Novel Struggles

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.

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.)

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?

Does Where You Write Matter?

I usually write in my office, where I do my paying work. That's where the computer is and I'm all set up for writing. Doesn't that make sense to you?  I thought so, too.

Robert Olen Butler suggests that you have a separate place for your novel writing, a place where you go first thing in the morning to keep your dream-vision going. This is making more and more sense to me.

Here's the book

I'm going to give it a try. I'm going to use my AlphaSmart because it's great for moving forward with your writing. You've only got four lines to fill, not a whole blank screen. Somehow, working on it takes the pressure off. (I've put in the link. I've got an old AlphaSmart 2000 or 3000, can't remember, that works great and you can probably get cheap on e-bay.) I put my AlphaSmart in a 2-gallon ziplock and take it to the pool and the beach so I can write (try that with a laptop).

I'm going to go sit in the comfiest chair in the house, in a room that used to by my daughter's nursery but we've made the "Prayer and Poker Room." It's kind of a museum because we painted harlequins on the wall and some other special effects and won't let anyone in the room. I'm going to get up early and type my three pages.

Sometimes, though, a change of location can help if you're blocked. See my post on this over at persuasivewriting.net.

Where do you get your best, most stress-free writing done?

Picking Up the Pieces

When re-visioning (re-imagining) your novel, do you use the pieces and parts you've already produced, or do you start over?

Some of that stuff was very good. I remember that! It was hard, too.

But it wasn't good enough to drive me from beginning to middle to end.

So, I'm not even going to look at it. No sir. When I'm done, I'll look at it. I can always recycle then, but I doubt that I will.

My old story is new again. And I'm not going to make it a Frankenstein monster by trying to put together the pieces that another person (me at a different time in life) wrote.

Just my approach. How about you?

How to be a Plotter and a Pantser at the Same Time

Plotters plod along writing their books until they get to type "The End." Can you tell just how jealous I am here? Trouble is, for me, being a Plotter would be a plodding experience -- I write to find out what happens next. If I already know, there's no excitement in my writing (or my life). If I already know the ending, it's hard to keep  writing.

But isn't it always hard to keep writing?

Actually, Plotters know what's coming and if that's their nature, that's the right way for them to write. And when I said they "plod along," that was out of jealousy. I promise. Plodding along would be a very speedy pace for me and my writing right now. Plodding is much, much faster than going backwards, or nowhere. So, to all my Plotting friends, I envy your map. And your dizzying progress!

Rebecca at The Writer's Round-About is doing a great series on this very thing and the pitfalls of each approach. She calls them something different, but she's from Australia so what would you expect? And since she's a plotter, it's all organized and tidy and in six parts.

Since I'm a Pantser, no telling when I'll decide to write about this subject. Right now I'm trying to get some vague ideas going about my novel, because I'm going to start writing it on, let's see, let me pick a date here. How about October 15 for a random number?

I'm going to Pantser it, which means I will take to drink and probably eat a lot of brownies. (Actually, I don't drink because it makes my heart race and is NO FUN at all. Used to be my hobby, too. And you know what? I don't miss it a bit and spend the money on roses for me since the idea would never, ever occur to my husband, though he has bought me rose bushes so I can grow my own.) But I do eat brownies. They help in the encounters with the deep darkness inside where my best writing comes from. It is a most scary place in there. Sometimes I don't even have a flashlight.

There are two sources of fear when you're a Pantser: one is the fear of what you'll find coming from that place where you dream, and the other is the fear that you won't find anything. You might call this a no-win situation. I call it writing a novel and why I experience novel struggles.

But here is why I think it is valid: We all dream. Our minds can create amazing dreams. These same powers of creativity in us can dream a novel. I want to write from there, and I've found a teacher who reinforced this idea, although I was never his student.

I heard Robert Olen Butler speak once (I'll be talking more about one of his books soon). He didn't want to tell us this, but we forced him suggest how to get organized as if we were plotters without killing the dream. Here are the notes I took from his answer to that question. It's essentially his suggestion for how to write from the place where you dream and still have some structure (a life raft) to cling to. I call it How to be a Plotter and a Pantser at the Same Time.

