Cleaning up the act
As I've decided to make this journal my shout box for writing, I'm in the midsts of cleaning up old entries. In the next few days you'll be seeing some changes to the old girl, and my old crap posts removed (well I can't remove them apparently, only hide them). And from then on out we'll be sitting down, looking up from the typewriter and have some pointed chats about writing and what it is I'm working on.
The National Novel Writing Month begins on November 1st and this will be the first year I'm truly participating. I'm excited about it and think that I'll do just fine. I have a solid story, some good pre-planning down, and now I'm just getting ready to start. I've learned a lot of things in the past two years about writing a novel.
1. Have a clear idea where you're going before you start.
Knowing what it is you plan to write will help you finish it later on. I've found that starting without a clear idea of where you're headed is asking for a ton of rewrites. I've now written over 500 pages of material for my novel "Song of Silence" and starting on second draft I'm not sure i can use most of it. I feel a much bigger pull towards rewriting many of these chapters rather than changing 90% of the paragraphs. The story has changed so much since the beginning and it's because i did not have a clear road map. I just decided I wanted to write a fantasy novel and started writing. I think for this genre especially, you need to have a good idea what you're doing before you start.
For me this involves doing a lot of character creation at the beginning, plus creating a rough plot-pointed outline of the novel. It helps me put everything in perspective and has kept me from rewriting many of my longer short stories.
2. The old adage of "not going back and revising, write forward"
This is clearly true, but following rule #1 will help you keep the gremlins from suggesting you do so in the first place.
3. Write consistently
Don't just write when you have "inspiration." I find this is death to a project. When you begin to write consistently, you overcome this idea that you need inspiration. Call upon your creativity enough and it will come freely. It almost feels like Nynaeve's block in The Wheel of TIme. For those fantasy nerds, you may get that reference.
4. Don't let the gremlins stop you
I have this problem. I have little gremlins in my brain who don't want me to finish a project. They keep suggesting ideas, good, GREAT, ideas that would make for a wonderful story... but it would derail what I've written. Write them down, store them away, come back to them later. Maybe in another story it'll be more useful, or in second draft. Don't listen to it if it's going to completely wipe away what you've done. If the story would change that much, perhaps you have a new story on your hands. For later. Write it down now, use it later.
5. Keep your goal in mind
This is my first true novel. This is not a novella like my Aranor series (though my update on that is upcoming), or short stories like my flash fiction, a true novel. I'm pretty much an unknown. I'm not going to publish a Jordan-like 300,000 words novel. They probably won't even look at it. I have to bear in mind as a new novelist, I need to watch my word counts. 80,000 - 120,000 words is a target, so I have to keep it there. When you know your target word count, it becomes easier to know about how much plot you can put into one book. If you know you're doing multiple, a series say, then you can spread things out.
So these are just a few things I've learned. I don't always follow this, but I'm learning to. Take it from me (who has wasted a ton of content) and just write forward and make sure you have enough prep work done first.
Until later.
The National Novel Writing Month begins on November 1st and this will be the first year I'm truly participating. I'm excited about it and think that I'll do just fine. I have a solid story, some good pre-planning down, and now I'm just getting ready to start. I've learned a lot of things in the past two years about writing a novel.
1. Have a clear idea where you're going before you start.
Knowing what it is you plan to write will help you finish it later on. I've found that starting without a clear idea of where you're headed is asking for a ton of rewrites. I've now written over 500 pages of material for my novel "Song of Silence" and starting on second draft I'm not sure i can use most of it. I feel a much bigger pull towards rewriting many of these chapters rather than changing 90% of the paragraphs. The story has changed so much since the beginning and it's because i did not have a clear road map. I just decided I wanted to write a fantasy novel and started writing. I think for this genre especially, you need to have a good idea what you're doing before you start.
For me this involves doing a lot of character creation at the beginning, plus creating a rough plot-pointed outline of the novel. It helps me put everything in perspective and has kept me from rewriting many of my longer short stories.
2. The old adage of "not going back and revising, write forward"
This is clearly true, but following rule #1 will help you keep the gremlins from suggesting you do so in the first place.
3. Write consistently
Don't just write when you have "inspiration." I find this is death to a project. When you begin to write consistently, you overcome this idea that you need inspiration. Call upon your creativity enough and it will come freely. It almost feels like Nynaeve's block in The Wheel of TIme. For those fantasy nerds, you may get that reference.
4. Don't let the gremlins stop you
I have this problem. I have little gremlins in my brain who don't want me to finish a project. They keep suggesting ideas, good, GREAT, ideas that would make for a wonderful story... but it would derail what I've written. Write them down, store them away, come back to them later. Maybe in another story it'll be more useful, or in second draft. Don't listen to it if it's going to completely wipe away what you've done. If the story would change that much, perhaps you have a new story on your hands. For later. Write it down now, use it later.
5. Keep your goal in mind
This is my first true novel. This is not a novella like my Aranor series (though my update on that is upcoming), or short stories like my flash fiction, a true novel. I'm pretty much an unknown. I'm not going to publish a Jordan-like 300,000 words novel. They probably won't even look at it. I have to bear in mind as a new novelist, I need to watch my word counts. 80,000 - 120,000 words is a target, so I have to keep it there. When you know your target word count, it becomes easier to know about how much plot you can put into one book. If you know you're doing multiple, a series say, then you can spread things out.
So these are just a few things I've learned. I don't always follow this, but I'm learning to. Take it from me (who has wasted a ton of content) and just write forward and make sure you have enough prep work done first.
Until later.