Writing a novel
I recently started writing a dystopian fiction novel about three sisters living in a fascist theocratical society. It's a novel I always wanted to write but never knew how to start- I still don't (more on that later).
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For me, as I'm sure for many other people as well, reading has always been an important part of my life. When I was younger, I gravitated towards books to offer me the comfort I was missing. At that time, books symbolized safety and a disconnect from reality, but as I grew older, they became an integral part of who I am and of what I want to do. I no longer read just for comfort, although that is still very much a part of the reason why I do. Nowadays, I understand the power and importance books hold. The intrinsic need that we have as humans to connect to other people's stories and to learn from each other in this way. To put it concisely, I'll quote Neil Gaiman, who wrote the introduction for the 60th anniversary edition of "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury:
"Ideas -written ideas- are special. They are the way we transmit our stories and our thoughts from one generation to the next. If we lose them, we lose our shared history. We lose much of what makes us human."
Maybe I'll make another post about that book, which has recently become one of my favourites.
So, why fiction? Well, partly because it's my favourite genre to read, but also because of the purpose it serves. Gaiman went on to describe that importance, so I will leave that here also:
"And fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gift of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over."
The truth I will be telling you through this lie of a book, will be inspired by the many authors I have been influenced by through their own works of fiction. The fascist theocratic society which forbids women from reading and being owners of their own lives was of course inspired by the amazing Margaret Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale". The heightened surveillance and eeriness of neighbours watching one another was influenced by George Orwell's "1984" alongside the previously mentioned work by Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451". The sibling dynamics represented by the sisters (still unnamed not out of laziness but out of my own fear that the names won't reflect their personalities), is inspired by one of my favourite novels, Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women". However, outside of the worlds these authors build, is our own, very much real and flawed, with a history that touches us all. Our identities also shape the stories we write, and as such, I have drawn from a lot of my own life and heritage. If I do a good job with this novel, no one will know how much I took from those hidden parts of myself when putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard in this case).
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Every work of fiction is to some extent influenced by existing literature, which in my opinion is a beautiful thing. It means we are all in some way building on each other's ideas and making them our own. It means authors impact future generations of authors, who impact future readers, who take this culminated knowledge and- well...hopefully, they learn something from it. And hopefully, that "something" they learn, helps us all be better humans.
This post is already way too long, but it felt right to explain the meaning of this book, which as I mentioned earlier I have not even began writing (technically). For the last week or so I have been doing prep work. Writing the world building, the characters, their relationship to one another, mapping out the geography of the novel, and slowly building the structure of the book. I don't know if this is the "right" way to do it, but once again, it feels right and I'm a creature of intuition.
Hopefully my next update will be to let you know I've written the first few chapters. Anyway, thanks for reading!