Lately I have had a lot of ‘I thought’, ‘I wondered’ slipping into my first person novel writing. My character seldom had a ‘I thought’ in the sentence in the beginning chapters, but I’m seeing it more and more lately. I like to use it to breakup long sentences. I’m using it the same way I use ‘I said’ in dialogue.

I am talking about when the main character is thinking to himself. Not dialogue. How often do you think a writer should use this (whatever it’s called) device? Should I use it seldom or whenever I wish? Are there any guidelines for it’s use?

And on another topic. I finished my first draft tonight. I ended up with 95k. I always thought I would feel wonderful when I finished, but I don’t. Every little crummy negative voice in my head is on my tail tonight, telling me it’s a terrible book, and waste of time, (fill in the blank). I haven’t heard from these voices in months, but they all came back tonight.

Maybe they’ll be gone by tomorrow.

Azel

If the story is from the MC's POV then adding 'I thought/wondered' should not be necessary, since it should be obvious to the reader that these are his thoughts.

As for post-partum weariness, EmmaD put up a thread about it recently:

http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/47_130606.asp

I find myself using these, and probably too many of them: there's nothing wrong with them in themselves, but arguably they're often just some words you don't need, and if you don't need them, they shouldn't be there, because they're not contributing to the liveliness of the piece.

It depends if the reader can assume that what's said is the narrator's thoughts or not. If they can, you don't need it. For instance:

in I walked down the road and thought how nice it was to see the sun shining at last you really don't need the 'thought', because it could just as well be, I walked down the road. How nice to see the sun shining at last! which is much livelier and more immediate.

But, I would say that you could usefully have it here: She came towards me at a run, and I wondered if the doctor had told her some bad news, because maybe the doctor didn't: using 'wondered' alerts the reader to the fact that the narrator might be wrong. Though an alternative is to re-jig it a similar way to before: She came towards me looking flustered and upset. Had the doctor told her some bad news?

But finally (and this is where copy-editors think I use it too often, and sometimes I disagree) I find I use thought/wondered to differentiate what my narrator's thinking now, while telling the story, from what they were thinking then during the scene they're narrating: In those days I hadn't yet realised that she did everything quickly: when she came towards me at a run I thought she must have had some bad news and be longing for me to comfort her. How wrong I was!

So I think the answer is that you have to ask each thought/wondered/realised whether it's really earning its keep, or if there's a livelier way of doing the same job.

And yes, I think your reaction is totally natural. YOu probably need some space, and lots of back-patting for being so clever as to finish a huge project like a novel's first draft, and know that of course it seems rubbish. It isn't, though there will be some bits that don't work. But you won't know which till you have some time away from it, a rest and some re-fuelling, and can go back to it with a fresh eye.

Emma

Well done Azel on finishing your first draft! Try to let yourself enjoy that feeling, and consider the rewriting to be a job for another day. I hope your negative voices make an exit very soon.

I find I have days when I think my writing's rubbish and days when I think it's bloody good. Perhaps the reality is in between, but it seems normal to have these swings. You'll probably swing back soon.

Perhaps you feel daunted by the task of turning that first draft into a publishable finished product?

Deb

Thank you, NMott, Emma and Deb.

Emma
I’ll try to make my ‘thought/wondered/realized’ a part of the sentence, rather than a convenience.

Deb
I think you are right. I do dread the rewrite and revision. I just don’t know if the book’s worth the time. There is nothing wrong with the story in my head, but I don’t know if I got it down on paper for the reader or not.

Anyway, Thanks all

Azel

You seemd to finish that draft very quickly, Azel. That's real application!

Rosy x

[You seemd to finish that draft very quickly, Azel. That's real application!]
Rosy x

I get the feeling that most of you here are writing literary novels. I am writing commercial fiction. I write everyday and don’t worry to much about what I write. I started the first page on Oct 19, 2006 and finished first draft on April 19, 2007. I think that’s about normal for a commercial writer. I have read they can turn out two books a year.

I have read some posts on this forum where some of you said you had worked on a book for years. I assume these are literary novels. I don’t have that kind of patience, and I don’t write that well.

Do any of you wish to tell the rest of us what type of books you write?

Azel

I write literary fiction, and the fastest I've ever finished a first draft was three months. Now, if I didn't have to do anything else except the bare minimum to keep life ticking over, it would probably be six, writing 1300 first-draft words a day, for a novel of around 140,000 words.

Of course the revising can take as long again, or longer.

Emma

If you've been following the author Louise Doughty's A Writer's Year you may have read her article about being at a writers retreat for 4 weeks, during which time she wrote the first 25k words of her new novel. She then went on to lament about life getting in the way of writing and doubts she'll get back to it until September, so even though people speak in years, first drafts can be a fraction of that. Rewrites and revisions and the last dozen K of gap fillers can swallow up to three quarters of the time -assuming life does not get in the way.

Link to Louise's articles:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/awritersyear/nosplit/awritersyear.xml

Oh gawd, I'm so much slower than everyone else. My novel is 'commercial' (assuming if ever gets to the 'commercial' or 'publishable' stage ). I think i've done about 4 complete drafts now (and also i massively edit as i go along.). Most drafts have taken a year - that's with working full time as a teacher, so with quite long holidays, and the last one took about 9 months, as I've been only working very part time.

Interesting thread - I love finding out about how others work!!
Poppy

I think everyone's first novel takes longer, because you're working out how to do it as you go along. Mine took 5 years, admittedly with a long break in the middle. But you learn an amazing amount by the end.

Emma

Thanks, Emma, that's very encouraging
p x