Getting in the flow

Or how I learned to love novel revisions

The research goldmine

In the opening chapters of The Third Letter, we meet not only Clara, the heroine of the story, but also William and Ifan, two soldiers in the same Canadian infantry regiment, who play key roles in the novel (no spoilers here!).

As the story covers late 1943 to 1948, I knew that both of them would be heading to battle for a large proportion of the novel, and as you can guess from the title, there are letters involved.

This meant I needed to know where they were at each point in the story, and I decided the easiest way to do that would be to research an actual Canadian regiment that was stationed in the right part of Sussex prior to D-Day.

Me being me, I thought that would make it all simpler because I’d be able to use the regimental diaries to follow their progress through continental Europe.

But what happened when I started reading these “war diaries” was something unexpected. Although I’ve always been more interested in the home front aspect of the Second World War, I found myself caught up reading them. And that’s because they proved to be far more than simple reports on what had happened in certain battles and attacks; they also offered insight into daily life in the regiment.

It was these little nuggets that I found so fascinating. Little things like a notice that in early July 1944, shortly after arriving in France and before they saw action, they were defeated 8-1 in a football match against another battalion.

At the end of August that year, they were in Rouen, where “extra cigarettes were issued and were speedily gotten rid of as the population hailed us with one hand while reaching for cigarettes with the other.”

By October, they seemed to be more used to vagaries of war, with the diary noting, “We had become quite accustomed to the Germans DF mortar tasks in the area and knew fairly well when to duck.”

The notices to the soldiers are also a goldmine, showing that discipline and order were expected to be maintained at all times – even (or perhaps especially) in the midst of war:

• “Personnel are turning up at bath parades without towels and expecting clean towels to be issued to them. This cannot be continued…” How dare they expect towels to be provided. Don’t they know there’s a war on?

• “Picture post-cards of places in areas under the control of the Supreme Commander may now be sent provided that the place shown is at least 25 miles from the writer’s official location.” This was part of a much larger paragraph detailing all the scenarios in which a soldier may or may not send a postcard. I would imagine most gave up and simply sent a letter instead – far easier.

• “All ranks will be advised that under NO circumstances will they give, sell or otherwise dispose of cigarettes or tobacco in any form to ENEMY PWs [prisoners of war].” I like the implication here that some were making a little on the side by selling their cigarettes to prisoners. (This one also sparked my interest as I happen to have a couple of incidences in The Third Letter of people trying to make a little money on the side.)

My favourites, though, are the lost and found notices, including:

• “A key ring holding twelve keys and a brown leather tab has been found”

• “Red fountain pen”

• and best of all, “soldier’s belongings, which a Civ Policeman reported had fallen off a MC [motorcycle]” – this went on to list an entire kit that a soldier had dropped.

Each of these tells me a little story, but also leaves me with so many questions. Why twelve keys? A few keys already seem quite many to take to the front with you, but twelve? Unless they are keys to lock up weapons, perhaps?

I imagine the man who suddenly realises at the most inopportune moment that he’s misplaced his red fountain pen. He feels around in his pockets, but no, it’s not there. Where could it be? There will be hell to pay if his mother finds out he’s lost the expensive present she sent for his last birthday.

And an entire kit, fallen off the back of a motorbike… well, that one has sent my mind spinning through so many possibilities.

What I have found the most fascinating is that each of these lost and found items shows that wherever we go and whatever we do, there is still some part of us that clings to our everyday life, and that whatever happens, a small piece of humanity remains. Even in war.

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What I’ve been up to recently

It’s been a while. And no, I wasn’t swallowed up by the mess in my 12-year-old’s bedroom. Although that was a very real possibility on some days.

I’ve been revising The Third Letter, taking my own advice of working on it bit-by-bit, considering what needs to be done to achieve the effect I want and giving myself plenty of thinking time (aka, holidaying the UK).

But now school has started again, autumn is on its way, and I’m back at my desk.

I’ve managed to wrangle the first 20,000 words of the novel into shape, cutting as I went, but I still have another 4,000 or so words that I’d like to shed.

One thing that has helped me take massive leaps forward in the past couple of weeks has been the 100 Days of Writing challenge created by author Katherine Clements. Since 12 September, I’ve been working on The Third Letter daily, but revising rather than writing. And I have so far managed to keep on track every day.

This has helped me to focus on my goal on getting the novel revised by Christmas, and I’ve found that even just two weeks in, I’ve got into a good rhythm of working scene-by-scene to cut back on unnecessary lines, dialogue, and explanations.

By carving out chunks of time each day for revising, I’ve found myself working with more ease than usual on revising these scenes. Who knew that showing up actually worked? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¹

The best part is that I am getting such positive feedback from my critique group on these newly revised scenes and chapters.

And it must all be heading in the right direction as I have just learned that The Third Letter is a finalist in the 2024 Page Turner Awards’ Writing Award.

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On the bedside table

• The Glittering Hour – Iona Grey: A Bright Young Things of the 1920s finds love and heartbreak, but her actions echo down into the life of her daughter.

• The Fraud - Zadie Smith: The Tichborne Trial of the 1870s seen through the eyes of a Scottish housekeeper and Andrew Bogle, the key witness in the case.

• The Familiar - Leigh Bardugo: Magical realism in Golden Age Madrid.

You can check out what is on my TBR or pick up copies of my recent reads at Bookshop UK (affiliate link) if any have piqued your interest.

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If you’ve enjoyed reading this, why not tap the heart up there at the top or down at the end of this email ❤️

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Until the next time,

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1. Well, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, for one. The Hungarian–American psychologist wrote a book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience about achieving “flow”, that state when you become more productive from being so completely absorbed by your tasks. (I also like saying his name so that I can see the look on my Hungarian husband’s face when I butcher it…)