Reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society made me want to write a novel made up of correspondence between characters. However, although it appears deceptively simple, the letter-writing format (like the diary format) can be difficult to execute well. I remember reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis way back in my youth and thinking I'd like to use that format for something. I ended up placing letters from a character periodically throughout a novel I was working on, but never actually finished that book.
Authors can have many different reasons for choosing the format their book takes. With my children's picture books, one key choice I have to make is whether to write the text in rhyme, blank-verse poetry, or prose. My first picture book, One Wolf Howls, basically wrote itself in rhyme. It flowed very naturally from the beginning.
My second picture book -- Big Cat, Little Kitty (Sylvan Dell Publishing, spring 2011) -- started out as blank-verse poetry. Editor Donna German liked it, but said she thought it might work better written in prose. I was willing to give that a try and quickly found out that she was right. The prose version evolved from the blank-verse stanzas I had written, and both Donna and I were very pleased with the result.
I am now working on a third picture book, and it *feels* like it needs to be in prose.
So -- fellow writers -- how and when do you decide what form your book will take? Have you tried writing a fictional diary or series of letters between characters? What other forms have you tried? Stream of consciousness perhaps?
What comes most naturally for you?
I probably should put more thought into these questions before I begin writing. The format that comes to mind first is usually what ends up on the page. I've never tried a diary form or letters between characters, but I'm toying with a story told from two different viewpoints now, which is similar in some ways. It's tricky! You have to constantly question whether certain plot points should be revealed through X's POV or Y's. An interesting topic...
ReplyDeleteHi Dawn! Adding a second POV really does complicate things more than people might think from an author's standpoint. I've played with that approach on my current WIP but I doubt I'll continue with it. My personal reaction to what I've tried so far is lackluster.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting subject - I recently watched a television series called "Ladies of Letters" based on the series of books of the same name written by Carole Hayman. I immediately loved it and thought what a good idea it would be to write in this format.
ReplyDeleteA good idea yes, an easy one no I don't think so, however who knows I may attempt it sometime. Right now though, I just write however it comes out, and most of the time for me luckily, it works. :)
Helen, that sounds interesting! And yes, your method does seem to work very well for you!
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