Eighteen months, I gave a master class
on novel writing at the International Writers’ Collective. Because my
debut novel is set in Shanghai 1937, we spent a little time talking
about the historical research that went into The Dancing Girl and the Turtle. Out of fear of disappearing into the research rabbit hole, I decided to write the story first and figure out the facts later.
That seemed to make a lot of people in the audience happy. I think I
made writing historical fiction sound easy. Did I mention all the
rewriting?
a slow learner
I made some major historical mistakes in that first draft of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle. They ranged from setting my novel during the wrong Sino-Japanese War to misusing the term for those body-hugging dresses worn in 1930s Shanghai. Fixing all those gaffes required a full-on, page 1 rewrite.
In fact, if I had to hazard a guess, I would say that 90% of what I wrote for The Dancing Girl and the Turtle,
I threw away. And what was left, I rewrote. Not once or twice but maybe
hundreds of times. They say the easy part about writing is getting that
first draft on paper. The hard part is the rewriting.
Image source: Wikimedia
Now I’m on my second novel. It, too, is a work of historical fiction set in my beloved Shanghai though 18 years after the close of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle.
During those 18 years, the Jazz Age, World War II and the Chinese Civil
War came and went. Mao Zedong rose to power and Shanghai turned into a
very different place. This was the full extent of my historical
knowledge when I set out to write Peace Court, i.e. nothing I knew about Shanghai was relevant anymore.
And still I chose not to research first. I would write the story and leave the rest to the rewriting.
writing without a net
In October 2018, I announced that Peace Court
was in the works. I had a first draft by then and figured, with one
novel already under my belt, the second one would be a breeze. Ha! Eight
months later and I’m still rewriting with no end in sight. Should I
have done things differently? Perhaps started with a plot outline or
some historical research upfront to plug up the holes in the leaky boat?
The sad truth is that there’s only one way I know how to write:
without a plan or even a goal in mind. Yes, it can lead to face plants
but it’s also the only way toward that je-ne-c’est-quoi that all writers
seek. You can call it surprise or serendipity. I call it blood on the
page, that moment when a character does or says something real.
This is not to say I’m flying totally blind. With The Dancing Girl and the Turtle,
I had two parameters set. One, my story would be situated in Shanghai,
around the time my father lived there. And, two, my theme would be
silence.
With Peace Court, my restraints have multiplied. These two novels will be part of a larger work, The Shanghai Quartet,
a set of four interconnecting novels. Characters that appear in one
novel may reappear in another. Each of their narrative arcs need to line
up across all four novels. And since I’m writing in the noir
genre, gritty realism is key. That’s a lot of balls to keep in the air.
Or, to mix metaphors, it doesn’t feel so much like I’m flying without a
net as I’m wrapped inside of one.
rewriting for accuracy
Add to all this the historical context and you’ll agree, I’m
completely screwed. I did quite a lot of rewriting just to keep all
those plot lines across four novels aligned. When it came time to dive
into the history books, my primary questions pertained to plot. I was
looking for holes, factual impossibilities and anachronisms of all
kinds. But also inspiration for new plot points.
For example, I learned about the class label (chengfen)
assigned to each household to designate their relative loyalty to the
revolution. Initially, there were many classes and subcategories. In
time, these distinctions were conflated
into two opposites: red or black,
friend or foe. They would determine a person’s fate for decades to
come, as children inherited the status of the head of the household.
Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of The Chinese Revolution 1945-1957, p. 48
In addition to plot points, I was looking for signs of daily life.
What did people talk about, eat or wear? What sorts of jobs were there
to be had in 1950s Shanghai? I took my cues from numerous sources,
ranging from the Little Red Book to The Art of War.
I would have liked to explore fiction written during that period of
time. But neither the works nor their creators survived the many purges of the Communist Party. For Peace Court, there was only so much historical research I could do.
grounding
Of the material I did find, I took copious notes. Anything that
struck me as comical, disgusting or enlightening. Then I had to pick and
choose. Rewriting my manuscript in order to stuff it full of facts
didn’t seem like a great idea. At the same time, I did (and do) feel the
need to establish my credibility as a storyteller.
