A Novel Idea by Fiona McGregor - Review

I accidentally came across Fiona McGregor’s A Novel Idea online. I knew straightaway I wanted to read it because it’s about the process of writing a novel told via a photo diary. The whole project appealed to me.

My local library didn’t have a copy, so I filled in a form to order it from the State Library. It was only supposed to take between one and two weeks to arrive at my local library, but it took three weeks because my local library ended up buying a copy.

It turned out to be worth the wait. Fiona’s premise is that writing a novel at a desk on a computer is similar to the endurance of a performance artist undertaking a piece of performance art, only more extreme. In order to demonstrate this premise and demystify the writing process, she collated the photos she took over a number of years of herself writing her novel Indelible Ink. The photo journey of the creation of the novel begins on 11/11/07 and ends on 04/03/10.

Each photo is accompanied by a caption. Each day the task of writing remains the same, tedious, frustrating and occasionally exhilarating.

The differences in the photos become the focus. Fiona appears in the majority of them and we only see the back of her head. She sports a variety of hair styles and nearly every day she wears a different top, a variety of patterned shirts, singlets and jumpers. I couldn’t help wondering if this was deliberate. Sometimes the blinds on her study window are higher, sometimes lower, sometimes completely open. We see the different mugs she owns. We see the computers she used, displaying pages from the novel. Items on the study noticeboard disappear and new ones appear. I used to own a copy of the postcard of the tattooed woman tacked to the noticeboard.

There are surprise appearances of her cat, Flash, with illuminated, alien eyes.

Fiona’s captions are funny and honest. She not only describes the agony and mundanity of the daily slog of writing, she photographs the books she’s reading, touches on her disturbing dreams, her health and the devastation of a breakup with her girlfriend. Through of all of this she courageously battles on with Indelible Ink, her extreme performance art piece.

Fiona’s list of novelists’ distractions from writing include reading, food, cleaning, gardening and housework.

Reading A Novel Idea and immersing myself in Fiona’s writing life was one of my distractions from writing my novel.

I was inspired by the book to create my own mini documentary project. Here are some of my distractions.

Creating plastic glove bunnies, a distant relative of the dust bunny.

Writing this blog.

Coming up with ideas for future blogs.

Screwing up blog notes and eating.

I could relate to much of A Novel Idea. I think Fiona’s premise about writing being a type of extreme performance art is true. I’m glad my local library bought the book. Now other writers in my local council area can accidentally come across it and borrow it and know they aren’t alone in their endurance writing projects.

It was moving to finally see Fiona’s face at the end of the book and to cheer with her at her success.