How You Build it

RHYS BOWEN: I just had surgery on my ankle, which meant I had to keep my leg raised and I couldn’t go anywhere. What’s more I’d turned in my latest manuscript, Clare was working on the research for our next book together and I wasn’t ready to write anything new.

                I’m used to going to my health club to swim every afternoon and I was really missing that. What’s more the weather was unusually hot so I couldn’t really enjoy sitting on my patio or balcony. I was bored. I complained to my daughter Anne. The next day this kit arrived from her. This will keep you busy until you can go out again, she wrote.

I stared at it in horror. Zillions of tiny pieces. Where did one even start. I unpacked bag after bag and found it no way logical. One bag did not contain the pieces for one shelving unit. 

I had to tip all the pieces out and sort them, hoping I’d got it right.  I almost gave up and thought it wasn’t worth the effort, then I decided, “I’ll make one cabinet, just to see if I can.”

So I did.

Then I thought, “I’ll make one book. Just to see if I can.” 

And I did. (The book is perhaps one fourth of an inch big and has all real pages)

Then I kept going…

And I realize that this whole thing is a metaphor for writing a book. I come up with a broad idea for a story: woman, tragedy in WWII, secret service, resistance, retribution after the war…

Then I try to pick out the details: who is she? Why is she? What little things, turning points, will happen and when?  I try and jot down notes. Why is she attracted to Giles? Why is he attracted to her? Are they happy? Is he a good husband?

And I realize I don’t know any of this. Nothing at all until I meet them, get to know them, and start to write. This is just like my miniature kit. So many interesting pieces but where to start? Overwhelming at first.

So I write the scene where they meet. And he starts talking and tells me things. And she tells me things. And I can move on.

I’ve made that first cabinet and book. I can do it, piece by piece. I start to build the world. I put in the framework of the kit and I know where the finished pieces will stand.

As I write my book gradually I see my way ahead. As soon as I get to know my characters I know how they will act and react to their world. And it starts to come together.  The way I work I can never see too far ahead. I could never write an ending before I can see how it will end. I have to learn to trust my characters, and follow them as they make their way through their world.

I’m already playing with ideas for my next book. Maybe the one in Jersey with a woman poet and a manor house and Paris before the war and the German occupation and… where and when to start, who is the hero/heroine? It all seems daunting until I think… build that one cabinet.

Who has tried to build miniatures? I think I may be hooked now. When you are working you have to concentrate so utterly that there is no room for thought or worry.