Hello, I’m Donna Douglas, author of the Nightingale novels, a series
of stories set in an East End hospital in the 1930s. My latest, The Nightingale
Nurses, was recently published. Dot has kindly invited me to talk about my
writing, and how I set about putting a book together from the first idea to
deadline day. So here goes…
I love starting a new novel. It always reminds me of the first day in
the new school year, when everything is a blank canvas, full of possibilities,
not to mention lots of shiny new notebooks waiting to be filled!
But it’s not that blank a canvas. By the time I sit down to start a novel,
the ideas have been bubbling away on the back burner of my brain for quite a
while. I just have to decide whose story I want to tell!
In The Nightingale Nurses, I’m concentrating on Dora, Helen and
Millie, the three trainee nurses I introduced in The Nightingale Girls and The
Nightingale Sisters. I find three or four main viewpoints is just about right for
a novel – too many more and readers start getting confused! I then roughly plan
out their ‘journeys’ over the course of the novel, making sure I include lots
of highlights and low points, twists and turns. I’m a great plotter. I know
some people like to sit down at their screens and just wait to see what happens
next, but to me that’s like setting off on a long journey without a map. Even
if I do end up taking a few detours on the way, I like to have a rough idea of
where I’m going to end up!
Once I’ve worked out each character’s story, I sketch out their major
scenes on index cards, using a different coloured set of cards for each character.
This means I can keep track of the characters easily, and also indulges my passion
for stationery!
Then I start putting them all together. At this point I’m making sure
that one character doesn’t hog the stage for too long, and also that their
stories don’t all reach their crisis point at the same time. I always have the future
reader in my mind when I’m planning – I want to keep them turning the pages, but
without giving them a headache!
As soon as the plot is roughed out, I write my first draft. This is
where I find out if my multi coloured scene order really works. Usually it doesn’t,
and I find myself moving some scenes around and ditching others to make a more
cohesive story.
Then it’s on to the second draft, which is where the story really
takes shape. This is when the characters start taking on a life of their own
and doing some surprising things! For instance, The Nightingale Nurses reaches
its climax with the battle of Cable Street, a confrontation which took place in
1936 when the Eastenders took to the streets to prevent a march by Sir Oswald
Mosley’s Blackshirts. One of my characters, Dora, finds herself in the middle
of the battle. I’d originally planned that she would try to stay out of it as
much as possible, but Dora had other ideas. I should have known she wouldn’t be
a girl
The third and final draft is really just polishing and line editing to
make sure it all makes sense, Unless, of course, I have another brainwave and
decide to change the ending, which has been known! I reckon I could make this
third draft stage last forever, but my editor drags the manuscript out of my
hands on deadline day!
And then, of
course, there’s time for a quick celebratory G & T before it’s out with
another shiny new notebook and the whole thing starts again!
The Nightingale Nurses is published by Arrow. It’s available from
bookshops and supermarkets, and also from Amazon –
Many thanks to Donna for this great guest post, I am really looking forward to reading The Nightingale Nurses! I have an extra copy to give away so to win, simply leave a comment before midnight on Monday 11th November and I shall pick one out the hat! Only open to UK residents.
