I wore the same night dress my witch used to wear to get drunk on my windowsill, when I suddenly had an idea at 4 AM.
Great ideas always happen at 4 AM, remember? This one however, kept me awake for at least a week, debating it back and forth. At some point my witch asked for her night dress back, and I got terribly cold, while she opened up another bottle of wine, comfortably posing next to my snake plant in the moonlight. “Do you finally understand?”
Honestly, I am still not sure I understand, but I will let you in on our latest discovery: I switched the witching novel to first person!
After writing almost 40 000 words, that is. I did not finish my first draft as a hot mess. I did not wait with the editing until a first version had been suffered through – I threw this upsetting idea right into it!
The idea worried me. I thought that I was just confused and questioned my sanity. But also, I had realized a while ago that the novel was moving on too slowly, and that some plot parts took me too long. Something was not working, and for a few weeks I felt stuck. So, I tried it out. I opened up the old document, rewrote the first chapter, and I felt such a relief! Everything fell right into place. Suddenly, I felt the words of every sentence differently. Moments happened naturally, and I shortened the first part by one third.
I never thought I’d be a first-person-writer, but here I am. I handed this rewritten version out to my friends, and they gave me very positive and useful feedback.
“You are me”, my witch giggles, and I blush. I can only tell this story feeling like my witch drinking by the window in a much too revealing night dress while battling the cold. The novel has to be written in a sweet voice that’s breaking here and there, and it looks like I’m getting there!
I thought I’d need the view from the outside to show the absurdity of things, but no. I need the historical horror to crawl under my skin and tell the story from within.
Mistress witch writes 