Early this morning I went through one of my favorite books, marking chapters on a piece of paper. I was ascertaining in the book Asta's Book (known as Anna's Book in the US) which chapters were from the viewpoint of Ann, Asta's granddaughter, or from Asta herself in the form of her diaries.
I did that because in my story the action shifts from present day to 1981, and I wanted to see how much of Asta's Book was in Ann's voice, how much in her grandmother's.
Most of it's in Ann's, twenty-two out of thirty chapters. Three chapters are the retelling of a trial, but most of them concern what's happening in Ann's life in present time. Which means around 1993, when this novel by Barbara Vine was published.
In my story it's 2009, then back to 1981. I'd written six chapters before going back in time, but Vine's novel starts off in the past, with parts of Asta's diary. I'm not sure how my novel will sit, how much of Lane, Danny and Daniel's story will take compared to Holly and Miles and Danny. Not all, probably about as much as Asta's words come into that novel.
Anyways, I did that early, before six AM, then I had breakfast, started the rest of my day. Just some research, like looking up information on the web. Something to set parameters, boundaries, facts.
All part and parcel of being a novelist.
Today's word count- 5,111 (split between two chapters)
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