Jessie Sin asked: What is your biggest struggle you experience when writing a novel?

This one is actually easy to answer: my biggest struggle is slowing down. When I start a new book, I just want to get everything out onto the paper before it slips away. I love the journey of writing a book, but at the same time I just want to be done (yep, right from the start I feel that way-every time). Perhaps this is because my books really begin to take their true form during edits, not during the first draft. I want so badly to be creating the book I envisioned that I just want to get past the first draft and jump right into edits.

Slowing down during drafting is a constant struggle for me-one that I am working on fixing. In fact, December is a “slow down month” for me. I am writing less  (I don’t know if I can get myself to take a month completely off from writing, but I have cut back a bit for the month), and not editing at all (eek!) this month. It is tough, especially since I did not finish Darken during November, so I am partway through a first draft right now. The urge to just sit and write like crazy is intense, but I am forcing myself to chill out a little. I don’t have to be Speed Writer; taking time to enjoy the scenery is a good thing.

With less writing this month, I have a lot more time to read (yay!) and clean the house that was severely neglected during the writing/sickness crazies of November. Our house is looking less like a pit and more like a home every day. I love it. Plus, with extra reading time, I am finally finishing up with Drood (which is awesome!) and am about ready to crack into something new and exciting. Slowing down is definitely a good thing.

Now let’s see if I can hold onto that resolve once January rolls around.

If you don’t know anything about Drood, why don’t you head on over to educate yourself before reading on? Don’t worry, I will wait for you.

*twiddles thumbs*

Okay. Synopsis read? Good. Now I will tell you what I love about Drood (don’t worry, I have barely broken into this huge tome, so this won’t be spoilery).

Wilkie Collins, our narrator, is horribly unreliable. From page one, there is a sense of professional jealousy. Wilkie was the writer who never got the fame, money, or recognition his buddy Charles Dickens got. He is bitter and prone to making snarky comments about Dickens. Also, he admits straight away to using copious amounts of opium. How can anything he says be taken as truth when he is under the influence of opium nearly always?

So, pretty much I am reading this book, not knowing what is real and what is not (okay, before you send the men in the white coats, let me say: I realize it is all fiction. I get that. But still…). How much of what Wilkie experiences is the effect of the drugs? How much of what he says about Charles Dickens is out of spite? I love not knowing!

I have been having a small love affair with Unreliable Narrator since I first read The Great Gatsby in high school. Nick Carraway is a brilliant example of an unreliable narrator–and one that has always fascinated me. After my first tryst with The Great Gatsby, I have always felt drawn to the unreliables. Perhaps this is why I enjoy the first-person POV so much; it is hard to get the full picture when everything is filtered through the eyes of one character.

Really, I could gush about Unreliable Narrator for way more words than you want to read. Instead, I will stop myself here and ask: who is your favorite unreliable narrator?