NEWSLETTER 5: CREATIVE TRANSCRIPTION FOR YOUR NOVEL

Wendy’s Newsletter No.5 Thursday March 19^th  2015

5. CREATIVE TRANSCRIPTION FOR YOUR NOVEL

Hello again. Thank you for returning to my Newsletter.

If this is your first time, welcome.

Here on the Newsletter I have been advocating drafting your novel like a wild

child, by hand, quickly without pausing. I am imagining that you are giving that a try. If you give that a try and reach – say 8-10,000 words there comes a time  to transcribe your ‘story so far’.

(Of course you can wait to transcribe when you have drafted twenty, thirty, or even a hundred thousand words. Your choice.)

So now you have this rich bundle of character, narrative and event. What do you do about it?

You put that wild child in a restful corner for a moment and bring out the benevolent primary teacher who know the rules and will oversee your creative transcription so it will truly reflect the concept of your novel.

Rules? Let’s just plonk them here for convenience. 

They all require you to make choices which will be consistent throughout the document. If you make these choices for the first ten thousand words in becomes second nature as you write and you embark on your later transcriptions.

Typeface. 

Choose a plain typeface which will not shout ‘Look at me!’ to any reader. I like Calibri or Garamond. If you want a classic look, choose Times New Roman.

Spacing. At least 1.5. This may alter if you are including a different form of text and need to signal something to the reader. I did this when I was writing ‘Writing at the Maison Bleue’ because that story involved the creation of samples of writing from the six participators at the Languedoc Writing Retreat. These pieces of writing are laid out differently to help the reader know that this is a different on-page voice.

Paragraphs. Of course your first wild draft will already be in paragraphs. (Grammar and syntax are part of a writre’s instinct…)  But when you embark on your  transcription you will check that your paragraphs are doing their job – moving the story on and creating white space on the page to give the reader breathing space. In terms of layout all paragraphs should be indented except the first one in a chapter which should sit at the margin.

Chapters. How you break up your long story is down to you.  There are different fashions these days. Some writers do not use chapters at all but use white space to separate parts of the story.  

However the convention (which I use) is: new chapter new page.

You can decide whether you want to number or name your chapters.  I give my chapters working titles as I go along. E.g. Chris and Joe and the Long Swim. This first title acts as the working code for that chapter, which I can find and think about easily as I leaf through the whole manuscript.

On the very last run, when the novel is complete and all the words are in place I find that the chapter titles evolve from description to other deeper concepts. One example of this in this novel would be The Poetry of change.

Now comes the most important thing:  transcribing those vivid, original wild words that flowed onto the page as you were writing fast.

You have set your own layout and style rules so now you bring back the wild child from her corner to help the teacher with the creative business of transcription. You can relax, because the text and this strong part of the story is there inyour drafting book for you to copy onto your machine. 

So now you transcribe: correcting full stops, adjusting paragraphs, addressing the unique colour of your language and steering the meaning and significance of character and narrative as you go. You begin to notice and correct inconsistencies. You can deal with these as you go, or - I sometimes do this - type a reminder in bold red to do something about this later when you are in properly creative mode.

Note these amendments (page-number-checked) on a fresh page in the back of your drafting book. Here also you can start to list (again page-number-checked) the names, ages and physical characteristics of your characters and salient details of the physical spaces in which they move.

Now the wild child becomes her own continuity girl.

Now you can insert possibilities and question into the text as you go (again in bold red…) to free-write later when you are in proper writing mode.

Having transcribed your ten thousand words, examined them closely and noted new possibilities and developments, turn back to the front of your drafting book.

On a clean page make a list of developments that have emerged or occurred to you in the transcription process. Play the  ‘What if?’ game about things that might happen in your story.

By now you will be aching to write on. Turn to the next clean page and draft the next 10,000 words. Then transcribe.

  Do this four times and you have your novella. Do this eight times and you have your novel.

I think it is important to leave any elaborate lit-crit run-through to the very end when you will begin to notice what you do best and enhance it, and you can iron your carelessness and  repetition to make your story more telling, more transparent, more readable.

I have talked to writers who have punished their prose with a too early lit-crit appraisal and don’t get past the first three thousand words. Ever. They chew away at their wonderful work until it is unrecognisable.

Beware. Trust your long draft and allow it to go where it will and transcribe it creatively as I have suggested here.   

The organic outcome will be unique to you. It will, as if by magic link, with the imagination of your readers and forge a true literary bond.  

Happy Writing and Reading

Wendy

Good news for my Newsletter!

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Looking good. 

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