Novel Struggles

Slow Down -- and Speed Up!

Is there a way to balance productivity and quality? When I read what I've written so far, it has a hurried quality to it. (Like all my blog posts.) I have a lot to do. I must hurry. Faster, faster, faster.

While that is all true (and I feel like a first draft is good enough for a blog post because that's all I have time for), I'm making a mistake with my novel. I may not have time right this minute while I'm working on my novel to churn out a chapter, I do have time to truly get into the scene and the character. Walter Wetherell (W. D. Wetherell) once told me to spend more time in my scenes and not hurry on so much. That's exactly what I'm not doing.

It's harder to add in things later. It's easier to cut than to add. I need to slow down. Not spend less time, not produce fewer pages. I need to slow down while I'm writing. I might be in a hurry because time is so precious, but the words are even more so. If it takes me several months longer to get my first draft completed, that's okay.

So, having decided that I need to slow down, what have I done? Why, signed up for Nanowrimo, which starts Thursday.

I feel like I've decided to slow down -- and speed up. That makes no sense. So how I'm trying to use it is to slow down because I'm going to spend more time working, which will coincidentally result in 50,000 words by November 30. If I feel I am killing myself or my novel, I am allowed to jump ship but not allowed to stop writing.  Anybody else done it or going to do it?

Carnival of Christian Writers Today -- Good Stuff to Read!

Today is the Carnival of Christian Writers, and I'm honored to be included. Click here for some inspiring and helpful words from working Christian writers.

Those Other Ideas for Writing Projects

Why is it that when you are writing one WIP, you get a great idea for another WIP? Multiple projects are not the answer to completing the first thing you set out to do. I do know this. I really do.

So what to do with the other idea?  Make a note. If ideas keep coming, make a notebook. Save it for later.

Why does the brain work like this? You say, "Pay attention and write about this person and situation." And suddenly your brain says, like a trick dog that's been cooped up too long, Is that all you want? Look at all the other things I can do. And then, while it's showing you how it can count to three with its paws and fish the dog biscuit out from under the sofa, it has distracted you from the fact that neither you nor your brain have a great deal of confidence in your current WIP and are about to abort and go to another planet.

NO, brain, no. Sit, brain, sit.

So it sat for me this morning. And we're still going, my pea-brain and I. I will respect all those fun and distracting ideas, keep them documented, and keep going.

Good brain! Have a brownie.

Making progress

Just a quick note to let you know that if you (me) will put your behind in the chair, you (I) can indeed make progress....

It feels wonderful, but I'm scared to read it.

Pre-Planning Your Novel and Getting an Agent

You won't believe it and I don't either. An agent -- a real agent with a good reputation and a nice roster of clients -- once contacted me after reading one of my short stories to find out if I had representation and, if not, did I have a novel he could see?

And this is even more unbelievable: I never wrote him back!

Oh, I always meant to. I composed many letters in my head, clever little things that usually involved my offer to sleep with him if he would hang around until I got around to starting and finishing my novel. I tried a few real letters, but none of them could overcome the fact that No, thanks for asking, but I do not have a novel.

My mother raised me better than this. At the very least, I could have written him back to say I have never been so flattered, overwhelmed and encouraged in my whole life and of course I'd be glad to sleep with him for that alone. Actually, that's not exactly what my mother would want me to say, but you get the idea. Common courtesy would have dictated that I write this genius, this most brilliant of all agents, back to say a mere "thank you" and "can I send you one if I ever write it?" But no.

For my excuse, I was having a bit of post-partum depression and he probably wouldn't have wanted to sleep with me anyway.

So why am I telling you all this? If you want to know how to blow-off an agent, ask me. If you want some encouragement on getting an agent, visit David McMahon's authorblog. Today's post (or maybe it's tomorrow's -- he's in Australia) touches on that question as well as a question I asked him a while ago about how he pre-plans his novels. I think you'll find it interesting reading. Penguin Books is putting out his next novel, which is due on Halloween.

A Fluid Start

The alarm went off and at first I couldn't figure out what that noise was. Then I remembered. Then I remembered I had set it to get a head start on my novel, because the first thing I do in the morning is usually the only thing I can be sure will get done during the day.

But I am allowed coffee, so I padded into the kitchen in my sock-feet and got an extra surprise when my feet got wet. Water on the floor is never a good thing. Either the refrigerator or dishwasher has broken, or maybe just some plumbing somewhere. Water everywhere.

And I had the first line for my novel: They call me Noah.

Not the novel I want to write, though.

My first thought was, DANGER! DEFEAT! YOU'LL NEVER WRITE YOUR NOVEL! THERE'S WATER ON THE KITCHEN FLOOR. OH NOES! And as I was mopping it up I thought, "This book I'm going to write must be really good because look at the trouble the Forces of Evil have gone to to stop me."

Then I wiped up some more and thought, "Maybe God knows what a shambles I'm going to make of this so He flooded the place to keep me from wasting my time."

