When I first started writing, I searched the net for as much information as I could find. I bought books on the how’s and why’s. But to be honest, everything I read just made the whole process more daunting. There is the word count to consider, how many pages should a fantasy novel contain to be classed as a novel and not a novella, don’t use cliché’s like searching for a magical weapon, or a save the world story, or worse still save the princess, bla bla bla.
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I’m not saying that all this advice is rubbish or that most of it isn’t true, what I’m saying is that at the point I was in my writing, I had an idea and was interested in where I could take it. These guru’s of writing were just not helping. I ended up writing snippets of what I had in mind on scraps of paper. This was less intimidating than a blank page. In fact, the first page I wrote, I screwed up and binned. I actually tore it into millions of pieces so that nobody could read it.
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1…Where to write?
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Some people need complete silence, I find this can help at times, but on the whole I get more written with some background noise. Either music or the kids playing, whatever. The first book I wrote was when I worked in a dead end job. It was the kind of place where if you were fast at your job you created periods of time where there was nothing to do but wait for the next batch to come through. This was my workspace. Under constant pressure to complete a section or chapter before I got busted by the supervisor or the next batch of work came through. I still work better with time restrictions.
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2…How to write?
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Here’s my advice to the budding novelist. Get yourself a pen and paper, or a computer, and write. A blank page can be scary. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a true piece of paper or a digital; it’s all the same. Your mind goes blank. Where a million ideas had just flowed, there is nothing. Just type. I’ve had that feeling where you’re sat staring at a blank screen, but honestly, you just have to get on with it. Don’t worry about punctuation, grammar etc, just type. Your book will go through numerous edits, so you can correct the mistakes later, but if you don’t start you won’t have anything to correct will you?
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I personally prefer a pad and pen. That way when you get around to typing it up, you rework it as you go. The point is that when I get to the computer, I’ve got something to rework.
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Back to the main point of this article, write a story. Picture your characters and write the scene. Think about how they got there, why they’re there and where it’s going from here. I love world building and the creation of characters, but at this point in my first novel, I had nothing. Just two characters and the brief outline of a scene. If I had built a world, and the characters and history that it posses, I don’t think I would have ever started.
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From those two characters, I came up with friends, family, history, maps, conflicts, storylines, the list goes on. If I had tried to create all this stuff without writing that scene and thinking about the why’s and where’s, then I wouldn’t have been able to create such a rich environment.
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I have tried to create worlds first and populate it with peoples and history and then add the story to it, but for me it takes the joy out of it. I like to know where I start, how it’ll end and take a journey with my characters. That’s not to say it is all made up on the spot, because it’s not. Quite often I jot down points that will happen in the next chapter and then sit down to write it. Not all the points make it in, sometimes one idea will stretch or deviate from where I imagined it would go, but that’s all part of the journey. From my point of view, it’s a lot more fun this way.
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3…How long should it be?
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Another thing I do not do is to work to a page count or word count. If the story only ends up being 50,000 words and it has been expressed the way I wanted it, then it would be a disastrous to try an pad it out to hit 80,000 or whatever. And on the same token, if the story ends up at 120,000 words, then so be it.
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I would like to take a moment to say that all writers write their own way. Many writers who read this will probably disagree with me, because they do things completely differently. That’s fine. I’m just giving my own take on the process.
There are many more issues to think about when writing, such as: character point-of-view, who is telling the story, will it be first person or third? style, world building, character building, researching...
The list goes on and there are many good free courses available on the web, which can give you an insight to all these. What I would say is, don’t take anything too literally. It’s your story, you tell it as best you can. When you’ve written your third or fourth book, this one will look amateurish, but as long as you can honestly say that you’ve done the best you can at this point in time, then you should be happy.
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One final piece of advice that I would like to offer is that a critique group is invaluable. You get to talk to other authors who are in the same boat as yourself. The swapping of feedback is great for both improving your own writing and for spotting what doesn’t work in someone else’s, which in turn helps your own writing. Be prepared for some stern criticism, and take it on the chin. There are some funny people out there who feel that they are the authority on all matters, listen to them, but stick to your beliefs. Don’t go changing something that you think is right, just because someone said so – unless they’re your editor, but even then it might be worth disagreeing if you feel that strongly.
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A site that I would recommend, which offers free courses, critique groups and many friendly point of views is Forward Motion for Writers: http://www.fmwriters.com/
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This is an excellent site for writers of all calibres, from beginner to pro.
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Remember writing is supposed to be fun, it’s the editing that sucks.
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Paul
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