My First Novel: What I Wish I Knew

[old_prof]

You need some idea of where you are going and a map of how to get there - I can’t see how a pantser writes a novel

I've backed off some from the complete panster I started out as, but I'm still more a panster than not (and I wish the autocorrect would insist on making me a panther. I'm not an anthro!)

I've decided I like writing novels (my WIP to the contrary perhaps, which is fighting me tooth and claw).

I work off a very loose outline in my head. One that I'm willing to abandon on a whim. I tend to write long chapters -- all three of my novels thus far have exactly 16 chapters, which means the longest one averages 7.5K words/chapter. I have maybe a five point outline in my head when I start.Enough to give me some beginning, middle and end with some form of challenges in the middle. I'll write another 5 point or so outline for each chapter before I write it. None of that is etched in stone either. I keep that outline directly in-line in the draft as I write. I will delete points as I write them (or abandon them) and add points as they occur to me.

In my first novel, half the major plot points did not exist in my mind by the time I was three chapters in. Two of the four major story arcs occurred to me while I was writing the first two chapters of my most recent novel. The one before that though was odd, because it's a prequel. I had written a short story relatively early on (for my brief writing career) and not a good one (maybe my worst story). But I decided I liked the two main characters and wrote a novel about their back story. Writing to an etched in stone ending point was a new challenge for me. I overall didn't like doing that. It's definitely the best of me three novels, but I don't credit that to the change to my process.

I've been surprised that I didn't find writing novels notably harder than novellas, which I find easier to write than short stories. Maybe because I'm better at plot and character than I am writing. Not that I'm particularly good at any of it. My first novel took about the same amount of time per word as anything was at the time. I've slowed down my pace since then, as I try to be a better writer.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

I wish the autocorrect would insist on making me a panther. I'm not an anthro!

I've decided I like writing novels (my WIP to the contrary perhaps, which is fighting me tooth and claw).

Claims he's not a panther. Says his current WIP is fighting him "tooth and claw".

EXPOSED!

 

[old_prof]

Claims he's not a panther. Says his current WIP is fighting him "tooth and claw".

EXPOSED!

My WIP is about dinosaurs, so there was a point to that claw. No felines in it of any sort. The two human main characters are both women, but I would not consider either particularly catty.

I guess my dinos are kind of anthros, but absolutely not panthers. I'm partial to tigers anyway. I had a tiger costume when I was three and I still want to be a tiger some days.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

I had a tiger costume when I was three and I still want to be a tiger some days.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

Have a fucking budget. It boils my blood to see people extending stories over and over and over because "they need more room to breath." No, that just means you want more time with characters who want to break up with you. If you say your work will have 65K, you better make it 65K or less. If it goes over, streamline it. If the story needs more words, it means you are the one responsible for thinking that.

Yep. I have a rough final word count in mind based on the industry standard for the genre in which I'm writing. Regardless of what the first draft word count ends up being, I expect it to drop as I pare things back and tighten them up. I'm not going to pad the story just to hit a specific number.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Yep. I have a rough final word count in mind based on the industry standard for the genre in which I'm writing. Regardless of what the first draft word count ends up being, I expect it to drop as I pare things back and tighten them up. I'm not going to pad the story just to hit a specific number.

Think of the budget more as a ceiling instead of a launchpad.

 

[yowser]

I've considered this a couple times, but have never done it. Funeral pyre for your book. Give it the send off it truly deserves. Okay, so maybe it doesn't have to be a pyre, but some sort of honorary ceremony, a wake of some sort if you will. Acknowledge what you put into the world, and let it go. Pyre's just the most dramatic, and as a writer, it's hard to resist the allure of drama and metaphor combining into a way to move on.

It's the only time I'll condone book burning.

I'll offer one counter-example, only because it's a great story.

Author/college professor Paul Longmore contracted polio early in life, and was able to make it to adulthood only through government subsidy, the US security net of Social Security and Supplemental Security funding, which paid for his enormous medical/daily living types of costs (wheelchair, ventilator, personal attendants, etc.)

Through heroic means, and taking twice as long as everyone else, he got through university, earned a PhD and published his first book.

BUT! Social security had a provision that they would only subsidise you if you were poor enough. Cash that royalty check for your book and you now don't need us! You're now instantly wealthy and all your funding will end!

He argued, and as anyone who has ever had to argue with a bureaucracy knows, got nowhere. There was no way to 'ease' into independent existence, you either had to stay poor and get assistance, or earn a dollar over their arbitrary 'poverty line' and lose all your medical benefits.

So he staged a 'book burning' on the steps of the Federal Social Security Office in Los Angeles, symbolically lighting a copy of his own hard-earned first book on fire in protest of their policies. Got enough media attention, shamed enough legislators that they finally started a process by which individuals getting federal subsidy could progress from complete state dependence to a more independent way of life.

Burning books sometimes has value.

And you can read his own (later) book: Why I burned my book and other essays on disability.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

By the way, there's only one rule to write a novel: don't bore the reader.

 

[EmilyMiller]

By the way, there's only one rule to write a novel: don't bore the reader.

There is a whole genre of Boredom Novels of course. They cater to the chronically excitable.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

There is a whole genre of Boredom Novels of course. They cater to the chronically excitable.

And my ADHD just decided to manifest itself next to me to have a complete aneurysm from learning such thing exists!

I'll have to comfort her now.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

There's a dude on YouTube (Brandon Sanderson) who says: Your first two novels will be crap, but you need to get them out of the way so you can discover your process.

My first novel is still one of my highest acclaimed.

A fluke, I guess.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

1. It’s fucking hard It's only as hard as you allow it to be. From a technical perspective it is no different than writing other things, you just need to do so with a greater vision and purpose. For some people THAT is what's hard.
2. Plot holes breed quicker than plot bunnies Complete the story and then go back and plug these where necessary
3. Maintaining continuity is tough and requires a lot of work I use a structured timeline to guide me. It's one of the first things that I create when inspired to write any story.
4. You have to have other outlets - mini-projects etc. Totally agree
5. If you are stuck, there is no substitute for giving it time Almost any small distraction will do.
6. If you can bring a few friends along for the ride, it’s less lonely Definitely. Don't be ashamed to share with loyal and trusted friends
7. You need some idea of where you are going and a map of how to get there - I can’t see how a pantser writes a novel I do it with a story board. I can write scenes that I intend to place far down into the story as the ideas come to me and then piece them in to the right spot later.
8. You need motivations (I had a running estimate of how many more days I had to write for to get to a first draft) If you are going to give yourself deadlines or other goals, make them realistic or they can be demotivating.
9. It really helps to reread regularly - even though this takes longer and longer to do Text-to-speech is invaluable here
10. Constantly question why someone does something and how it fits with their character / arc Not just characters, but also why events happened and did it maintain its intended purpose.