For those of you wondering about my sporadic blogging and where I might be with the novel…
After NANOWRIMO I stalled a bit, mostly because I was trying to figure out if I really wanted to shift the entire POV of my story. I’ve not written in omniscient POV before so I have to admit I was quite daunted. Thankfully though, I have started meeting biweekly with two talented writers to talk about our books, critique each other’s writing, spur each other onward, talk agents and query letters and to infuse each other with the spirit of enthusiasm.
I took the plunge a few weeks back and began the rewrite of chapter 1. I handed the draft over to Anjali and Laura and whew! The new version sat well with both of them so I’m going to start the task of rewriting the 250 pages I have so far. It does work better, but I have to perfect the technique so it isn’t too confusing to the reader when I flip around from character to character. There is more depth in that I’m able to provide greater richness by showing the thoughts of minor characters as well as major characters–solving some of the issues I had with telling too much historical information. Being able to switch briefly into the head of the slavemaster or the haruspex lets me show the world a bit easier and at the same time I can impart valuable information about my main characters. 
It feels a little awkard to write, only because I’m unpracticed, but for the for most part, there is an incredible freedom in being able to write like a god, with knowledge of everything that happens and the ability to unveil whatever I want or shadow the things I want to keep hidden.
Once I get going again I’ll think about Friday Snippeting again–are there still a few of you out there sharing bits on Fridays?
Regardless I want to make an effort to post regularly again. Hopefully spring will hit New England soon and the energy that comes with the sun and the greenery will also add new life into my writing. Today I realized that little plans are pushing through the leaves near the driveway. When Joe and I were in Provincetown this weekend we saw snowdrops and crocuses here and there in the little white-fence picketed yards. I’ve seen robins and cardinals and so I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that the snow coming tonight and later this week will be the last of the season.
Yup, there are a few of us out there still snippeting.
Would love to see more of it.
Interesting to hear about the viewpoint changes; I’ve kind of adopted that switching-between-characters method too (over my ‘vast’ experience of a novel-and-a-half). I haven’t sat and nailed down my reasons in any depth, but I know at least part of it is that I’m trying to convey a new world and environment to a reader, so covering it from different angles is a good thing; I’m also trying to let readers see the difference between how characters perceive themselves and how others perceive them; and finally, I guess, I tend to see things from a film perspective and so have a tendency to go for the ‘cut scene’.
I think it makes the world feel bigger.
I remember your early shift (if this is still the Apicius book) from Apicius to his slave (sorry, I forget the name), which made sense. It’ll be interesting to see which other characters you’ve opened up.
There are still some Friday Snippeteers, myself included.
And yay for trying to master omniscient. It’s a great POV for historical fiction.