• Come to your work FIRST THING in the morning. Do not skip a day as you could lose the dream.
• Before starting your novel or short story (your dream will dictate which), spend eight-12 weeks watching your characters in different scenes. Write six-to-eight word descriptions of what you see, but don't break out of the dream.
• Write these descriptions on note cards. Keep the ones that feel authentic.
• While in your early morning dream state (when you work), order these cards to come up with the order of the scenes in your book.
• Take the first card and start writing.

The cards can be re-ordered, added to, subtracted from or ditched altogether. And when you critique or edit your work, don't do it as a literary critic, but from the dream state. Don't rewrite. Re-dream.

If I haven't made sense, I'm sorry. I don't truly understand it either. But I believe it.

What's more, it's from this place that I believe that you can hear God's voice. I pray he gives me a story.

How to find a writer's group

Terry asked how to find a writer's group. Good question -- thanks, Terry! I hope these ideas help you -- and others -- find the right group. And please, if anyone has more ideas, I hope you'll join the discussion.

You might start your own group with people you like and whose work you respect. Every group has to start somewhere....

If you're looking for an existing group, you might:

• Contact writing professors at local colleges and universities and ask if they know of any groups (we got some of our members that way);
• Ask local writers if they know of any groups;
• Get in touch with local book reviewers for the nearest newspaper (they are frequently writers themselves and know of existing groups);
• Go to writer's conferences and network (you may even find writers who live near you);
• Go to readings and get to know your local writers and local writing community (they should be able to put you in touch with different writer's groups);
• Find out if your local bookstores have affiliated writer's groups;
• Contact your library, and
• Search or advertise on your local Craigslist. (This last one is scary to me -- there are crazies out there.)

There are writers everywhere, and where there are writers, there are writer's groups.

If you write in a particular genre, you may find an online community. Although I am not a romance writer, I used to lurk on a romance writer discussion board because I happened to find it. They were extremely kind and helpful to each other, which is what I guess I should have expected from romance writers. (I just don't like romances unless they are dressed up as literary fiction or something else.)

Blanche DuBois might have always depended on the kindness of strangers, but I'm not sure that depending on the literary advice and guidance of strangers is a smart strategy.

What works for you?

Join or start a writer's group

Shame can be a great motivator. Envy, too. So can wonderful support.

Join or start a writer's group, and you get all three.  First, it's just plain down embarrassing to show up week after week at your group meeting empty handed. Writers write. If you're not writing, why do you keep showing up?

At least that's what you think that the other members are thinking. Which is as good as them thinking it, although the truth is more likely that they are thinking, "Good! Since she didn't bring anything there'll be more time to work on the piece I brought," or "The poor thing is truly blocked. I wonder if we gave her some of this wine if that would help shake some words loose out of her?"

Then, though writers would never envy one another, if somebody just got her third novel published and you are still perfecting your opening sentence, you might experience something like envy, only much more evil. Please do not take out your failures on your successful friend. She got her book published. If you don't write your book, you can't blame anyone but yourself. So bring her a bottle of champagne and buy copies of her book to give all of your friends for Christmas. Also, write good reviews on Amazon for her. And then, put your butt in the chair and write your own book. It doesn't even have to be good. Just write it.

The third thing is that writers are very supportive of each other. Keep showing up, and they'll keep telling you to write. Bring something you've written, and they'll help you make it better. You'll get into a rhythm that might look like pulling an all-nighter the night before the meeting just so you won't be empty handed, but at least you wouldn't be empty handed -- and you'll be making progress on something.

You'll also learn a lot from the discussion about other people's work. And, you'll get to read some great stuff before it's published!

