Research and Revision

Four of Judith's forty-four chapters revised to date. Incorporating the research involves reading what exists and noticing the sometimes hundreds of tiny moments per page that could come into sharper focus. Some shifts or additions are subtle, like changing the description of one character's coarse, difficult hair from a comparison with "dill" to "anise," the name used for the herb at the time.

Other revisions require threads of change that will weave through the entire novel. Every time Judith or anyone else offers a prayer, for example, I need to consider not only the words used but the feeling beneath the words. Every change brings me closer to the spirit of my character.

I resisted the thought of writing an historical novel for years because of all the research involved. Now I delight in the process. Can't wait to share her story with the world.

Prepared for Assyrian Chariot Attack

Finally starting to crawl out from my research-mode cave. I averaged 7 hours a day in Young Library, as I researched everything from Hebrew undergarments, circa 600 C BCE to Assyrian battle tactics. I am now prepared to face down any Assyrians who aim for my village walls. They won't approach head on, but at an angle. Each chariot will hold at least three soldiers--the driver, the bowman, and a third soldier who carries a large shield to protect all of them.

Amazing the number of essential issues I intuited while I wrote the early drafts. Members of a writers' group I attended for a while tore into me because Judith is friends with her maidservant Abra. I'll fix it later, I told myself. This is just so I can get rolling with and complete the draft.

Guess what? Turns out the Hebrews were the only people who considered slaves members of the family in most ways except inheritance. Who knew? Not me. Not until last Wednesday at a sunny table in the Young Library reference section. Every day offered me at least one similar miracle, the joy of research combined with the benefits of sitting down and really listening to my characters before I started each new chapter over the last year or so.

I love research, not for its own sake but for what it confirms in the realm of intuition, and for how it brings the past alive, not just on the page . . . but for me.

Judith

I leave Monday morning for my research trip to UK. My research questions spill over onto a seventeenth page, all single spaced and categorized, from Architecture and Agriculture to Wine and Weaponry. Many of the questions are actually variations on a topic that appears in dozens of places throughout the novel. (I included a chapter by chapter reference so integrating the research will be easier in the months after my return. That's the plan, anyway.)

I've also searched the library's online catalog so there's no time wasted on day one of my trip. As I always told my students, in the two decades when I taught college, "Don't be too task oriented." I'll find this original layer of texts . . . then browse the shelves in that area. Some of my most successful and enjoyable research discoveries all began that way, with a book or books I just happened to discover while I browsed the shelves.

That's how I've also often discovered authors I would never have read otherwise, in that different kind of browsing in bookstores.

Can't wait to get started. Keep your eyes on this space for details as the story behind the story (the research in support of the novel Judith) unfolds.

Did I write this?

As I work through the draft of Judith in preparation for my research trip to Lexington, I'm stunned to read passages that, while familiar, also feel as if someone else wrote them. Judith, perhaps? I always sit down and meditation before I write a new scene. I visualize myself in a location where Judith (or whichever character I'm working with) can approach me.

It's not unusual for me to have a feeling of "Wow, where did this come from?" as I read something I wrote a while ago. Never as strongly as with this manuscript, though. It feels so real.

Can't wait to get to the library and help make Judith's world even more solid, sensual and alive.

Research

I'll be going on a research trip for Judith in the next month or so. Now that I'm recovered from my stomach flu of last week--on my birthday no less--I'm going through the novel and finalizing my list of questions to be answered. I have a general list/outline already; now I'm breaking it down by the page.

On any given page, sometimes in any given paragraph I'll have one question and sometimes more. They range from details of Assyrian armor to women's hairstyles from the period. I don't expect (or need) to answer every question, but I'm looking forward to learning more about my characters' world.

I plan to work through the novel and gather information, make lots of notes and photocopies and bring the data home from my week at the library. The integration of that information? That will take place at home over many weeks, probably months. I once said I never expected to write a memoir. I never expected to write an historical novel, either! This will be a very different way to revise for me. I'm looking forward to it.

More on how that works as it unfolds.