Novel Advice

Orion101

Hello,

I've been running a novel idea through my head for the last few weeks. I've got a fairly good idea of the story, what will happen in most chapters and the characters, but I'm looking for advice on how I should proceed.

To now, I've been fairly careful with first drafts (of short stories - up to 12k) - I've found that if the quality of the writing is below my fairly basic standard, I become disgruntled, so I try to take my time. I've found this makes writing a lengthy process, and if I apply this method to a novel, I will likely never finish it.

I know a number of boardsies have written novels. My question is, should I just write the first draft as quickly as possible, pushing aside the feeling that what I am writing is crap, and concentrate solely on completing a very rough sketch of the story?

Thanks, v. much appreciated!

pickarooney

Orion101 wrote: »

Hello,

I've been running a novel idea through my head for the last few weeks. I've got a fairly good idea of the story, what will happen in most chapters and the characters, but I'm looking for advice on how I should proceed.

To now, I've been fairly careful with first drafts (of short stories - up to 12k) - I've found that if the quality of the writing is below my fairly basic standard, I become disgruntled, so I try to take my time. I've found this makes writing a lengthy process, and if I apply this method to a novel, I will likely never finish it.

I know a number of boardsies have written novels. My question is, should I just write the first draft as quickly as possible, pushing aside the feeling that what I am writing is crap, and concentrate solely on completing a very rough sketch of the story?

Thanks, v. much appreciated!

Pretty much. Itś a lot easier, and more motivating, to edit a messy base into something readable than to make something good out of nothing.

cobsie

That's funny - I take the complete opposite tack to Pickarooney! I never write a draft in the sense of a sketch or outline, and then go back and re-write. I write and edit simultaneously, so that the text is usually in pretty good shape at any given time, but unfinished. I rarely know the whole outline of what I'm going to write. Sometimes I know the start and the middle, or sometimes the start and the end but not how I'm going to get to it. I trust the process of writing to suggest solutions as I go along. I surprise myself constantly with ideas as the story unfolds, directions I couldn't have imagined from the cold start.

I know that will seem criminally casual to some people

I wouldn't worry about your being too slow - 12K on a story is a lot! It takes me about 3 months to finish 5k.

Although, maybe if I was a little more structured, I'd get more done - right??

Orion101

Thanks both.

I'm going to try writing as quickly as possible for the time being (already have a few K) and maybe go back an edit them into shape when I'm certain they work ok in the story. I've pretty much written all my stories fairly carefully so far, so maybe a change would be good.

Would you both do much research for the first draft? The story is mainly set in one country but there are parts in two others: should I be trying to get to grips with what was happening in these countries, political events, terrain, level of development etc on first draft or just keep writing? I think I have enough research done to avoid making any serious slip ups

pickarooney

I did the majority of my "research" by travelling to all the places I later wrote about
The rest I looked up on the web. Unless incidental details are a major plot point (e.g. a character freezing to death in Australia in January) you can always tidy this up on the first or subsequent rewrite. It's always good to have an authentic sense of place and time but you don't necessarily need to go into too much detail about places and moments you've not experienced first hand. It's also easy to go into too much irrelevant detail about places you have been though.

EileenG

I write my first draft pretty quickly, and make a point of writing 1000 words a day. That way I have something to edit. I do my research after the first draft, and just stick in ??? any time I have a point that needs checking. Otherwise, the research can get in the way of the story.

Kerrywriterno1

EileenG wrote: »

I write my first draft pretty quickly, and make a point of writing 1000 words a day. That way I have something to edit. I do my research after the first draft, and just stick in ??? any time I have a point that needs checking. Otherwise, the research can get in the way of the story.

I usually write a 1,000 words a day and I agree with Pickarooney. Just let it flow out of you and you can edit it afterwards. If you constantly edit while you write, it does become quite restrictive and might cause you to give up on the book. When I was writing my novel, The Zargothian Tales: Return of the Son of Hamorin, I just wrote it and edited afterwards. My advice is to buy magazines such as Writers' Forum and The Writing Magazine. You'll pick up some great tips from them.

I hope this helps and if you'd like to view my novel's book trailer, then click here.

pickarooney

We get that you've got a novel out, Kerrywriterno1. I know how important it is to get people to know about it, but you're bordering on spamming at this stage.

Kerrywriterno1

Okay. Sorry. It's not my intention to spam or cause offence.

Kerrywriterno1

cobsie

I'm feeling the need to play devil's advocate here - for the 'less is more' style of writing!

There seems to be some kind of panic that 'inspiration' will dry up if you don't go hell for leather all the time, but I think learning to trust your instinct, learning not to ignore the niggly voice in your head that says 'that doesn't really work. I need to fix that' means that you are teaching yourself to write better. If that means slowing down, then that's probably a good thing.

James Joyce sometimes only completed a single sentence of Ulysses after a day's work. And he did pretty well in the end

Finally, I often think of Truman Capote's fantastically bitchy comment about Jack Kerouac, who wrote without editing on one long scroll of paper..."That's not writing. That's typing."

Genius.

smcgiff

I don't think any of us write without care for how a story reads and just concentrate on getting words out. However, writing that require less editing as you go is a skill that's learned from experience.

Consider your early attempts. The amount of rewrites were probably staggering, whereas now they are a lot less common.

I'd be in the camp where I'd write while the story flowed, and then maybe if at an impasse or needed to think how to progress the story I'd go back and edit, in the knowledge my subconscious was churning away at the solution.

EileenG

Possibly it's a personality thing. I find the blank screen a little terrifying, so I tell myself that I only have to fill it, not fill with Nobel winning prose. Once I start writing, I like to think what i write isn't too bad (and I think it's getting better as I go) but if I gave myself the option of going back and editing previous work, I doubt I'd ever get round to finishing a first draft.

Orion101

Trying out the seat of the pants method. Think I have about 8k now. It's really, really bad though. The story lacks detail - feels like its blurred and out of focus - in this case the second draft will probably be longer. Writing multiple chapters at once seems to work well.

Think I'm struggling a lot with the level of detail to include in a passage. It's a vague question but can anyone offer any useful rules of thumb or observations on this subject?

EileenG

Write something, then read it out to someone else. You'll hear a lot of the problems straight away, and your reader will probably ask you to fill in the bits that need more detail to make sense.

My feeling is that most stories don't need the amount of detail that is often included. Readers are quick on the uptake, give them credit for being able to fill in gaps without spelling everything out.

pickarooney

It's very easy to fall into a trap of providing far too much detail. I think a lot of the best stories are where ten people can read and enjoy them while imagining ten completely different sets of images.