Finding -- or starting -- the right writer's group is probably a matter of trial and error. Four friends and I started a writing group long ago and called it "Deadline Club" because we had all found out we wrote better with a deadline, so we imposed one once a month. We would mail out our submission for the month one week in advance, giving people time to read and critique it. Then we would give each person's work fifteen minutes of discussion. That group grew and lasted almost 20 years! Unfortunately, as the membership changed, we got the inevitable lunatic who managed to be offended by everyone and offend a few of us, so people quit coming. The truth is, the group had run through its life cycle. For everything there is a beginning, middle and end. Those were my most productive years, though, because if you didn't produce something three meetings in a row, you were OUT.

I got invited to join another writer's group and went for a while. These people were hostile. (One was a therapist and one was a minister. Go figure.) Or maybe that was their form of humor. One woman (a teacher) told me that she didn't like one of my stories because she didn't like people like the main character. Bad chemistry, irrelevant comments. I moved on.

Tonight I'm going to a different writer's group that has been kind enough to keep inviting me. These people are fully engaged in their novels, showing up week after week with new chapters, revisions and more stuff. One woman just ditched her first draft and is re-writing in first person. I can't keep track of who has had books published, but several have. The meetings start on time, end on time and are very focused -- and full of laughter. I feel privileged to be included. And very motivated, too.

What's your experience with writer's groups?

What to do when you can't find the right word

This is a cross-post from persuasivewriting.net. Though it applies more to copywriting than to novel writing, I thought you might enjoy it.

There are many ways to be at a loss for words. The best way is to know that the word is out there, to almost be able to grasp it, and just not be able to bring that word up. Perhaps you should upgrade your memory. When that happens, a good solution is to leave a blank and keep going. Or, if you have time and are haunted by not being able to retrieve that word from your little pea brain, go take a shower or a walk or drive around for a bit. The word will come out of hiding when you are not looking for it.

A worse predicament is to know that what you are writing about it pretty much BS, so that there are really no words to use because what you are writing about is really camouflage for something else. For instance, your client has goofed in some large way. Say, your client has clear-cut thousand-year-old trees in a National Forest when actually they meant to cut the trees that were on the other side of the highway, or something like that. So now they are going to run a full-page ad in the newspapers about how environmentally friendly they are.

This leaves you with two words, and only two words. These words are "committed" and "dedicated." If you know more and other words, please let me know because these are the two I am stuck with. You will be forced to write, "We are committed to the environment and dedicated to the communities we serve...." or some variation thereof.

You can interchange "committed" and "dedicated." It really doesn't matter. And it really doesn't mean anything, does it? Talk about a cheapening of the word "commitment." Yes, I played my part. I'm sorry. I did it only in desperation.

And now, when I read about some entity's commitment or dedication to something, such as children's health, I figure that they must have been responsible for poisoning a whole kindergarten somewhere. That's how cynical this business can make you.

Then, there's the last situation you may find yourself in when you can't find the right word. You have simply run out of words. There are no words left, and both you and I know it. You have used them all up. There is nothing more to say. Yet your ad (or whatever) is due at 2:00. I feel for you. I've been there. And I'm sorry to tell you, but you are doomed. When you have used up your words, they are gone.

I've seen what you've done when that's happened. We've all seen the ads on TV and elsewhere where it is clear that the writer has simply run out of words. It is painful to watch, because we know the pain that caused this travesty. But don't beat yourself up. Sometimes even the best surgeons have a patient die on the table. You're just in advertising and PR. If you run out of words, you might be fired, but no one will die.

I know that this is what must have happened to the creative team that gave us the Volkswagen "Fahvergnugen" campaign. Those people must have really been out of words. What were they thinking?

I just hope that the same doesn't happen to any of us.

Plotter or Pantser?

Sorry it's been quiet here! I was on the wrong side of a deadline (it had passed) and I was knocking myself out to get  a paying piece out of the door. It's gone now, and though there are others in the in-box, this blog -- and my novel -- are important and so here I am.

I need to pick a date and post it at Novel Goal for when I start writing, and also exactly what my goals are. Baby steps! I tend to be too ambitious and then it shuts me down.

