Building a novel person by person

I recently entered a stage of writing where I had a lot of scenes, but I needed to knit them all together to make them into a draft. Not a hodgepodge of scenes, but something more flowing, something that could make sense, that would draw a reader along. So I sat down to do just that. What I realised when I did was that characters popped up here and there, after being in hybernation for a chapter or two or five. Suddenly, there they were demanding to be let back into the story. Well, I wanted to let them in, but I had to ask them first "What have you been doing all this time?"

So here's what I did. I started right back at the begining and read over the manuscript with one character in mind. Is this somewhere we see that character? Should we have a little reference to her here? I did this four times with found main characters, and somehow, now my scenes flow together. There's still a l of work to do to get this manuscript finished, but there's a lot less than there used to be, and the characters seem way way way more alive.

Happy Canada Day

St. Peter's Abbey in Saskatchewan

Writers often crave quiet time to write. I've had the pleasure of staying at St. Peter's Abbey near Muenster, Sasketchewan several times. This photo was taken in 2006 when Kari and I were both working on manuscripts. That's me on the far right, white shirt and skirt, and Kari in red shirt, brown slacks. In the background are the beautiful paintings of one of the participants of the Writers and Artists' Colony. You can click on the photo and see an enlarged version.