Elisabeth Grace Foley

Historical Fiction Author

The Lightbulb Moment Remembered

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I’ve mentioned before how a major turning point in the process of writing Land of Hills and Valleys (which stretched out over many years, as this post from all the way back in 2011 testifies) was the decision to switch from writing it in third-person to first-person—specifically, in a narrative style inspired by Mary Stewart’s classic romantic suspense novels. However, after the passing of a few years, exactly when and how I got the idea had become hazy in my memory. But one night recently I was looking through my old journals for some notes for an unfinished story, and I stumbled across the very entry where I recorded having that idea (from July 2017):

Read Mary Stewart’s “Wildfire at Midnight” over the last two days, and though I don’t think it’s one of her best, it gave me an unexpected lightbulb moment today: I decided if I do rewrite [Land of Hills and Valleys] one of these days, I’m going to do it in Lena’s first-person POV. I looked at my outline and it actually works. I just need to trim a few scenes involving minor characters where she isn’t present, and have her present at all the big climactic scenes. Which really makes better sense, as she’s the protagonist after all.

As matter-of-fact as that. I find it a bit funny that the idea was actually inspired by reading one of my least favorite Stewarts—that part I hadn’t remembered. Of course I still had plenty of actual work to do on the book ahead of me at this point, but this was definitely the epiphany that got me onto the right track!

image: “Peaceful Morning on the Range” by C.M. Dudash

Extracts From the Diary of an Author, II

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As I approach having yet another journal filled up and starting a new blank one, I’ve been flipping back through the pages of the filled one and reading an entry here and there. Reading old journals is sometimes surprisingly enjoyable once you’ve come far enough that you don’t remember everything you wrote. Sometimes I find a useful idea filed away; other times (inevitable) I wince and grin and move on; and frequently I get a good laugh out of an old entry. I remember I did a post a few years ago sharing a few writing-related extracts from my journals, so I thought I’d pick out a few more such ramblings that are story-spoiler-free and share them here. The first one comes from just after I finished typing the manuscript of One of Ours:

December 8th, 2015
I don’t know what it is about finishing a project that makes me want to clean out my notebooks. I got rid of a whole bunch of notes I know are too juvenile to use and therefore so much dead wood. It’s a little like saying goodbye to old friends and a little like getting rid of grasping poor relations.

…Then there’s about a dozen pages of concepts for books and stories that I may get some use out of one day—I don’t think I should waste my time copying them into a notebook (because I’d probably immediately decide I wanted the notebook for something else and tear them out), but I’d feel more organized if I could put them in a smaller binder.

January 31st, 2016
I think I know why I’m a writer. I hardly ever think of a clever answer until hours after the conversation is over, or else I think of something but don’t have the nerve to say it. But in writing I have unlimited hours to think of something clever, and unlimited rounds of edits to decide whether I want to say it.

February 9th
If writers’ novels are their “children,” mine is at the awkward, gangly early-teen-years stage right now. I guess I should take comfort in the fact that, since I’ve grown as a writer since creating O.o.O. [One of Ours], future novels will be better in their first-draft stage and therefore will need less editing. I hope.

Extracts from the Diary of an Author

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book-1502805_640“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
~ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

A few days ago I started a new blank journal. When I went to put the last filled one away, I naturally paused for a minute and flipped back through a few old entries…and ended up reading more of them…and before I knew it I was digging out the journal before that and reading it, too. These journals of the last few years don’t make me writhe the way the ones from my early teenage years used to (until I burned them this summer). I’d say ramblings about my writing make up a good two-thirds of the entries. It’s really helpful to be able to muse and brainstorm and speculate in my journal when I’m stuck with a story—not to mention a relief to have a place where I can just write, without any demands of consistency in style, plot or believability. I’ve been making a conscious effort to make it more a journal of life in general, but writing is so big a part of my life that you know it’s going to get in there somehow.

Anyhow, in the course of re-reading these past journals, I came upon a number of variously funny and thought-provoking entries, and I thought it’d be fun to share a few excerpts of them here:

July 20th, 2011
I haven’t the faintest idea what to make for lunch today. I know I’ve used the words “eyes,” “moved,” and “turned” about a million times apiece in [this] story [it was “Delayed Deposit”] and I’ll have to find other ways to say it about half a million times.

November 19th
The side-effects of successful writing are backaches and absent-mindedness. My back hurts more consistently even than my head, and I’ve been forgetting everything. I broiled some cookies instead of baking them last weekend, and this morning at eleven o’clock I found myself trying to remember if I had eaten breakfast. I had to go count the bowls in the dishwasher. Turns out I hadn’t. What I’m still trying to figure out is how I stayed on my feet that long.

March 8th, 2012
I was thinking today about my experience reading Hay-Wire. Much as I loved it, a certain thing kept happening to me. A lot of what Lynn learns in the course of the book is never stated in so many words; it’s left to the reader to observe in him. Similarly, when the author shares his early thoughts she doesn’t point out the fallacies; she leaves it to the reader to recognize them. Even though I caught on all right, I caught myself saying mentally, “Yes, but when are you going to explain? Explain, or the reader won’t see it!” But the thing is, I was the reader, and I was seeing it. I was just thinking like an author, and treating the book like one of my own. This makes me think: I’m probably so over-careful and over-concerned about my readers “getting” it. That’s the questions I always ask everyone after they read one of my stories: “Did it make sense? Did you understand such-&-such a part? Do you get what I was trying to say?” Maybe I underestimate the reader. But then again, is it riskier to overestimate?

January 23, 2013
I’m reading The Little Regiment & Other Stories. Is it a bad thing that I see similarities between Stephen Crane’s writing & mine, & yet find things to criticize in Crane’s? Yet if Crane’s considered a good writer & I do write at all like Crane, then wouldn’t people think my writing was good…? Conundrums!