I Like To Seek New Writing Challenges

As I said in this post, I like to give myself a new challenge with every novel I write. For Down Salem Way, the challenge was writing my first epistolary novel.

What is an Epistolary Novel?

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, an epistolary novel is simply a fancy-pants way of describing a novel written as documents such as journals, diaries, letters, newspaper clippings, even emails, blog posts, and post-it notes. I used elements of an epistolary novel in the Loving Husband Trilogy.

Sarah documents her dreams in a journal in Her Dear & Loving Husband. James and Sarah learn about the growing problems for vampires through blog posts and newspapers in Her Loving Husband’s Curse. Dracula, which is itself an epistolary novel, was my main inspiration for using documents as a way to show the increased public paranoia over vampires. 

Down Salem Way is an Epistolary Novel

I decided to write Down Salem Way as James’ journal after rereading Marilynne K. Roach’s The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege. This was one of the books I read for research when writing Her Dear & Loving Husband, but I felt a reread was necessary for Down Salem Way.

Once I decided that Down Salem Way would be James’ journal, I had to learn how to write an entire novel as a series of his private contemplations and experiences.

Tip #1: Read Examples of Epistolary Novels

The first thing I did (which is the first thing I do whenever I’m tackling something new) is find examples from other writers. The Color Purple by Alice Walker is written as letters to God. Dracula is written as diaries, letters, newspaper clippings, and ships’ logs to tell the story of the aristocratic vampire. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding is a great humorous example and one of my all-time favorites.

Tip #2: Read a Few Posts About Writing Epistolary Novels

After I read a few epistolary novels (or reread, since I read most of them before), I found a few posts about how to write epistolary novels.

I’m always wary of how-to posts. My intention when I write posts like this is never to say this is how you must write or you will die, which is how a lot of how-to articles come across. Over the years I’ve learned to take the advice that works for me and leave the rest aside.

For example, in some of the how-to articles the authors made declarations about what people absolutely never write in their private journals.

People do not write dialogue in their journals, they said. People do not describe other people in their journals. People do not describe places in their journals. Unless you’ve read every private journal ever written, it’s hard to make such declarations. I write conversations in my journal all the time. I describe people, events, places, and pretty much everything else.

Tip #3: Be Aware of Showing Versus Telling

Then there’s the problem with showing versus telling in an epistolary novel. Most people have heard the old saying, “Show, don’t tell.” Some argue that there’s no room for showing in an epistolary novel, again, because people don’t write that way in their journals.

If you read primary sources such as historical letters and diaries, you’ll see that people did go into detail about what they did, who they saw, what people looked like, conversations they had, places they visited, etc. In old-timey days, if people wanted to remember something, or if they wanted to share an experience, they couldn’t snap a photo to share on Instagram. They wrote about it in exacting detail.

Tip #4: You Still Need To Move Your Plot Forward

The plot can be problematic in a novel written as a diary or journal. I discovered that in an epistolary novel, there’s some wiggle room as far as moving the plot forward.

Normally, I’d say the plot needs to move at a steady pace—fast enough to keep the readers interested but not so fast that it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening. In an epistolary novel, however, readers expect more interior monologue from the character who writes the letters/journal/diary. You can take a breather and allow the character to share thoughts and opinions in a deeper way when sharing that character’s journal.

But events still need to happen. The plot still has to go somewhere or else what is the point of telling us this story? Really, it’s a balance between allowing your character his or her say while helping readers see where the story is taking them.

With Down Salem Way, the plot was taken care of for me since it’s the events of the Salem Witch Trials that move the story toward its inevitable conclusion. This is why Marilynne K. Roach’s day-by-day summary of events was crucial to the writing of James’ diary.

Roach’s work allowed me to see what happened in Salem in 1692 in real time, so to speak, as though I were looking at a calendar. It’s up to James to fill in how and why these events are important to the Wentworths.

Tip #5: Write in Deep Point of View

One piece of advice I found helpful was this article about writing in deep point of view from Well-Storied. Writing in deep point of view isn’t so different than writing in first-person point of view, but it intensifies the experience for both writer and reader.

In deep POV, you need to limit your character’s knowledge. James only knows what’s in his head, not Lizzie’s. He can take a guess based on her words and actions, but since words and actions aren’t always reliable, he’s still only taking a guess at what she thinks or feels.

I liked the article’s suggestion about cutting filter words like “he saw” and “they felt.” This goes along with what I call my “no extra words” rule when I’m fine-tuning my writing. If a word or phrase isn’t essential to the reader’s understanding then it needs to go bye-bye.

Digging in and Beginning My Epistolary Novel

Rather than worrying about what James would or would not write in his journal, and rather than worrying about how to move the plot forward, I focused on getting deeply into James’ head. Fortunately, that part was easy for me since I know James pretty well at this point (we have lived through the Loving Husband Trilogy together, after all).

Of all the characters in the Loving Husband Trilogy, James has always been the one I identify with most. We’re both bookish scholars who prefer solitary contemplation to the real world. My main goal with James’ journal is to pull readers into the moment with James. If readers feel as though they stand by his side as he experiences the madness of the Salem Witch Trials, then I have done my job.

At a certain point, I had to put the how-to articles aside and figure things out for myself. I discovered that for me writing an epistolary novel is a balancing act—finding the right balance between James’ interior monologue and moving the plot forward, or, in other words, finding the right balance between thoughts/feelings and description/action.

Everything comes down to the story. What is the best way to tell this story? Finding the answer to that question is always the challenge, and the reward, of writing fiction.