I read an advance copy of the book (it’s wonderful), and I took the opportunity to ask Janie a few questions about this story. Even if you haven’t read the book yet, the interview questions below will be of interest as we discuss some broader concepts such as research for historical novels, the writing process, and the great function of art!
Janie, your previous historical fiction novels were set in familiar time periods: The Playmaker and The True Prince in Elizabethan England and My Friend the Enemy in the 1940s American Northwest. The time period for I Don’t Know How the Story Ends (IDK) is a less familiar time period (early Hollywood during WWI; think: Charlie Chaplin film era). How do you start researching the smaller details of a time period: the vocabulary, sayings, cultural references known at that time, makes and models of cars, and so forth? Did IDK take more research in these areas than your other historical fiction novels?
So, you’re telling us that the skills we high school research teachers teach are important! Janie, you and I have had several discussions on this next issue, but for our readers’ benefit, walk us through the process of “allowing” a character to use language you personally don’t use and might even find offensive. (For you readers, there is one “damn,” one “bat’s chance in hell” in the book).
Good explanation. We look at just those sorts of background issues when we evaluate a book on this site! If I were assigning students an essay topic on this book, I’d use the following quotations from the book itself, both spoken by this same character we just discussed (Ranger):
“This is about art…and life and truth and beauty too, if we can pull it off.” and “…the story just went somewhere else. I couldn’t argue with it. It was one of those times when you feel like you’re part of something bigger, and you just have to go along.”
How well do these quotations reflect your own writing aspirations and practice? Can you elaborate on how these quotations might both reflect the book’s storyline and theme but also reflect your own beliefs about art in general?
You have definitely picked out two key thematic statements.
Christians are artists and works of art, living out God’s story. We get excited about self-expression because we have a self to express. That’s what excites Ranger so much: a brand new art form that incorporates story, motion, emotion–and special effects! But he wants to do more than just “express himself.” He senses that there’s something bigger behind every artistic enterprise (“truth and beauty”). I usually find, when I’m well into the first draft of a novel, that I have to “let the story go” because it wasn’t really about what I thought. It’s bigger than me, and craft becomes art when it surrenders itself to something bigger.
What a great statement about art and craft! And now, let me ask you about that title: when did you know how the story would end, especially as regards Isobel’s father? Did you have the ending in mind from the beginning of the writing process? Or did you change your mind as much as Isobel, Ranger, and Sam re-worked their ending?
As in most, if not all of my novels, I had a general idea about the end from the beginning. How to get there is the question–and the trouble, while I’m writing a first draft–and the details of the story will certainly shade the ending. I knew Isobel’s father would return [from the war], and it wouldn’t be a happy occasion. One significant feature that changed as I was re-working the last few chapters came from my editor. There wasn’t much of Father in the original manuscript I submitted: he was a spiritual presence over the action, but not so much a physical presence. I suspect that I was as conflicted about him as Isobel. My editor said we needed to see more of him, and after some initial resistance, I gave in. So I changed my mind, or rather she changed it for me. Editors are usually right.
Thanks, Janie!
Readers: Now it’s your turn! Go find a copy of I Don’t Know How the Story Ends, read it, and shoot us a question in the comments.
all images from pixabay unless otherwise noted; book cover image from amazon; author picture from author
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Janie’s words about the story going someplace of it’s own accord remind me of the way Tolkien spoke of his characters in LOTR.
Yes!