I’ve mentioned before how a major turning point in the process of writing Land of Hills and Valleys (which stretched out over many years, as this post from all the way back in 2011 testifies) was the decision to switch from writing it in third-person to first-person—specifically, in a narrative style inspired by Mary Stewart’s classic romantic suspense novels. However, after the passing of a few years, exactly when and how I got the idea had become hazy in my memory. But one night recently I was looking through my old journals for some notes for an unfinished story, and I stumbled across the very entry where I recorded having that idea (from July 2017):
Read Mary Stewart’s “Wildfire at Midnight” over the last two days, and though I don’t think it’s one of her best, it gave me an unexpected lightbulb moment today: I decided if I do rewrite [Land of Hills and Valleys] one of these days, I’m going to do it in Lena’s first-person POV. I looked at my outline and it actually works. I just need to trim a few scenes involving minor characters where she isn’t present, and have her present at all the big climactic scenes. Which really makes better sense, as she’s the protagonist after all.
As matter-of-fact as that. I find it a bit funny that the idea was actually inspired by reading one of my least favorite Stewarts—that part I hadn’t remembered. Of course I still had plenty of actual work to do on the book ahead of me at this point, but this was definitely the epiphany that got me onto the right track!
image: “Peaceful Morning on the Range” by C.M. Dudash
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