Then I thought, "Maybe you just have a leak under the sink. Wipe it up and get writing!"

Sometimes a leak is just a leak.

So, I was slightly delayed to my first writing appointment but the detour gave me more inspiration and I ended up writing more than I planned, more than I expected and enjoyed it more than I feared. I want to find out what happens next.

A great start, though I may throw away every word. And I left myself notes for tomorrow.

Write for Yourself. Here's How Much We Should Care About Fame.

Doris Lessing shows us how much to care about fame:

Another Approach to Novel Writing

Chris Bailey, a very entertaining person and very entertaining writer who is in my writer's group, offers the following for how she writes and organizes her novel:

Wow. What a good question. It's one I'm not sure I have an answer to yet, but I'll reveal the secrets of my experience--or lack thereof. 

First, because I have found that the organization of the novel CHANGES over the course of writing it--I write short little scenes with critical action in them, and give each one a file name that is descriptive enough that I may, with some luck, remember what it's about. They all go in a file with the name of the novel on it. So I start with 125 or more files of 1-5 pages.

That part done, I go through and try to order them, on cards or stickies on the white board or something. Then I realize what a mess I have. Then I try to write a synopsis. Then I realize how weak my plot is. Then I punch up the synopsis, and start writing new scenes that fit the new and improved plot. Then I slice and dice the existing scenes to try to build more tension. Then I read something for the Plots, and discover I've dumped too much info at once, and must slice and dice some more.

Then I start one big file with everything in the new order. I make more mistakes. I add descriptions and transitions. Then the story gets bogged down and boring, so I slice and dice some more. The long file is divided only by Act I, Act II, Act III. I go back to the synopsis, and realize half of Act I is backstory. I slice and dice some more. At some point, I hope to have a second draft. And how some people turn out 3-6 novels in a year is way beyond me. But I'd like to be on that treadmill, so I'm pushing ahead. I don't know what happens in the third draft yet, but maybe the computer runs out of memory. I think I'll make a new backup.

Then Chris added these thoughts:

I think what I'm going through is proof that you push forward and then muddle around, and that creating a story is a messy process. And remember that journalism lesson about burying the lead? I think it's also common to fiction--burying the dramatic beginning in a bunch of backstory.

So--back to the story. I have to make every effort to hold back the characters from their willingness to dump everything they think into one scene.

Thanks, Chris! (Chris is my friend who wrote her novel, then started over in first person. It's getting better and better! And now I've used up 2/3 of my lifetime supply of exclamation points.)

Ways to Organize Your Novel

Yesterday I asked how people organize their works in progress -- physically or digitally organize what they've written. I got some great responses.

1. Put the whole thing in one big MS Word file.
2. Make a folder for the novel and organize your writing by making each scene a separate file named by the scene name (what happens in that scene).
3. Make a folder for the novel. Each day's work is numbered. For example, Day 1's work is 1 and Day 50's work is 50. Also keep a file where this work is placed consecutively.
4. Many people work all the way through (one file) but number or name chapters.
5. Some people name the scene files and date them.
6. Some people write it out BY HAND and then type the second draft in.... (Whew! I don't even write my mother's birthday card by hand.)
7. Anything else?

Pre-Novel Planning

I start my novel in a few days. I'm already behind. How can I be behind? Well, easy. My father's in the hospital, I'm tending to a sick cat and keeping him separate from the other cats, and for some reason I'm participating in a garage sale. And I have some paying work I need to do if I hope to get paid.

The truth is that overplanning is not useful. I have no idea if this is true or what it means, but I'm certainly nowhere near that so let's just say it's an awful idea.

Here's where I am on my pre-planning:

1. I know where and when I'm going to write.
2. I know my main character and her deep yearning.
3. I have decided that this first draft will be in first person because that will help close the distance between me and this character.
4. I believe that God has a plan for this book. In fact, I'm counting on it. (Note: This does not mean that God's plan is for me to finish the book and get published. It might be something like God using this book-writing process to help me see things I don't understand more clearly. I'm available for whatever purpose God has for this book. I just need to be sure I show up.)
5. I'm going to give myself weekly rewards for achieving my daily goals. These will change according to whim and budget.
6. I'm going to count every session as a gift and as part of the process. Whether difficult, inspired, easy or transformative, if I'm breathing and spilling out words, it is a gift, no matter how good (or not)  those words are.
7. I'm going to keep it fun. If it's not fun (to some extent), if it feels like a daily beating, I'm changing up everything. (Remind me of this.)

Things I wish I had done already:

1. Figured out how to organize my novel using MS Word. I've made a big mess of keeping files as chapters and trying to keep track of the numbering in the past. HELP!
2. Had my house in order. (Garage sale this weekend should help.) It's hard to have peace of mind when you live in chaos.
3. Was on a schedule where we went to bed earlier so I will be able to get up earlier.
4. Had read all those books I have on writing and knew what they were talking about.

What is part of your pre-planning?