I have um-ed and ah-ed about the best way to do this, and I’ve decided sharing PDF files and keeping the analysis on Substack is probably it. I might change my mind, but for now that seems like the best option. Feel free to print, read on dual screen, forward on to friends, etc, but (obviously) I ask that you do not upload my work to one of those pirate websites where people read books for free. For this reason, as I am not in control of whose hands this gets into, I will not be sharing 100% of the first draft. You’ll get most of it, but I need to retain some ownership.
This is genuinely my first draft. I haven’t changed a bean. Errors are very much present and uncorrected. It’s only fair that if I’m taking your money in exchange for this, it’s authentic.
As I’ve mentioned before, I write in scenes. Chapter 1 is made up of three scenes because there are three main characters in The Household – Martha, Angela, and Josephine – so I felt we needed to meet all of them in the first chapter. In the first draft they all had equal-ish weight, but Josephine probably had more presence than Martha. After writing the first draft I realised Martha was the main main character, with Josephine a very close second, tied with Angela, and so in the published version, Martha’s opening scene has been brought to the top.
I advise reading the scene before launching into the analysis. Sometimes there won’t be much; sometimes there’ll be a lot, so I’ll judge the length of each email accordingly. This might not be the format for every post. I’ll work things out as I go, but if you find you prefer one approach over another, or have any bright ideas, please share in the comments.
Here goes.
This scene was how The Household opened originally. These are the first words I wrote of the book:
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