I had at one time thought about doing a whole series of Developmental Letters to Xavier, but unfortunately that would also involve writing his novel, and I have not yet found the time for such an ambitious project. I’ll let you know if I ever do!

Martina

Victoria

Every word must count, or zoop zoop out it goes.

Victoria

Kidding aside, the hard part is not mistaking all that backstory for the actual storyline. Annie Dillard warns about this—reworking the same words over and over again so many times they take on a resonance in your mind and then you can’t bring yourself to get rid of them. I pulled out an old novel last night that I’ve kept around for years thinking, “Someday I’ll have the time to do a revision, and then it’ll be great,” and I finally realized I can’t. I can’t revise what I have into a real story. I didn’t know what I was doing when I wrote it, and now the words have been so deeply ingrained in my mind I can’t figure out how to fix them. I’d have to start over from scratch with one or two characters and come up with a whole new plot. You simply can’t get there from here.

So whatever you do—don’t get too attached to the words! It’s good characters and a good story that matter. It’s always the characters and the story.

Victoria

Spend a ton of time with them. Far more time than you’ll ever put into your novel. Always think of J.R.R.Tolkien and those mountains of books he accumulated in creating his imaginary world and what a tiny moment out of the entire story he chose to illuminate, the handful of characters he snapped into focus.

All that depth riding below the surface.

Victoria