I don’t know how Dickens did it. Right now, I am on week 3 of writing in instalments, exactly as Dickens did, 170 years ago. So far, I have written chapters 1 to 6, publishing them in the same increments as Dickens did:
| 1 April 1854 | 1–3 | Book I |
| 8 April 1854 | 4–5 | |
| 15 April 1854 | 6 |
The hardest thing, in writing this latest chapter, was finding a thematic connection between the chapter title, and what I wanted to write, given how I wanted to develop the story, and the eventual fate of Little Lizzie. But that is just the hardest thing from the creative/writing perspective. The actual hardest thing this week has been trying to find the time. Between trying to finish my PhD, a trip to London, research I needed to do at the British Library, trying to write up my thoughts on the National Theatre production of London Tide, as well as normal day to day life, it was hard to find the time to think about writing my version of Hard Times. I also haven’t been particularly well, and I am tired. The only thing keeping me going, is Kit’s voice, inside my head, demanding that her story be told. She, and women like her, have been been silenced for far too long, and it is almost a kind of relief to be able to translate that insistent voice of hers into words on the page.
I’m just about to publish chapter 6. Like many of the realities facing working class women of her time, what I wrote isn’t pretty. There is no romantic silver lining that I can give her to alleviate what Kit, Little Lizzie, and all the working women like them, had to endure.
You can find the story on my substack. I hope you find something in it to enjoy.
https://deborahsiddoway.substack.com/p/chapters-iv-and-v?r=1j2955
Deborah Siddoway 