Saturday 28 January 2012

Step right up, the show's about to begin...


“We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images... We slip into a dream, forgetting the room we are sitting in... We recreate, with minor and for the most part unimportant changes, the vital and continuous dream the writer worked out in his mind (revising and revising until he got it right)and captured in language so that other human beings, whenever they feel like it, may open his book and dream that dream again.”
John Gardner - On Becoming A Novelist

Very rarely have I read a book that made me feel like I was dreaming and that made me cry upon awakening at the end of the tale, in despair at the end and joy that I knew part of me would forever remain in that world.

The Night Circus is one of those books and it is the plot, the style, the magic, the everything of that book that makes it so wonderful.

On the surface it is the tale of two men of magic, both with different techniques and beliefs. Unable to prove the other wrong, they train a student each, with the intention of competing one against the other: a rivalry which seems fated from the start every time the competition starts anew. Celia and Marcus are bound to the competition and each other, their lives and magic centred around the forum of their gentile and enchanted battle – the Night Circus.

It is a simple enough plot but it's the Night Circus itself that glows at the centre of of the tale, a character all of its own. Full of wonder, weirdness, enchantments, magic and beauty, the circus is lavishly described, from the white and black powdered grass, each amazing and unbelievable tent and to the tips of the fluttering black and white flags. This whole world is spellbinding, so well has Morgenstern described it. And perhaps it helps that the whole of The Night Circus is black and white – not only does the experience for the characters and readers become dream-like, but it works intuitively with us as readers, after all everything we see on the page as we read is as black and white as the circus itself.

The book even structures itself like a dream, hopping from character, location, time period and perspective with abrupt ease and somehow managing to make it work beautifully, because in the back of our minds we trust and let the dream lead us where it will. And like dreams there are things we don't know, can only intuit, especially towards the end...

But despite the things left unsaid the ending is exactly what it should be... With every book or film I hope for the same things, the rising crescendo of music or emotion at the completion of the tale, the resolution as the characters stand in the real or metaphorical sunrise/sunset – that pay off that is at once a little saccharin and cheesey but ultimately fulfilling none-the-less... And The Night Circus has this in buckets, managing somehow to supply us with a rewarding, heart swelling end without resorting to stereotype or any form of cheese or artificial sweetener.

The final chapter with its implications for us as an individual reader... Morgenstern makes us part of the story, a continuum of the tale, forever immortalised and enchanted. And to do that and make you feel it, make you believe it – that is one of the greatest gifts an author can bestow,

In The Night Circus Morgenstern has even created her very own cult/appreciation society; the followers of the fictional Night Circus who travel with the circus, following it as it flits across the western world, wearing monochrome like the circus itself, the black only being broken by splashes of red, a scarf here, a glove or rose there, marking them as Reveurs, the dreamers who have made themselves part of the dream.

As you watch this author, as you follow her tale and watch her rise above the other words and worlds, appearing at signings and award ceremonies – look out for her Reveurs, for they'll be there showing their appreciation with smiles and scarlet.

If you liked Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell read this book. If you like Neil Gaiman's or Angela Carter's work, read this book. If you love or have lingering affection for childhood fairy tales, the brothers Grimm or Anderson, read this book. Simply – just read this book.

It is a hauntingly beautiful lullaby of a story, full of love, theatre, beauty and enchantment. Read it and you won't want to wake up. Read it and you won't know whether your real life or the Night Circus is the dream.

If I close my eyes I can hear the flags catching the breeze in the starlight, I can hear snowflakes rustling against canvas and the caramel popcorn smells so sweet...


I originally wrote this blog way back in September 2011 and have been lax in posting it. Since then I've attended a signing with Erin Morgenstern as a Reveur, have seen The Night Circus hit the best-sellers chart during the festive season and yearned to read it again.

Erin Morgenstern's next book is going to be a film noir re-telling of Alice in Wonderland, complete with seamed stockings and smoking guns... I can't wait.

2.83 pages...


The last time I posted I had hit the 50,000 word mark in NaNoWriMo and was fast approaching the end of November with a fair old chunk of story left to write... The larks of a Christmas in retail and the recovery from Christmas in retail have kept me away from the blog, but now I've caught my breath back... I guess you're wondering if I succeeded?

At 10pm ish of 30th November I validated my word count at around 60,025 words, (and here I and the word count widget at the NaNoWriMo web site will have to agree to differ...) with at least 15,000 to 25,000 words left to write to complete the tale... and the Champagne remained unopened...

Although I'd 'won' I didn't feel like I'd really done it as I hadn't actually completed the novel in a month... I'd hit the word count, but not completed anything... And so I kept going. I kept the 1,667 words a day goal and kept up the pace, finishing 'From The Library Of Parker Prentis' on 12th December at a total of 87,470 words written in 42 days...

I was like nothing I've experienced before... That amount of wordage in such a short time and wholely focussed on moving forward, never looking back, never re-reading and never editing... It felt like a blank cheque for creativity, it felt like every excuse to not do something had been taken away and all that was left was the drive to put a world on the page.

So, what worked?

Well, the pep talks from NaNoWriMo made officially registering completely worth it, especially the ones from Chris Baty. Every time he sent a pep talk I felt like part of the community, I felt like a brother-in-arms, I felt like he could feel my pain on the bad days and share my triumph on the good. The last page of his NaNoWriMo support title, 'No Plot? No Problem!' (ISBN 9780811845052) genuinely brought tears to my eyes with its motivational, reach-for-the-stars joy...

The NaNoWriMo sites stat pages for your progress were incredibly motivational too, offering a graph with the ideal word count zooming up the middle. I swear the notion of falling below that word count curve made me break out into a cold sweat... Especially when right next to it, in cold hard black and white pixels were the number of words you needed to catch up to regain your ideal word count... Seriously, a cold sweat... 

But best of all, and I can recommend this to anyone with a short term or long term goal; have a chart on the fridge and buy sticky gold stars... The boxed kit of 'No Plot? No Problem!' (ISBN 9780811854832) came with a month long chart with holes for daily word count and spaces to stick stars or sad faces for FAIL days. Of everything, this fridge display of daily fail or success, on display to anyone who comes into your house, helped me keep track of how well or badly I was doing and shamed me into writing even on the days when the new Assassins Creed game came out and the duvet called to me. I never thought yellow sad faces could chill the very blood in the veins...

And so, what now?

Well, it's been just over a month since I typed the last words of the first draft, eyes full of tears at leaving behind these characters, their world and the whole god-damned glorious experience of it all! And, well, it's probably time to consider editing... So, I'm going to read the whole thing through in the next week or so and then start editing and based on previous experiences, I know I should probably have a deadline and break the whole thing down into daily chunks. I find editing a slower and more complex exercise than writing, so I probably should give myself a couple of months to edit/re-write... It's 150-170 pages depending on formatting which at most brings me to the daily target of 2.83 pages a day...

Oh, here comes the cold sweat again...

Wish me luck and mighty Seshat, make it not shit... Please?