Hello, dreamers. It’s WIP Wednesday.

More often than not, my novel projects start slow. I’m still finding my footing, learning to think like the characters. It’s not unusual for me to rewrite the opening pages multiple times, and I’m sure that will happen again. But it’s starting to come together. That said, here’s the latest on my current work-in-progress:

Aquarius 1

When I first began writing Aquarius 1 last year, I could tell something was missing. The plot felt choppy, like I was just going through the motions. It kept feeling like something was missing. Eventually, I finally figured it out:

Interiority.

For those unfamiliar with the term, modern literature thrives on interiority: the practice of telling the story through the main character’s eyes. It’s a way to seamlessly set the scene and describe characters and events while also clueing the reader in on what the MC is thinking. In today’s literary market, interiority is what separates good books from bad ones.

Without interiority, there’s a strict separation between what a character thinks and says, and the scene around them. For example:

Karen walked along the sloping corridors of the wheel. The walls were angular, spotless and white. The air smelled of iodine and ozone. It was brightly lit. This reminds me of a hospital, she thought.

So that sets the scene for the reader, and then tells the reader what Karen is thinking. But it feels choppy, like a film script. Interiority offers the scene from the character’s perspective:

As she walked the corridors, Karen felt like a hamster on a wheel: they sloped upward in front and behind. It was disorienting. The lights were bright, the walls were bare. The air smelled of ozone and iodine. It felt like she was in a hospital. She hated hospitals.

Here the reader gets the same scene, but now they’re not just watching Karen walk, then hearing her thoughts. Instead, they’re experiencing the scene through her. Interiority allows a writer to set the scene and describe characters while simultaneously developing the MC’s character. It doesn’t just tell the reader what the MC is experiencing; it tells them how they’re experiencing it.

When one first sets out to write fiction, especially sci-fi with its extensive worldbuilding, it can be easy to just start describing the scene. But interiority is the difference between a film or TV series and a novel. So to make this novel really stand out, I need to get into the characters’ heads.

In this novel, that begins in earnest with Anita Powell. The entire first chapter is described through her eyes. The more I read it, this chapter (which I wrote last weekend) doesn’t feel like it’s up to snuff. I kept just describing things from a technical standpoint. Anita is a physicist and an engineer, and experienced in space travel. But there has to be a way for me to describe the otherworldly experience of being on an interstellar spacecraft without breaking her character.

As such, tomorrow I plan to take another stab at the chapter. In the early going, there’s always the temptation to just write on. Sometimes it takes a while for me to settle into a rhythm, and learn to really live inside a story. But this isn’t like anything else I’ve written before. From the very start, I need to get character voice right. So I’m going back to try again. As long as this goes well, the next few chapters should flow easily, as I introduce Karen and further establish Anita. Hopefully, by the end of the week I’ll have reached the first major action sequence. – MK