Writing a Novel

Lexus1976

Hello,

Looking for some advice and suggestions....

I'm been writing a novel for the last year and have reached page 190....

Lately I've lost interest...and dont have the time to sit down and write. Its more like a chore then a hobby..

I've bought the following books:
Teach yourself Creative Writing by Dianne Doubtfine
Awaken The Writer Within by Cathy Birch

Both were ok, but would'nt consider them great!

Recently bought "On Writing by Stephen King, yet to read. But from what I've heard it is suppose to be excellent.

What lenght should a novel be?

How much do you write a week?

I usually write and write, most of it is nonsence. Then I go back and edit usually deleting about 80% of it.

Does anybody have any tips on editing?

Would like to get my book edited professionally, how much does this cost and whats stopping the editor from taking ideas and concepts from your book?

My novel may never be published but at least I will feel as if I've accomplished something. It will always be on my book stand. More then likely collecting dust, but it will be the most important and treasured book I will own.

My main problem is getting motivated to finish it....

All advice appreciated!

Odaise Gaelach

Lexus1976 wrote:

Lately I've lost interest...and dont have the time to sit down and write. Its more like a chore then a hobby..

It can often help to do another completely different story. Don't leave your 190-page story unfinished, but put it in hiatus for a while. Then come back to it later.

Lexus1976 wrote:

What lenght should a novel be?

As long as you want it to be.

Lexus1976 wrote:

How much do you write a week?

Depends on whether I get the first draft done or not. Sometimes it can take me ages to get the first draft of a short story done - be it three pages or ten pages.

I look at it as being more like "how many drafts I've got done". Sometimes I can get loads done, but then again sometimes I can't.

To be honest, I don't think that you should worry too much about how much you get done. As long as you actually do something. It's much better than not doing anything at all.

Lexus1976 wrote:

I usually write and write, most of it is nonsence. Then I go back and edit usually deleting about 80% of it.

So do I. Just remember that you're writing a first draft, so it doesn't have to be perfect. There's plenty of time to make it better when you've got the first draft done. Often, for me, that can be the biggest hill to climb.

Lexus1976 wrote:

whats stopping the editor from taking ideas and concepts from your book?

Copyright law, I guess.

Lust4Life

Read Stephen King's book. he gives very excellent advice.

One part I found most helpful is that he says that you must write like mad when the idea is fresh in your head. Don't worry about the flowery details, just get the main story down from start to end.

THEN go back and put in your details or omit things that are irrelevent.

After that is done, completely ignore it for a while. Start on something new.

Come back to that first story with fresh eyes, as if you are reading it for the first time. Then, make your corrections, cross out things that don't quite flow properly, edit, edit, edit.

Once you have done this editing, it is time to hand it over to a trusted friend to review as well. Someone who will give you an honest opinion. Someone who will say "Why did Sean give Lara the rent money on page fifty if she never paid the rent? And who cares if she did pay the rent? It has nothing to do with the monster that is eating the city alive. So it should be removed from the story." (Candid thoughts/suggestions like that will help you a lot!)

Hope this helps! Read the book! It is packed with info!

L4L

McGinty

I would concur with what lustforlife wrote, whilst I have not been published, I have completed a book, and bits of novels all over the place, like you I feel frustrated because this summer I was working on a great book but have lost the desire to continue, but one piece of great advice is write out the whole idea/book and switch off your mental editor, instead of aiming for high brow prose, get the story out, the heart of it, also you may need cooking time, for characters and new details to appear, basically I think the story out in my head, the characters and so forth, also I write out a plot outline so that I keep focused and I like to have a beginning middle and end in my head before I begin writing, also this website http://www.writersservices.com/index.htm is well worth a visit, plus they offer an editing service, I subscribed to their reader list and get a weekly/fortnightly e-mail from them. However I am beginning to believe that writers need to write and yet are afraid to write if that makes sense, you often hear of writers block and you could be suffering with that, its like when you try too hard you freeze up, I think I may be suffering that at the moment, hopefully I'll loosen up. I'm rambling here now, but good luck with it.

dazftw

Well firstly I think you should advocate the phrase "If you want something done then do it yourself".You need to just knuckle down and get back to writing.If you feel your interest is vanishing then maybe just set a daily word target of maybe 500 words.After that when you are writing a scene with plenty of action or whatever you,re loading into it just stop right in the middle of the whole motion sequence and leave it there until the next time you go to write more.Therefore you won't be trying to remember where you left off and can shape yourself into the scene immediately.It may or may not help.But it's worth giving it a look in.

Tingo

Motivation?

I'd have to suggest NaNoWriMo

I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but basically it runs in November. Everyone who joins tries to write 50,000 words in the month. That alone doesn't really help you, but there's a great energy there that might motivate you. You also have the sense that you're not alone, misery loves company after all.

Like someone else said, taking a break from the story might help you, but if you're not quite willing to do that, maybe just step away from the plot. Write a random scene about your characters in a restaurant or somewhere. You never know, it might end up being used in your story.

What length should a novel be?

It depends on what genre you're writing in and which market you're targeting. If you're writing a children's novel it will be relatively short. Equally a romance novel will vary in length from a sci-fi one. Check out a book shop, look at the amount of pages in books that are in same genre as you.

Personally, I don't worry about that. Just keep writing until you're done and then worry about all that junk. You're writing for yourself, right? Being published would just be an incredible bonus, so you might as well ignore all the restrictions it imposes.

For reference, I think the average is about 70,000 words. If a book has 250 words a page, that's 280 pages. It's a safe length, long enough so the reader thinks that the ten euro they will spend on the book is good vaule, and not so long that the bookshops are hesistant to stock it.

I was writing a story recently, decided it would be a short story, and went to my computer and typed like crazy for a couple of days. It turned out to be about 10,000 words long. It doesn't fit anywhere, but I'm glad I didn't try to reduce it while rewrite, it's easier to figure out what's unimportant in hindsight.

Does anybody have any tips on editing?

Too many people do. Generally they seem to have conflicting advise. :rolleyes: I think you're best bet is just practise and experience. Know your characters really well. Make sure John's eyes are blue throughout the story, if he's a hero, he can't just rob a bank. Character charts can help with this. Challenge every sentence. Is it necessary? Does it move the plot forward? Keep things consistent, if Mary lives five minutes from the shops, throughout the story it should remain five minutes away. You might want to buy some sort of grammar book too. Not to mention ignore the spell-checker on Microsoft word no matter how many times it tries to get rid of 'U's.

The wesite Fictionfactor has loads of great articles dealing with everything about writing. Literally. There's an entire section dedicated to motivation. :cool:

Raphael

Just saw this from the front page and was about to recommend NaNoWriMo. The most writing I ever did in a short space of time was when I tried it a few years ago, definately a good motivation

Lexus1976 wrote:

whats stopping the editor from taking ideas and concepts from your book?

Before you send it to the editor print a full hardcopy, put it in a package and send the package to yourself by registered post. If the editor tries to steal anything from it, which is extremely unprofessional anyway, you have proof that it's yours before it was his.