400 year old insights from William Shakespeare

Today, both my y12 classes, who are studying Macbeth, looked at Act 4 scene 2 (the murder of Lady Macduff and her family) and the first part of scene 3 (when Malcolm 'tests' Macduff.)

I spent some time talking to the class about the importance of the role of Thane: that it was an honored position which carried great responsibility to the people of the thanage - to ensure that they were well looked after; kept safe; that their issues were sorted; that they had enough to eat and were able to thrive. Also, that to be a king's thane meant absolute loyalty to the king - God's representative on earth. To bring discredit or to publicly criticize the leader of ones country was treachery.

We talked about the modern day equivalent - Chris Carter speaking out again the leader of the labour party here in NZ. I asked my students what they had observed of the fate of any politician in power to spoke out against their leader. Did the leader fall? No. The person who criticized did.

Lady Macduff was right to call her husband a traitor. She says that even the tiniest of birds, the wren, would do all it could against the owl to protect its babies. Her husband did not even have the courage of a bird. Later, Malcolm asks the same thing of Macduff - how could you leave your family so vulnerable - especially at this time?

It is poignant when Lady Macduff makes this comment - one that is a universal truth:
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly.

I said to my students - it takes great courage to stand up and do good. We talked about those that did and do: Martin Luther King Jr; Rosa Parks, Emily Pankhurst; Kathryn Bolkovoc; Sam Childers. We talked about the great challenge: Evil Flourishes when good men do nothing (Edmund Burke).

When we looked closely at the way Malcolm tests Macduff's loyalty, we spotted another universal truth - one that has chilling recognition for many of them studying recent history:
A good and virtuous nature may recoil
In an imperial charge.

In other words, I was ordered to do it by my commanding officer.

The way human nature works - its expression and reaction to what people, circumstances and dreams come their way is richly mined in the works of Shakespeare.

As I work on the final rewrites for Birthright, I am so lucky to be daily saturated by the incredible insight from a man who died over 400 years ago.

I could go on tinkering forever...

Maurice Gee once said this about his writing. He talked about the discomfort (horror?) of reading his work in print where he would 'see lost fictional opportunities...things [he] could have done better...'

I have driven about 1000 kms in the last two days. We left Dunedin 10:30am Friday and arrived back from North Canterbury at 4pm today (Saturday). My husband and I took turn about with the driving and while he drove, I had the lap top propped up on a pillow and worked on the edits of Birthright. When I was driving, I was thinking about the edits of Birthright. Sometimes, I solved a problem I'd encountered; sometimes I made more trouble for myself.

We went to visit a special friend whom I've known from school days and her husband on their amazing farm. It was so peaceful and beautiful and I plan to go back soon and justify it as an ideal (idyllic) writing retreat. Go here to get a peak.

Stories are not static things - even when they are locked into their published state. Ideas shift; characters develop long after the writer has typed 'The End' and sent the manuscript off into the world of cyberspace. Giving your story time has huge advantages and many more eloquent than me have advised this: better story structure, better crafting etc etc. But I think one can over think/over analyze. Yes, of course that would be interesting to make the character do that; it would be just as interesting to make her do this thing as well (whatever that or this is). In the end, the critical thing is whether what you select pushes the story further/deepens our understanding of the character.

In our house at the moment, the mantra is (from my husband and daughters - probably the dogs too if they could speak English) - just finish the damn book! I suppose it's because I'm insufferable and I'm not doing my share of the household chores. I could go on tinkering forever...But I can't. I have a deadline. My patient editor is waiting waiting waiting for the rewrites and I owe it to her and her busy schedule to send her my work to get cracking on.

The other (almost horrifying but weirdly satisfying) thing is that I am deleting large chunks of stuff which I thought deepened the characters etc but all it was was rehashed ideas. I am aiming for a quicker, tighter narrative.

So, in saying all of this, I best get back to it. I've given myself all of Sunday to read over what I've done and hope that I pick up any glaring problems before sending it back to the publisher for its next bit of scrutiny.

The madness of writing

It's not a real job. Not a day job. Not a job in the dictionary definition of the word. You can't clock in and out or fill out a sensible timesheet - not really. If I did, mine might go something like this:

3:54am: dreamt of conversation between Bree and Graham. Thought about turning on light and writing it down. Decided to replay in my head a couple of times so as not to forget.

4:30am: lay on my back worried I would forget scene (see above)

7:05am woken by teenager thumping down the hall. Remembered something about a conversation between two characters. Kicked myself for not writing it down.

8:00am in the shower. Remembered conversation. Got out of shower and wrote details on toilet paper. Floor covered in puddles but essence of scene successfully captured.

10:00 wonders if time spent on daily cryptic crossword counts...

11:00 on the way back from taking youngest out to the horses, and in between remembering new road rule, was 'given' another scene. This one about dead bodies and missing bodies and had to turn off radio so I could listen to what the characters were saying. No pen or paper in car so some of it lost by the time I got home to write it down.

12:30 File has been open for an hour. Word count has gone from 97179 to 97233 to 97170 to 97350. The dump file has continued to expand.

1:00 finished looking over editor's notes again. Decided I disagreed about putting in Rachel's thoughts about her love life at this particular moment - there's no way I was thinking about sex when I was throwing up....

4:00 Wonders if watching back-to-back episodes of The Big C counts as research. And, playing computer solitaire

10Pm: In bed, electric blanket on, chores completed and the book is up on the screen, the curser blinking at me like the pointed finger of an angry aunt.

Sometime after, I drift off thinking about a scene and wondering when someone will invent an app that allows me to download all the stuff in my head straight to the laptop - even better if it can done while I sleep.

Character versus Story

I have been thinking a lot about one of my initially minor characters, Bree. Bree is the youngest sister of Duncan and Rachel. She's a brat. In the first book, she's stroppy, demanding, and absolutely devoted to her big brother. Fleance's is wary of her and the feeling is mutual. Keavy, Fleance's adoptive sister, adores her.

In book two, the strength of her will and penchant for violence is touched on as she grows from a child into a person. And, by the end of of Bloodlines, it is very clear how much she hates Fleance.

Bree is tall like her brother and sister. She's been brought up in the royal court. She has grown a lot since we first met the young girl being lifted over the puddles by her big brother. She's determined, angry and has a plan.

To be honest, I'm having a damn hard time trying to wrestle her into line.

I've been a teacher since the late 1980s and I've met various forms of this character: girls who are mean; girls who are super insightful - way beyond their years; girls who are tall (or short) for their age. Currently, I have a student who looks 17 or 18. She's a model. She's intelligent, articulate and posed. She's only just 13. I first met her when she was 11 and I thought she was in high school. She's also absolutely wonderfully kind and generous.

I've had a couple of people suggest that what Bree is busting to do in Book 3 is not 'realistic' - after all, she's still a child. What I've realized is that the Bree that has come out on the page in Banquo's Son and Bloodlines is only the tip of the character who has been living inside my head. My editor gets her (and understands her - thanks Katie!) and so does my agent.

So, today is Bree's day. I'm going to give her her head and see where she leads us and what damage she does.
In the words of my eldest child, she has to do something catastrophic - everything else will be lame.

I've got the story all mapped out but it might be that the force of this one character alters the course.
I'll keep you posted.

What fun!