![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Writing Novels
I've dicked around with the idea of writing novels for a long time, and so when Heidi posted today about how she writes her novels, I of course checked out all the links, and was very pleased to rediscover Justine Larbeliester's post on how she writes her novels. I remember reading it a long time ago, and I sometimes go and reference it again because I love that spreadsheet idea so much. And I like her sense of humour.
:-)
:-)
Well, to start with I am going to point out that this is a work in progress, and changes with ... well, I hope it will change as I get better at writing them.
Ica_one.txt - I suck at names. The names come later. Justine suggests starting with a title of any sort, so Ica_One is what it's called. I wrote Ica_One as part of Nanowrimo 2006. I had planned out all sorts of crap for Nano, just wanting to get stuff OUT, and so after about 30k of other stuff, I started Ica_One and it just went on. Ica_One is actually a novel I originally wrote when I was about 17 or 18. I was still a virgin in a lot of ways, and I think it shows. I look at it now and think the whole thing is kind of ... naive. So, it was already plotted, already structured, I already knew what people looked like and what they did. I found of interest the stuff I left *out* of this version. I left out the chess game between goddesses, I left out the divine interferences, and a host of other stuff. Most scenes made it into the new version. So, how did I write Ica_One? With a plan from 14/15 years ago, and blind enthusiasm. Just under 50K.
Ica_Two.txt - I had Ica_two kinda sorta not at all planned. I knew the vague plot - Person X and Person Y sort out the mess from Ica_One as best they can. And the opening scene. And.... that was it. So Ica_2 was sort of... wendy. It wended this way it wended that way and then it wended WHERE??? It was also a book of firsts for me - I wrote some first scenes where I worry my friends will never speak to me ever again. I worry that my characters are reacting wrongly/rightly/strongly/weakly/whatever to the stimulus supplied to them. I didn't have an ending until about 2/3 of the way through. Well, an ending apart from the obvious stuff, you know? I spent a lot of time in this novel not actually doing it. I let it lie fallow and would come back to it after I had dreams or fantasies or was bored. It was as much a voyage of discovery for me as it was for the reader. I tend to have some strongly imagined scenes and then spend my wordcounts getting every one to the right motivation and right place and right time for things to happen. I have stuck very very closely (as much as I could) to a single viewpoint for the whole book. So, the whole book is what s/he sees or does or feels, and the signals they get from other people. I'm still experimenting and seeing what I like to work with. 81K.
Ica_three - During this novel Babalon and I instigated out 500 words plan, and this really kicked things up a notch. I no longer forgot who was where or who said what when, and it started to streamline a lot more. This book was a complete surprise. The lead character was a complete surprise. There were still too many questions that needed answering. Everything was a complete surprise. This is also the novel where I discovered I needed someone to talk to. Some one I could go "OMG THIS HAPPENED!" So I started this thing called subscription, where once a week I send out my typo-ridden, not even re-read by myself dirty dirty dirty draft to some very close friends of mine, and that way I feel like I have some company while I am on this journey. I aim for a 10K subscription a week to them, and I love love love the positive re-enforcement I get from the instant nature of this beast. It also means that while I am grappling with some emotion or issue the writing has brought up in me, I can talk to some one and re-balance myself. I haven't had any death threats yet (I'm mildly disappointed) but I'm so very glad I have friends who understand when I say "This is raw draft, for enjoyment, not for editing. When I want editing comments I will let you know." And who enjoy my work. (Or appear to lie very very well LOL) Ica_3 comes in at about 110K words.
So, even after three novels, I still tend to have a couple of scenes in my head, and then spend time moving the characters around and getting them there. So how do I write a novel? I sit down and hammer out at least 500 words at a time. I miss writing on the weekend. I force myself to take weekends off unless I am particularly relaxed or enthused, and I make sure that once a novel is complete, I shelve it for a week or so before I read it as a whole text. (Note: I haven't read book 3 as a whole single text yet. Those gosh-darned questions that need answering just keep sticking their heads up...) In Ica_four I am trying multiple view points to see how it works, partially because the story is too big now for just one view. I could limit it to one person, but those death threats might come after all. :-) Once again, I have some strongly thought out scenes, some rough ideas, a determination to finish the big picture, and a bunch of characters. Some of whom I don't actually like.