And I need to get in gear here with my pre-novel planning. I said I would have a month for that. Time is passing. What is my pre-novel planning?

Are you a plotter or a pantser (seat of pants writer)? (And is that pantser or pantzer?)

My friends in my writer's group all seem to be plotters. They have colored sticky notes on boards posted on their walls. I'm not sure how their systems work, but I'm sure I could turn it into a great procrastination tool. As a disorganized person, I also think I would get stuck trying to remember which sticky note color meant what and make a mess of the whole thing anyway.

I think writing  would be a much less harrowing task if I had plotted my novel all out before hand. I've tried this. And there are a couple of reasons why this method doesn't work for me.

First, writing from an outline is like work. Here's what you have to say, now say it. I get paid to do that, and though I do it well enough to get paid to do it again, there's not much room for my soul in this process. I have never been good at writing from an outline. In school, when they try to teach writing by teaching you to outline first, that was always a disaster for me. I can't write to an outline. I usually would end up writing the piece, then outlining what I had and turning that in. Very useful, huh? That whole outlining exercise.

I sometimes have clients that want me to do an outline first. I'll do one, with the warning that what they get may not fit the outline. But I promise that it will be much, much better -- and it is.

Then again, a scratchy, sketchy outline can be a good prop to keep me from running off into some kind of panic that puts me in a fetal position. I'll be 30 pages along and I don't know what happens next! So just kind of a sketchy thing (for some reason it has to be really disorganized looking -- handwritten with none of the lines running straight so I don't feel trapped) with a few possibilities for if I get stuck is what I use. Just to keep going for the next day or so. This sketchy thing doesn't take me all the way to the end and in fact only covers the next couple of events.

But the most important thing, for me, on why outlining or advance plotting doesn't work is that I can't write deeply from an outline. When I was in my MFA program, I spent one semester mentoring with Sharon Sheehe Stark. Now, when you mentored with somebody, you had to send them a packet every month containing two short stories (one could be a revision, the other had to be new) and two novel reviews, plus an explanation of what you were trying to accomplish and whether or not this was working. I was working full time and had had suffered a miscarriage. I was a mess but was so committed to my writing (and the program) that I pushed on. But I was afraid. I didn't know what I would find in that dark place inside me that was screaming with grief. I couldn't write from there. It was too soon, it was too bloody. So, I thought I would try something different. I came up with a story, plotted it in my mind and then on paper, and wrote the thing. Not too bad! I thought I had found a new way to write. Little wear and tear on the author, either.

I will never, ever forget Sharon's response to me. I don't even need to refer to it. "Very clever, Anne, and I don't mean that as a compliment. Every part of this story read like you knew what was going to happen from the beginning, except for one part."

And here I'll interrupt Sharon. There was one part where the story deviated from the outline and my heart took off running, spilling out words and images that were actually thrilling and authentic, perhaps even original. Sharon spotted this right away. My hair stood on end as I read her note. How could she tell? How did she know what part was pre-plotted and what part had spilled out on its own? They didn't look that different to me.

But she knew. And she was right. She told me that I didn't care about the characters, was not in touch with their deep emotions and that I was forcing the story. (How else to get them from point A to point B?) She told me to throw away everything but the one, spontaneous part of the story. Wow!

Then she went on to say, "You are stealing from your own excitement. You have taken the heart out of your story."

I thank God I had her that semester, and that she was gifted in seeing the truth of my writing and the truth behind my writing. It's much more difficult to write this way because it is scary. And there are many dead ends and false turns along the road. I will kill more trees than my plotter friends.

But this is what it takes. I need to trust that the mind that can dream such vivid and interesting dreams while I am asleep can dream vivid and interesting stories while awake. I'll try to help it along, but I'd better not try to tame it. I just hope I have the courage for this adventure without a map.

What about you? How are you going to write your novel?

Update: A wonderful, detailed post about this very subject -- and more to come -- is at The Writer's Roundabout. Well worth a visit!