Whilst driving home yesterday, my mind turned to my 1999 work, The Mill. Originally a film script, later the sketchiest of novels, currently available for free online and unlinked and complete with horrendous spelling and grammatical errors and inconsistencies, the idea of reworking the story has been sitting in the back of my mind quietly minding its own business for a while now. The theme of the book is based around a National Trust holiday that I went on in July/August 1999 and thus it is full of topical pop culture references which are very specifically *then*.
So, if I were to rework the story (not yet though, I’m busy working on Mr Tumnal’s story), I think I would have to set it as a period piece very specifically in that week commencing 24 July 1999. The thought that crept up on me yesterday was that if Kirsten Ball told the story in the past tense, that would be quite interesting. Then I can have a personal slant to it whilst specifically dating it to that time. However some scenes, obviously, aren’t one’s which Kirsten ever witnessed, so…
Can I tell a story in first person past tense, but where they also recount scenes as it has been told to them by the other characters, as long as it is clear that is what I’m doing?
