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Fiction Corner

Alison Hawke

Starting a novel

I've started writing a novel, and I intend to finish it. There's almost a hundred thousand words between me and the finish line. I have scenes already written to insert at the appropriate moment, and I have a copy of Lawrence Block's Telling Lies for Fun and Profit from the library. I'm all set. I even have a comfy place to sit, some free time, and a good CD to listen to.

This isn't the first novel I've tried to write. I had a decent idea and outline for the first, but it got planned to death. It withered under the strain and I sadly buried it. Maybe it'll be worth digging out in a few years. What really killed it for me was trying to write a detailed scene by scene outline, as per The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing. I ended up with lots of paper, hours spent on planning and nothing actually written. That was just too disheartening for me, so I abandoned it. This time I have words on paper and it feels a lot better. Maybe I can actually do this.

It's strange how daunting it feels to be starting a novel. When I was at high school (age 11-16) I had to turn out five hundred word essays every week, at sixth form (age 16-18) I was up to three or five thousand. Imagine writing five thousand words about books written by someone who is suicidally depressed, plays where people are dying left and right, or where lives get ruined on the off chance, or plays where nothing really happens. I did that for two years straight somehow. One hundred thousand words is only twenty of those essays. And twenty is a smallish number, isn't it?

The problem is that I have to produce a hundred thousand words on the same subject, and to make them interesting enough that someone would read all the way through. I'm reasonably happy with what I have so far, more so after weeding out the salad that turned into a stew mid scene.

I admit it, I'm boggled at the scale of the thing.

It's the sheer length of a novel that the beginning writer is apt to find intimidating. Matter of fact, you don't have to be a beginner to be intimidated in this fashion.
Telling Lies for Fun and Profit by Lawrence Block

Well, at least I'm in good company.

I'll tell you a secret--nobody knows how to start a novel. There are no rules, because every novel is a case unto itself.
Telling Lies for Fun and Profit by Lawrence Block

Nobody can tell me exactly how to write my novel? Now that sounds like good news to me. Nobody knows exactly how I think, what mounds of useless information I carry around in my head, what kinds of strange people I've met. It's all potentially useful story material that I just can't forget.

So it looks like I'll be figuring this one out for myself. I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing from time to time. I'd love to hear from people who have completed a novel. How did you do it? Do you have any advice you'd like to share? Email me, alison@4-writers.com.

I'm going to finish this one, I promise. See you next month.