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 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.
The fate of Sergeant-at-Arms Heather - Upon finishing the initial
draft, I remained unsure what to do with my character Heather. The most
likely way I will deal with her in the revision will be to have her get
probation through a plea agreement with the police, and then return her
to the Four-Beta Sorority to perform penance as a permanent pledge. A
variation of that theme would be to allow the Tri-Alpha freshman she
tormented over the summer to discipline her, which would allow for more
scenes of erotic punishment. The reason why that did not go into the
current draft was that Lisa already had her hands full dealing with her
two lovers, the new pledges, the Tri-Alpha race, and the sorority
volleyball tournament. I wasn’t able to make the story of Heather fit
into all those other subplots, but will see if I somehow can include it
when I do the revision.
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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 the project. I plan to leave The Pledge Mistress posted in
its current form for about two months. In the meantime I will fill in
the final chapters with GIF transparencies and Poser illustrations. Once
I have a chance to relax, clear my mind, and let the passage of time put
my most recent novel into perspective, I will work on the final draft.
Based on my experience with my previous three novels, it is likely I
will move a few events around to make the story flow better and
consolidate some of the passages in the narrative when I revise it. I
also will make a bunch of minor corrections in the text to fix
discrepancies and grammatical mistakes. However, the setting,
characters, and plot will remain unchanged. The story itself is
finished, and the only purpose of the revision will be to make it flow
better.
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.
