An Archival Analysis of Ever After: The Pleasure of Storytelling, the Painful Search for the Right Words

Abstract

With the acquisition of Graham Swift’s literary archive by the British Library in 2009, it is now possible for scholars to retrace his creative process in each novel from the earliest drafts to the publisher’s proofs. At first glance, Swift’s tireless rewriting of Ever After seems to serve little purpose, as there are few changes in content. A closer look reveals the importance for the author of finding the right words to fit the story. Through the progression of drafts, Swift pares down the text in order to maintain ambiguity, make the narrative fit the voice of the narrator, and invite the reader to engage with the text. This paper finds that some elements in the creative process are perhaps more painful for Swift than for other writers, since he is a writer determined to find the best wording, and yet he does not trust language to accurately represent him. Swift’s tendency to tell less and less through the progression of drafts is also indicative of his respect for the reading experience. As a narrator, Bill Unwin’s faults are, in part, the product of inexperience, and through his narration the reader glimpses the painful first steps taken by an aspiring creative writer. However, his missteps draw the reader into the story, raising numerous questions about the nature of truth while, in typical Swiftian fashion, offering few answers.

Keywords

• Graham Swift
• Ever After
• archives
• British Library
• creation
• implicitness