Villette – Charlotte Brontë

I’m a fan of Jane Eyre and I have read other books by the Brontë sisters, but I knew nothing of Villette before I started reading it. It had both good and bad aspects. 

The story follows Lucy Snowe, a gentlewoman without fortune or marriage proposal, who must find a way to support herself. She recklessly follows advice to go abroad and ends up as a teacher in the french city of Villette. It’s a story about loneliness and unrequited love. Lucy has a need, like so many of us, to find her equals and true life-companions (not necessarily a love interest). 

This part of the story is what I really loved about the book. It’s not afraid to explore loneliness and feelings of isolation. Lucy is set apart from her surroundings everywhere she goes, yet longs to be on equal terms with those around her and for genuine friendships. It even explores how isolation can make us physically ill and how we start looking for a release from it in the most unlikely places. It was strange to read about a character’s journey through these feelings at a time when I felt unusually isolated myself. 

But there were other things I didn’t like about the story. Although we follow Lucy through different stages of her life and the theme of finding friendship runs throughout the book, it also feels fragmented. It was like reading several books in one. It was as if the different parts didn’t naturally connect. There were also characters popping up out of nowhere. Two of the other main characters must be part of the story long before they “enter the scene.” I found that really jarring. It made me wonder where they were earlier in the story. One of these instances is partly explained away but the other isn’t. 

I also found the ending very unsatisfactory. Without giving any spoilers, I didn’t feel the issue of Lucy’s isolation was resolved and it was such a deep running theme throughout that I felt it needed some sort of resolution. 

I would still recommend Villette. Afterall, I found it really hard to put down once I started reading. There was something about it that, despite its quiet tone, urged me to read on.

End of the Year Writing Update 2022

I didn’t start this year off on a good note with my writing journey. I had just published my poetry collection but then didn’t have much time or energy to write, having started a new job that turned out to be detrimental to my health. 

In November last year, I did my, now annual, writing challenge where I pick a new project and write for 10 minutes a day on it. In the beginning of 2022, I continued writing the first draft of this story. It was coloured by a previous novella I’ve written in that it was heavily connected to music, had magical realism and references to nature. Once I had the first draft finished, I went back to writing a collection of texts that I hope to self-publish as a collection. The texts have themes of the seasons. 

Throughout the year, I have been editing my folkloric inspired story. This is probably the most I have ever edited a story before, in that the timeline changed and new scenes were added to the original story. I’m nearing the end of the structural edit and hope to start querying agents soon.  

I have gone back to a story I wrote years ago to finally have it published. It will be self-published, although, I did for the first time, try to find an agent/publisher for it. It seems novellas-in-verse are still not wanted. A shame, since I love reading stories in poetry form and found some really good one’s while I was researching agents. This was interrupted by the idea to publish a sort of Advent Calendar which I again couldn’t complete in time. Let’s see if next year I will be third-time-lucky. 

In August, I jumped on the opportunity to do a writing sanctuary. It didn’t start out well. I hadn’t planned enough time for it and there was much more than just writing exercises. I have been finishing it up during the autumn and it has been an interesting course.  

I returned to the lovely out-of-doors literary festival at Queen’s Park in September. Lovely little place with some really interesting and varied talks. If you are London based, I can really recommend it. 

One aspect of writing I rarely talk about because I’m still trying to figure out the ins and outs of it, is marketing. This year I have spent a lot more time thinking and learning about marketing for self-publishers like me. I hope to very soon launch a monthly newsletter, which will be a little bit more like these writing updates. Would you be interested in signing up? 

Well, there you have it – a summary of my writing life in 2022.

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