Waiting

I'm waiting for the novel to start talking to me.

No one needs to call the psych ward; put down your phones. The thing with writing--and it's not just me; other writers talk about this phenomenon also--is that often it does sound a little as though the creative process is doing the tango with some kind of mental illness. (Maybe it is?)

For me, there is a magical moment in the process of writing a book where all of a sudden the book starts talking. The characters stand up, dust off their clothes, and start having conversations. What may have seemed like an agonizingly long wait is made completely worthwhile by the fact that the story has literally sprung to life. It takes on a life of its own. Careful notes and preparation are thrown to the wind, because these people know their stories, and damn aren't they going to start telling you about them.

It's a great moment. It's probably the moment that makes all writing worthwhile.

I have not reached that moment yet, with this current story. Almost. I've glimpsed the characters. They've whispered a few things in my ear. Like a recalcitrant child being dragged from the playground, I have been forced to stop and look and listen, since evidently my ideas are not always the same as the story's ideas.

The biggest issue for me, thus far, with Los Angeles book, is the question of the multiple point of view. I have (and I kid you not) gone through so many incarnations of this story, I hardly remember how it started. First it was only one character, as a 3rd person POV. Then that one character said 'Uh-uh. 1st Person.' First person the story became. Just as I was settling into this style, some of the other characters said, 'Hey, can we talk too?'

At first I said, 'Sure! Why not? The more the merrier!' I'm still not sure if this, artistically, was the right decision to make. Part of my symmetry-loving brain doesn't want to let these characters speak unless everyone gets approximately the same amount of POV-time. Problematic, since one of the characters only (at least so it seems to me) wants two chapters. They are a potent two chapters, and I'm loathe to lose them. But are two chapters enough? Is it going to cripple my audience if they only get to see inside this character's head for two chapters?

Because the fact I am forced to face is this one: other characters aside, there is still one character who is the main POV. It is, essentially, her story. Are the other POVs serving the story, or are they interlopers trying to distract me, the writer or you, the reader, from the main tale?

Why yes, I should be a member of OverThinkersAnonymous.

I have a feeling the book is never going to start talking if I don't let these questions go, at least for the time being. No one says I have to let anyone see the first draft, and, if I find at the end of it all the other character POVs are gratuitous--so be it, they will be banished.

Just write the damn story already, right? Right.