Nothing to Novel

First, I want to thank you for taking the time to visit my humble blog. Just like my home, I want this to be a friendly, warm place for you to visit and kick off your shoes. I feel I am a fairly open person and easy to get along with, and I hope that I come off that way on paper (or the screen, in this case). Please, call me Matt. I want this to be as informal a setting as possible. I hate formalities.

What is the purpose of this blog?

I should start by saying that this blog is intended as more-or-less a how-to manual for writing. I am not a professional author, nor will I ever claim to be, at least not for now. What I am, however, is an amateur author, an aspiring novelist, and a person who has many goals in life. Currently, I am in college studying healthcare administration. I have a fiancee and two kids. My passion is now my family, though the writing gene runs through my blood. My grandmother wrote a number of romance novels before she passed away. None of them were published, though they were of extremely high quality. I don’t think she would have wanted them published, however; she was a very humble Christian lady who, because of her illness, didn’t work in her last few years. Writing and painting, amongst other talents, were her hobbies.

This blog is focused on following my journey as I write a novel, or sometimes, a few novels at a time. This year, for the first time, I have entered the National Novel Writing Month competition, in which I will attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in only 30 days. My goal will be 27 days. I cannot start on the novel before Midnight local time on November 1, so at this point, I am not thinking of a plot, story, characters, or anything to do with it. My mind is blank. I don’t know what genre I will focus on. I might try something completely different than what I am used to, for added challenge, but I am resisting the urge to consider anything about it at this point. Because of this challenge I am partaking in, I have chosen to document my day-to-day activities surrounding the writing of my NaNoWriMo novel, as well as my current work-in-progress.

Is writing a novel easy?

No. And yes. It’s easy to write a novel, but it’s not so easy to develop it into something that anyone would want to read. Depending on who you are writing for, you don’t even have to write a quality work. 50,000 words isn’t that much… roughly 1,500 words a day for a month will bring you to about 50,000 words, which is a fairly decent sized novel, though some would argue that a novel should be longer. Depending on how much time you devote to writing a novel, either on a daily basis, or setting a goal of a month, six months, or a year, it really shouldn’t be that hard to fulfill.

However, if you are planning to showcase your work to an audience, you might want to make sure you write something of quality. Research what someone wants to read. Read the types of work you like to write about. If you’re just starting out, don’t show off your first piece, or even your second or third. Nothing aggravates me more than someone asking me to read their writing when it is poorly constructed, has no character development, and the emotional attachment is lacking. I want intelligent, thought-provoking writing, with original characters and ideas. I know not everything can be original, but don’t copy someone else and try to pass it off as your own. Find your own style and change it up a bit. It will all fall into place on its own.

How many rewrites should I do?

This depends on your own personal opinion. If you write an excellent story that has only grammar and style issues, a second run-through should suffice. You probably won’t write that well, though, unless you’ve been at it for a while, have done plenty of research and development, and have been a perfectionist since the first word (I am often like this, which is why I hardly finish anything.) I would say at first just write for the sake of writing. Get the story down. Write a 30-40 page treatment using limited dialogue and description. Once you are satisfied with the story, add the action first. This helps set the pace of the story.

Now that you have a story and action, work on characterization. Breathe life into the lungs of your characters and give them a reason to exist. If you find a character isn’t working, either try to put them some where else, or remove them completely. With my first novel, I had 7 characters. I tried to work with them all, but they soon became too hectic and trying to remember where they were at each given moment was very difficult. So, I cut down the number drastically. I had a maximum of three main characters at a time. When one character ceased to be in the story, I added another one to replace him. This worked for me as it also added an element of style into my writing. Three characters is like a triangle; very sturdy.

Next, add dialogue. Dialogue moves the story along by having the characters interact. Make sure each character has their own voice. They should all have different mannerisms from each other, unless they are clones. Use your discretion; each story and character is different. You might want them all to sound the same to the reader.

Finally, reread it and cut out the unnecessary bits. If you find a part is slowing down the story, try to move it to where it would help the plot, or else take it out. Movie directors do this all the time for various reasons, usually because of pacing, but maybe because they feel it pushes the story in another direction from what they intended. In my first novel, not only did I change the number of characters, but I rewrote the whole environment because the world they were in was taking away from the story and making it sound too cliche. Don’t get settled on one plot point, character moment, or location. Be open-minded; if something doesn’t work, change it!

In general, expect as few as 5 rewrites, but it may likely take as many as 20 to have the story just the way you imagined it. Trust me, it’s time consuming, and sometimes disheartening to have to rewrite so many times, or remove scenes or characters you love, but in the end, knowing you have something that flows perfectly is a very rewarding feeling.

Since it is now pressing 1:oo AM, I am signing off for the night, but I’ll be back tomorrow with Day 1 of my journey from nothing to novel.
Cheers, and happy writing!