This post is for people who would love to write a novel. It’s on their bucket list and it doesn’t look like its going away. I get you. I am you. But there’s a few things to consider. Anyone who has given writing long form fiction some serious thought will recognise the complexity of it. It’s a bizarre magic trick and to pull it off, all you have are words. It’s crazy, right? There’s all those moving parts, setting, point of view, voice, character, plots. That’s a lot to juggle. You are a god, creating a world which doesn’t really exist, even it resembles the one around you, and you’ll be summoning characters from who knows where, breathing life into them, hopefully to that point where you forget they’re not real. It’s too much to house inside your head and so it isn’t long before you set out in search of a method.
Plotters Vs Pantsers Vs Me
Die-hard plotters will have you writing a series of scene descriptions from beginning to end before a first chapter is written. It seems logical. It’s a map, after all, and maps make sense. Then there’s diehard pansters, who scoff at the map. Getting lost forces us to flex our creative muscles, they say. Something about a dark road ahead illuminated by dim headlights. It’s called ‘seat of pants’ writing and it’s terrifying. So what is one to do if not taken by the thought of endless scene descriptions or the dark road ahead?
First Drafts
But before we get to that, there’s something else you should know. Perfectionists don’t write first drafts, and so they don’t write books. They make fine editors, but until there is something to edit, lock them away. A first draft is by no means a finished book. There will be many layers to come and that’s freeing when you think about it. Write badly, put in some dot points if the sentences aren’t coming, and move on. Whatever you do, move on. For me, it’s about getting the story down anyway I can. My first novel, Numb, took years. Literally years, because I didn’t know what I was doing. I was shooting for perfection first time because I assumed that was possible 🤣. Let’s put that to bed right now. It’s not. My second novel, The Paradise Motel, was easier because I learnt so much the first time and I’ve just finished that all-important first draft. This took six months. It’s not exactly NaNoWriMo speed, I know, but that’s not me. It could be you though. This post is all about customising other authors’ experiences. That’s what I did. Feel free to customise mine.
From First Idea & Beyond
In my case, I had a scene in mind. I don’t know where it came from to be honest, but I knew it was the climax (See above. It’s that final dramatic scene before the story problem is resolved). This might not seem like much, but, what this gave me was invaluable. I already knew whether it was a tragedy or comedy in the Greek sense, so genre came into play. I had the beginnings of a character, a setting and an ending. All I needed to work out was what happened to arrive at this scene and why. I’ll admit there was a bit of work to do, but I wasn’t completely clueless. The layers were starting to build.
The Who – Thinking About Character
Some writers see their main character first and need to build their plot around that first spark of inspiration. In my case, I had a person doing a thing in a scene. (If it wasn’t my next to last scene, I’d be more open about that). So, next I needed to find out what kind of character she would have to be to do what she does in my one scene? That’s where I went next. I placed her in a new scene as a child and gave her a pivotal experience, something which would mould her into the adult she would become in my novel. (This scene became the short story, The Magician’s Assistant.) In doing this, I got to know my character in a way I haven’t been able to when filling in those character templates. They have never worked for me. Initially it isn’t about seeing the character. It’s about how she feels from the inside out. I named her Iris. What she looked like didn’t matter yet. Of course, if it would matter, if that characterised her in some way, then it would come earlier. Externals did play into another of my characters. I wanted him in the harsh outback sun and I wanted him to be a fair-skinned red head.
Setting – the world of the novel
Then I went west. Literally. I needed a highway on a truck route with a railway line running alongside it and I needed an old three storey motel up on a hill overlooking it all. As I drove along my highway bits of the story came to me. A small town here, a motel there and because I could, I relocated my motel to suit. I saw how the long grass in the paddocks moved in waves and how I could see forever. The air smelled of dust and I cowered in the shade. And when I returned home I had much more to add, but I didn’t have a story yet.
Who Tells My Story?
I knew I wanted it told in the first person. (I did this. I did that) I suppose I already had a voice in mind. That had grown out of the trip out west. My narrator was out of place. He would notice things locals wouldn’t and so I decided on a long-distance truck driver who has recently taken on a route to the towns in western Queensland and I forced this change by using Covid and the gluttony of the eastern cities and the lack of supply to the west. I actually spoke to a truck driver outside The Well-Shot Pub in Illfracomb just down the road from Longreach and he told me a few interesting things, like how they weren’t allowed to travel more than ten kilometres into the big cattle stations to protect the trucks and were often met by station-hands to take delivery. This snippet wedged itself into the back of my mind and I knew it would become a scene at some point, but for the time being I was going to leave that alone to fester. He also wanted me to name my narrator Bruce. I decided not to. I wrote a couple of pivotal scenes for Matthew from his childhood, just like I did with Iris. These scenes shaped him as the adult of my story.