Flying Pigeon. Image source: Wikipedia
Grounding a reader in time and place is one way to establish authorial authority. So in Peace Court, you’ll learn that the Flying Pigeon
was the most popular bicycle in town. You’ll find that lipstick was banned in the former Paris of the East and ration cards introduced.
And you’ll visit a watch factory installed inside the home of a former
English banker.
There are many schools of thought as to whether a character should
use the language of his time. Since I’m writing in English and all my
characters speak Chinese, I don’t have to cross that bridge. But I did
want to give a hint of revolutionary language.
So Peace Court
is larded with self-criticisms, novel extracts, letters among comrades
and a poem or two. All of it was made up but it was most certainly fed from the well of my historical research.
change notes
Change notes are the way I organize these disparate thoughts. The
notes are organized chapter by chapter though some changes may need to
be implemented throughout.
1. Too many characters talking to themselves?
2. Delete all adverbs and adjectives!
3. He said, she said: are they all necessary?
My change notes to Peace Court, version 30.04.2018
I’ll read that, in the 1st century BC, the Chinese designated most food stuffs from the West (aka the Middle East) with the prefix Hu
and so I decide to change a character’s name. In a scene where one character
is looking out the window at the building across the way, I realize I
don’t have the geography of Peace Court fixed in my mind. On Instagram, I
run into a picture of winter sweet, a flower that blossoms in Shanghai winters. All these flights of fancy land in my change notes.
So far, I’ve created four sets of change notes. Those notes have led
to more rewriting. I don’t actually know anymore how many drafts I’ve
produced. At this stage, I’m going through the novel chapter by chapter.
Sometimes there’s little rewriting involved, just a handful of tweaks
and then on to the next chapter. Other chapters require a full re-haul
or have to be woven out of thin air.
rewriting for truth
In this stage of rewriting Peace Court, historical facts are the least of my worries. Having added all the granular texture, I need to pare back, if need be using power tools.
I’m looking now for the one detail that implies all the rest. Think of
Tolstoy in War and Peace as the soldiers are in full retreat in the face
of a Russian winter. He doesn’t show us suffering soldiers. Instead, he
gives us the dogs who shadow the troops, growing sleek and fat on
corpses.
My map of Peace Court. Photo credit: Karen Kao
That’s what I want and nothing less. History books are full of facts:
dates of battles and number of dead. Useful to know, essential even to
creating believable characters and conflicts. But now it’s time to leave
all that behind.
Novels are about truth. And I’m still flying blind. I’ll keep on
rewriting until I stumble upon what I’ve wanted all along. A story that
rings true.
Note: Rewriting History was first published by Karen Kao on her blog Shanghai Noir.
I'm familiar with the landmarks - and land mines - of the territory of Writing Research & Revision you describe with such vivid candidness - an inspiring and useful guide for creative writing explorers. (Many have ventered into this territory never to emerge, by the way, and I nearly lost myself in its thickets a few times myself.) I have faith in your outcomes, however, and look ahead to reading more of your fine work. Happy new year.
Great post. I think you are a pantser -- just like me. I cannot imagine writing only once everything is pre-planned, plotted, and/or fully sketched out. That would be a completely different approach which would lead to a different story altogether.
Perhaps there are more rewrites this way, but I believe you need to go with what works for you, even if it's a slower process.
I'm not usually a fan of 'noir', but I was amazed and gripped by The Dancing Girl and the Turtle. I know one can't hurry these things, but hope you'll finish the next book soon.
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Great post. I think you are a pantser -- just like me. I cannot imagine writing only once everything is pre-planned, plotted, and/or fully sketched out. That would be a completely different approach which would lead to a different story altogether.
Perhaps there are more rewrites this way, but I believe you need to go with what works for you, even if it's a slower process.
eden :)