Reflections on Novel writing:

I am great at beginnings but now what?

So, now we have our protagonist, our main character, Hineamaru. For those of you who don’t like podcast, here is the short story in pdf:

Hineamaru Woman Of The Many

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The summary is, we meet Hineamaru, or ‘Girl’ as she likes to be called as a 16 year old who is angry and pissed off with the world and is pushing back at everyone, including her great grandmother, Kuia Hineamaru; her grandmother, Nanny Hinewai and all of her Aunties (there are a lot of them and all with an opinion). Whānau who are just trying to do their best and manage Hine. But she doesn’t want to be managed and she just keeps digging her hole deeper and deeper. Till finally, she feels like her only choice is to run.

Fast forward, 20 years later and we will meet Hineamaru again. Where is she and what is she doing? I wrote the answer to those questions in a few chapters years ago, but I have not moved the story forward. Here’s why. I am great at beginnings. I can spend years on writing and re-writing beginnings. And then when I do do a rewrite, and I change something core to it, it then unravels a whole lot of other details that I then also have to go back and change. Maybe it is a form of writers procrastination. Or maybe it is just my writing process. I’m pretty sure this is not unique to me.

Whilst doing the Institute of Modern Letters Scriptwriting Course at Victoria University in 2013, planning was an essential component of creating a script. There were some who would write a plan scene by scene without having ever actually written the script. I recall seeing post it notes of a scriptwriter’s whole movie, scene heading by scene heading. This wasn’t my way. But I still managed to complete a full length film script within the year, so my method, (along side having a non-negotiable dead line) must have worked.

My ‘method’ is I don’t know at the beginning where it will end. I don’t have a plan of each chapter. I might have a small destination in mind, but most of the time, I have no idea how the hell me and my characters might get there or whether in fact that that’s where they want to go. My method, is I let my characters tell me where they want to go and what they want to be doing.

Which brings me back to where I am heading with this post. I made contact with Whaea Moe Milne and asked if we could make a time to korero. I wanted to sound out with her my idea of writing a novel and possibly later on a script based around our ancestress, Hineamaru. If we can make a movie about Whina, why not a movie about Hineamaru? She tells me that she is the claimant for Ngāti Hine in the Waitangi Tribunals. That was when I sent the story of our 16 year old HIneamaru, because I felt like she represented a product of what the claim may also be about. About disconnection, despite the fact Hine had whānau around her, but as the Kuia Hineamaru explains, her great granddaughter has been away too long.

Whaea Moe’s first comment was, ‘She thinks she is disconnected, but she is not.’ Ae ra, that’s the thing with being Māori, ‘He kākano ahau i ruia mai i a Rangiātea’ You are a seed, born of greatness. Māori is Māori, whether you want it or not.

As Whaea Moe talked to me, it was a wairua conversation for me. Wairua buzzing all around. Synchronicities. I wrote the first Chapter to this novel about 10 years ago. I had our girl, Hine meeting with a hospital counsellor. And I had named that counsellor, Moe. And here I was some 10 years later, after deciding I needed to finish this novel (and actually maybe it is more I need to let my characters tell their story) that I am ringing Whaea Moe.

I felt myself wanting to tangi as Whaea Moe talked to me about some of HIneamaru’s exploits. Exploits I had not known about, but eerily, I had already written for our character. Tūpuna Hineamaru had a first born, Whe who she had ‘left behind.’ Our character meets Moe, the hospital counsellor, and gives her her first born.

“Make her curious,” Whaea Moe said to me. “Make her resilient. Ngāti Hine woman are known for being outspoken too. Hineamaru led from behind.” She then tells me how our tūpuna Hineamaru did not conform to ‘conventional standards.’ Which is why she ‘broke away’ and went off on a 12 year quest that resulted in the establishment of Ngāti Hine. She was a ground breaker. A wāhine toa.  All of this korero and I can feel my own wairua buzzing BIG TIME.  

I have no doubt that my tūpuna and wairua have pushed this story within me to the forefront. Kua tae mai te wā. No more working on the beginning chapters. Time to get the story told. I said to Whaea Moe, its gonna be like ‘Thelma and Louise.’ These two characters will set off on a road trip, but as to whether they might engage in criminal activities, I guess that will be up to the pair of them. Maybe my working title will be ‘Moe and Hine’ for the time being.

But now, I need to get to the ngako (the core) of the story. A story about pushing back. A story about courage and resilience. A story about not following the party line or convention. A story about identity and being enough. A story about being curious.

He mihi aroha ki a Whaea Moe. Words can not express how much our korero affected me, a wairua, a hinengaro. Thank you for giving me the gift of your time and knowledge. ‘Keep  me up to date with what happens to our girl,” she said.

Aē, mārika! (yes indeed). I should have said ‘Our girls.’

Lisa