The Second Scene
This popped into my head like magic. It wasn’t, of course. It came on top of everything else I knew to this point. I saw Matthew pulling up to an old motel in a fleabite town. His refrigerator truck is struggling in the summer heat and his boss directs him to the only garage capable of fixing it before all the food in the back goes off. This became my first scene. I knew Iris would be there. I felt she lived in the motel. She owned it but didn’t run it, so I needed another character. That was Laura, Iris’s daughter, and I threw in a child as well, who became Chloe. I could feel a story building.
Ready to Write
I still didn’t have a story, nothing recognisable as a story arc, but this is where I pantsed it. It wasn’t exactly driving down that dark, dark road. I had an ending, the ultimate ‘what happened?’, but I didn’t have a why and probably wouldn’t find it until I started writing. I needed to get my characters moving and learn about them as adults. I also needed to inhabit my town. After all, I could just keep planning, just keep coming up with scenes and writing scene descriptions until I bridged that gap between my first scene and my last, but just like with those character templates, it would feel lifeless. So I wrote and I kept on writing.
Then I Stopped
I was about 10 000 words in and I had some decisions to make. If you consider an average novel of 80000 words can be roughly divided into four (see above). At around 20 000 words would be the first turning point when the story problem needs to be acknowledged. 40000 words would be a mid-point reversal where everything falls apart for the protagonist and they need to get real. Then you need to lead up to the second turning point, starting at around 60 000 words, which leads to the Climax. I had that last bit, but story-wise, it was thin on the ground. What I did have though was living breathing characters, a town full of them.
Time for a Synopsis
It was rough, shabby, sparse in some places, overwritten in others, a typical first draft. But if I was to keep going, I needed some guidance. No more dark night of the soul for the time being. This is where writing a synopsis helped. They used to scare the shit of me, until Anglea Slatter, a writer very much in the know, made me do it. That was when I realised it didn’t need to be perfect because no one need see it. It’s not the kind of synopsis you hand into an agent or publisher to sell your work. It’s way easier than that. Consider it a living document. When it no longer applies, change it. It’s a space where you can think about your story as a whole. Whenever you get lost, return to it. It’s the story of your story if you like. If it helps, divide it up like in the diagram above. Think about the high points, the turning points, the midpoint reversal etc. If you have an ending like I did, consider what needs to happen to your character to get them from where they are now to where they need to be by the end. What forces need to be applied to illicit change in your major characters? This might be where you want to plot your scenes one by one, but you don’t have to. I didn’t. I plotted my first turning point, my midpoint reversal, my second turning point and firmed up my climax.
Writing Key Scenes
I planned my key scenes and then I wrote them. I may not have had a complete map, but I wasn’t on that dark road either. All I needed to do was make my way from one key point to the next and I was surprised how my story began to unfold. You might wonder whether I rewrote my ending when I got there? Nope because it’s a first draft, and so it doesn’t need to be perfect. All I needed to do was get to the end, so I’d have something to work on.
Put It Away
I won’t look at my first draft for a while now. It’s halfway through October and I probably won’t bring it out until January, when I hope I’ve gained some perspective. I’ve learned if I overwork the dough, I end up liking it way more than I should OR hating it more than it deserves. Now is the time to go onto other things, a short story maybe? Write some blogposts, so my followers don’t think I’ve died.
Customise the Process
It’s too early to say whether this is a process I’ll use with every book. It might change every time. It has so far. What I have learnt is its not following some prearranged plan that matters, its doing what you need to as your book demands. I hope you can see it’s organic. One thing leads to another and every step of the way you are learning and moulding it into what it will eventually become. There’s no right way, when it comes to process. You can write your first draft, starting with its ending or you might write it straight through from beginning to end. You might use character sketch templates or you might write short scenes of your characters as children. What is important is that you give yourself permission to find your own way to the end of your first draft. And remember, nothing is wasted. Every time you place your characters in a setting, in a scene, you breathe more life into them, even if that scene never sees the light of day. Once you’ve reached the end, don’t have an opinion yet. Don’t say it’s sh**. Don’t compare it to that novel you admire because its not a novel. Not yet. It’s a first draft. It is what it needs to be right now.