THE MUSE IS A CHARACTER I'M WRITING
Shamefully or understandably, one of my writing projects is a novel that is not on hold but that I've revisited after months away. I don't have writer's block. It's that Life demands too much survival from me and too much time including long commutes, in this long moment, to focus. The author Erica Jong said, and was quoted saying, that the time to write cannot be replaced. I know!
The novel is set in the realizable past but is a historical novel. The research for it, which I also enjoy, frankly takes far more time than the writing. That's because I know that a knowledgeable reader will crash into any inaccuracies and not be able to go with the reading flow and the reader who just wants to suspend all belief is someone I don't want to mislead.
It's my aim to enter that time and place and know it as well as my characters.
I'm not complaining. Researching is not just about finding the right information to read. My research has included photographing historical photos on walls in various locations as well as walking certain neighborhoods to photograph buildings. I have a list of buildings I want to go into just to see the lobbies; some of the places in my novel are long gone or have been repurposed or are up for refurbishing. I often listen to music from the era I've placed characters in, because they listen to that music. I've paged through books about the history of the era and photographed just what I'm focused upon and eventually print that out. Clothing and haircuts and perfume are included in my work.
Recently, when I revisited my novel, I started by reading what I've already written. Time away is an excellent way to discover that what you wrote months or years earlier still stands, that it's valid, that it's good or even great. I continued to write a chapter that furthers the story the other day. I'd printed out what I wrote previously and I knew what I wanted this chapter to accomplish as the story moves forward.
It seems to me that my main character, the one my readers will get to know the best, is my muse. This character is continuing to tell me her story so I can write it.
C 2025 Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved
