As the doors open inch-by-inch onto this new world, I realise that, despite a lifetime of voracious reading, I don’t understand the basics of writing a novel.

Or rather:

As the doors opened inch-by-inch onto that new world, I realised that, despite a lifetime of voracious reading, I didn’t understand the basics of writing a novel.

Or should it be?

As the doors opened inch-by-inch onto that new world, Tony realised that, despite a lifetime of voracious reading, he didn’t understand the basics of writing a novel.

*

I had never thought about point of view, or verb tense in the context of literature. Why would I?

I simply picked up a book which appealed to me and read it.

If I were stopped in the middle of reading and asked what tense the book in front of me was written in, or what point of view, I would never have been able to answer, In fact, now that I am writing novels (and reading somewhat differently), I suspect that I still wouldn’t have a clue.

So, does it matter?

Reading through books and articles on this mysterious craft, there are many and varied opinions  about the best perspective to give to the reader. Most of these opinions would tend to bow down to the basic mantra of first-time author advice: keep it simple.

Basically, if you are a full-length novel ‘virgin’, you need to write in a single chronology, in time sequence, in the simple past tense, using a standard third person point of view and from the perspective of one character. Anything more complex than that will fry your brain and you’ll confuse your readers.

But what if you don’t want to? Or rather your characters and your story don’t want you to?

Are you being arrogant and foolish if you ignore all of these well-meaning and experienced voices? I looked at some of the novels and authors who I admire. Most of them weren’t following these rules consistently. Perhaps there was a special ability which was granted to them after they’d completed their first attempt?

My first novel, The Old Orchard is written in two interleaved time periods, twenty years apart. The story is told from the perspective of four characters, the protagonist, his mother, his wife and his girlfriend and, to make matters worse, two of the characters are written in the present tense and two in the simple past. Oh, and to add a little cherry on the icing, the present tense characters are written from a first-person point of view while the past tense characters are third-person.

It’s not such a complex novel despite that and I am pleased that I chose to trust my instincts rather than the received wisdom. My brain didn’t explode and it wasn’t that difficult to manage the complexities of the plot. I have no idea why, but the choices I made were the right choices for the novel I could see and the characters who were revealing themselves to me.

I think I was right to trust my gut, but I ended up feeling strangely guilty for a long time.

It was a first, and very useful, lesson in finding the balance between advice and intuition.