrong I was.

Throughout this process, I have been fortunate to receive a great deal of feedback—from family, friends, and my weekly writers’ group. How enlightening it has been to see my writing through fresh eyes. I am so grateful for their insights, their perceptions of my characters and their actions, and their tough questions. This close analysis, of course, is something you can’t do with a five-year-old, especially with her first foray into writing.

While my granddaughter didn’t have the benefit of too much feedback and too many questions about her story, as her editor and publisher, I believe it was just enough. Her process seemed so simple and straightforward compared to my process, but I believe that will develop in time. For now, these are her stories, and they are the very best she could tell them.

My goal is to publish my novel this summer. The more I work on it, the closer I get to the truth and the heart of it. And there’s the polishing, the language, all the nuances of storytelling. So much. It’s not meant to be easy, but I am grateful for the joy and sense of accomplishment writing brings.

Shifting Focus

It’s been three months since I sent my second novel, Some Kind of Justice (originally A Thousand Secrets), to a dozen or so agents that looked like a good fit. Only three have responded, with polite rejections. My lofty goal was to self-publish if I hadn’t heard anything positive from an agent by the spring, and here we are.

While waiting for responses, I’ve been working steadily on the sequel to A Better Life, making good progress, on my own and with insightful feedback from my writers’ group. I have been hesitant to go back to Some Kind of Justice, afraid I will lose my momentum, and also a little worried Jenny and Margaret will feel I abandoned them.

I have read quite a few authors who encourage setting aside a “finished” manuscript for anywhere from a week to a year, then looking at it with a different perspective, fresh eyes examining the work more objectively than when you’re deep into the creation and development of characters and their world, their story. Because I am a person who always has to feel like I am moving forward, setting writing aside for any length of time always seemed a little frightening to me, but I have, and I survived. Now it’s my plan to return to it and read it more as a reader than its author.

My goal is still to publish Some Kind of Justice this year. This is the moment to shift my focus and go back to this manuscript that has been untouched for three months and commit myself to getting it into the hands of readers. Of course, I’m not completely abandoning Margaret and Jenny. I think they know by now I’m here and open for those fortunate times they want to share with me.

Writing and Wordle

Yes, I’m a fan. And I’m glad there is only one puzzle a day. I have enough puzzles in my writing that are far more interesting and rewarding to solve. I did realize this morning, though, how both require paying attention, realizing mistakes and a willingness to change course.

The directions for Wordle are simple and direct. In the beginning, however, when I guessed the right letters but in the wrong places, I left them there for my next guess, trying to figure out how to make them work. They didn’t, of course, but I continued as if they could. I think just having a correct letter or two gave me hope. I thought I could make them work where they were. Somehow, I forgot the directions and ignored the truth. Then, when I realized what I was doing and that my approach had to change, I corrected it and moved on.

As I write, I need to pay attention always, but especially when something isn’t working. Now that I have been at this a while, I don’t write as many pages that I need to totally discard, and, at this point in the process of writing this particular story, moving scenes is mostly what I’m doing, placing them where they work better (at least for now). I’ve never written quite like this before, writing dozens of pages, knowing they are part of the story, but not knowing exactly where they will go yet. What I am pretty sure of, though, is that they are pieces of the puzzle.