I know I can get the word counts. The next step is to edit and fix and change and rewrite. This bloody series is finishing at the end of this book, come hell or high water, and then I will stop for a while and do this editing thing. I'm excited by it! I'm also looking forward to getting better at actually writing. One of the things that stood out for me about slash is the number of people who post long stories one chapter at a time, and the constant positive feedback they got. :-)
Good god, you made it this far down?? You get a cookie! :-) Oh, and I still haven't even tried one of Justine's spreadsheets.
Ica_one.txt - I suck at names. The names come later. Justine suggests starting with a title of any sort, so Ica_One is what it's called. I wrote Ica_One as part of Nanowrimo 2006. I had planned out all sorts of crap for Nano, just wanting to get stuff OUT, and so after about 30k of other stuff, I started Ica_One and it just went on. Ica_One is actually a novel I originally wrote when I was about 17 or 18. I was still a virgin in a lot of ways, and I think it shows. I look at it now and think the whole thing is kind of ... naive. So, it was already plotted, already structured, I already knew what people looked like and what they did. I found of interest the stuff I left *out* of this version. I left out the chess game between goddesses, I left out the divine interferences, and a host of other stuff. Most scenes made it into the new version. So, how did I write Ica_One? With a plan from 14/15 years ago, and blind enthusiasm. Just under 50K.
Ica_Two.txt - I had Ica_two kinda sorta not at all planned. I knew the vague plot - Person X and Person Y sort out the mess from Ica_One as best they can. And the opening scene. And.... that was it. So Ica_2 was sort of... wendy. It wended this way it wended that way and then it wended WHERE??? It was also a book of firsts for me - I wrote some first scenes where I worry my friends will never speak to me ever again. I worry that my characters are reacting wrongly/rightly/strongly/weakly/whatever to the stimulus supplied to them. I didn't have an ending until about 2/3 of the way through. Well, an ending apart from the obvious stuff, you know? I spent a lot of time in this novel not actually doing it. I let it lie fallow and would come back to it after I had dreams or fantasies or was bored. It was as much a voyage of discovery for me as it was for the reader. I tend to have some strongly imagined scenes and then spend my wordcounts getting every one to the right motivation and right place and right time for things to happen. I have stuck very very closely (as much as I could) to a single viewpoint for the whole book. So, the whole book is what s/he sees or does or feels, and the signals they get from other people. I'm still experimenting and seeing what I like to work with. 81K.
Ica_three - During this novel Babalon and I instigated out 500 words plan, and this really kicked things up a notch. I no longer forgot who was where or who said what when, and it started to streamline a lot more. This book was a complete surprise. The lead character was a complete surprise. There were still too many questions that needed answering. Everything was a complete surprise. This is also the novel where I discovered I needed someone to talk to. Some one I could go "OMG THIS HAPPENED!" So I started this thing called subscription, where once a week I send out my typo-ridden, not even re-read by myself dirty dirty dirty draft to some very close friends of mine, and that way I feel like I have some company while I am on this journey. I aim for a 10K subscription a week to them, and I love love love the positive re-enforcement I get from the instant nature of this beast. It also means that while I am grappling with some emotion or issue the writing has brought up in me, I can talk to some one and re-balance myself. I haven't had any death threats yet (I'm mildly disappointed) but I'm so very glad I have friends who understand when I say "This is raw draft, for enjoyment, not for editing. When I want editing comments I will let you know." And who enjoy my work. (Or appear to lie very very well LOL) Ica_3 comes in at about 110K words.
So, even after three novels, I still tend to have a couple of scenes in my head, and then spend time moving the characters around and getting them there. So how do I write a novel? I sit down and hammer out at least 500 words at a time. I miss writing on the weekend. I force myself to take weekends off unless I am particularly relaxed or enthused, and I make sure that once a novel is complete, I shelve it for a week or so before I read it as a whole text. (Note: I haven't read book 3 as a whole single text yet. Those gosh-darned questions that need answering just keep sticking their heads up...) In Ica_four I am trying multiple view points to see how it works, partially because the story is too big now for just one view. I could limit it to one person, but those death threats might come after all. :-) Once again, I have some strongly thought out scenes, some rough ideas, a determination to finish the big picture, and a bunch of characters. Some of whom I don't actually like.
I know I can get the word counts. The next step is to edit and fix and change and rewrite. This bloody series is finishing at the end of this book, come hell or high water, and then I will stop for a while and do this editing thing. I'm excited by it! I'm also looking forward to getting better at actually writing. One of the things that stood out for me about slash is the number of people who post long stories one chapter at a time, and the constant positive feedback they got. :-)
Good god, you made it this far down?? You get a cookie! :-) Oh, and I still haven't even tried one of Justine's spreadsheets.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject