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46
Postscript - My thoughts on finishing my latest novel
Like my second and third novels, The Pledge Mistress, which is my fourth
full-length novel, was written from beginning to end. I started with a
basic idea, but instead of working off an outline I simply let events
unfold from chapter to chapter. On the surface the story's concept
sounds simple, following the life of a university sophomore as she seeks
to join a sorority. However, I felt obligated to follow the life stories
of several characters simultaneously, as well as describing the sorority
and its pledging program, which accounts for the novel's length and
complexity. Along with developing the lives of the people surrounding
Lisa, I sought to explain why they think and act the way they do, which
comes out in the story's subplots. I want the reader to understand what
motivates characters to do seemingly irrational things, and also I want
to avoid stereotyping characters as purely good or evil.
As I mentioned in the introduction, The Pledge Mistress was not intended
to be an accurate portrayal of a typical sorority in real life. An
example of where I took liberties with reality was the idea of "summer
pledging". In my novel both the Four-Beta Sorority and the Tri-Alpha
Fraternity have two pledge seasons: summer and fall. I had Lisa pledge
during the summer because I did not want her participating in a group of
20 or 30 faceless companions. Instead of giving her a bunch of anonymous
fellow pledges, I gave her only three: Cherine, Bernadette, and
Kathleen. I sought to make Lisa's three companions interesting and
complex individuals who were very different from each other. Personality
issues facing the small pledge group were an important part of the story
and how Lisa's views of herself changed over time. If the pledge group
were larger, I don't see how I could have done justice to the novel's
secondary characters.
I expected to write a relatively short novel of about 25 chapters, but
ended up with a story almost twice as long. In spite of the novel's
length, when I finished the initial draft there were several scenes that
I originally intended to write that ended up not being included in the
novel. I felt that I needed to leave out the omitted scenes either
because they no longer fit into the story line as I developed it, or
because they strayed too far from the story of Lisa Campbell and the
people immediately surrounding her. Here are some of the subplots that
did not get included in the novel:
Lisa�s visit to California following her summer of pledging - Originally
I planned to have Lisa travel to her home in California in August to
visit her mother in Santa Cruz and her father in Reno. (Lisa�s parents
are divorced, but I don�t directly say that in the narrative.) I also
planned to have her run into her ex-boyfriend Mike. Lisa would have
found out that her ex-boyfriend was dating a Danubian exchange student
and had gone on to become an organizer of mass protests against
Mega-Town Associates. However, I had to give that up because a bunch of
other things were going on at the end of August that were crucial to the
novel's ending. Lisa did not have time to make the trip.
The exile of Cecilia Sanchez and Jason Schmidt - I wanted to
develop Lisa�s reaction to the fates of Cecilia and Jason by including
some correspondence with them as part of Lisa�s personal personal
journey. However, like the development of Mike�s life, I did not see how
that could fit with the story as it unfolded during the concluding
chapters.
Tracy�s personal life - From the beginning of writing the novel
Pledge Mistress Tracy fascinated me and I would have liked to examine
her personal life a bit more. There were several ideas that floated
through my mind about Tracy. I considered, as part of the novel�s
conclusion, having her Army Reserve Unit getting mobilized and having
her killed in action while fighting in Iraq. I also considered
developing a subplot in which Tracy�s family was extremely religious and
that her brothers had sworn to kill her, which would have explained her
obsession with combat and self-defense. However, I decided that both
those topics were far too serious for an erotic novel, so that material
got left out.
Cherine�s personal life - Cherine is another character that did
not get fully developed. I had thought about having her join the
Four-Beta Sorority as an act of rebellion against religious parents, who
had pushed her to join a different sorority. In the end I decided that
theme was too complicated for a secondary character and dropped it.
Suzanne Foster - I wanted to bring Suzanne Foster into the novel
and develop a personal relationship (non-sexual) between her, Lisa, and
Tracy. The time-line of the novel did not really give me an opportunity
to do that, because Lisa would not have had the chance to interact with
Suzanne until after she had sworn in. I would have had to extend the
novel�s timeline to incorporate Suzanne, which I did not see the point
in doing.
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I have discovered, through experience, that I cannot use an outline when
I write fiction. Many years ago I attempted to write a political novel
from an outline. I made up the outline just fine, but never started the
novel itself because my imagination had evaporated. I have to write
spontaneously, and then, once I'm finished, I can go back and make
revisions. That method has advantages and disadvantages, both of which
come out in "The Pledge Mistress". While writing, I was able to adapt my
narrative and come up with new scenarios as the story developed in my
imagination. As I wrote about them, my characters developed in my mind,
I got to know them as complex entities, and over time I made discoveries
about them. For example, some of the conflicts that developed in the
middle of the story were events I had not yet thought of when I wrote
the first several chapters. Writing spontaneously has plenty of
disadvantages as well. In the case of "The Pledge Mistress", the story
ended up becoming much longer than I envisioned when I started working
on it. Also, not working from an outline results in many inconsistencies
that need to be corrected, especially with small details.
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The future of my fiction. Whenever I finish a novel, I always
hope that it is my last. Writing a long piece of fiction is a grueling
and time-consuming experience that requires a lot of sleepless nights
and sacrifice of personal time. Whenever I finish the first draft of a
novel, I am hugely relieved. The following quote from Eric Blair
(pen-name George Orwell) best sums up my feelings about writing a novel:
All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of
their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible,
exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would
never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon
whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon
is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention.
- George Orwell - 1947 - from his essay Why I Write
Will I write a fifth novel? Possibly. What I have discovered is that
normally about five months go by from the time I finish one novel until
the plot of another story starts forming in my mind. If I do end up
writing another story, it is for sure that it will take place either at
my fictional university or in the Danubian Republic. Any new novel
either will develop the life story of a secondary character that already
has been created, or if I create a new main character, several
characters from a previous novel will make their appearances and play
important roles in the new story.
-EC-
Pledge Mistress - main
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