writingforyourlife

I’ve nearly reached the 35 000 word mark writing my novel.  This is approximately one-third the desired length of my first draft.

Tripling this word count would take me to 105 000.  Because I wish the finished product to be between 80 000 and 100 000 words in length, I think I’m on the right track.

When it comes to a first draft, it’s necessary to write more than you intend to keep.  Much of the first draft will be deleted during the editing process as you endeavour to improve the quality of your language and clarity of your plot.  Recently I revised a short story I wrote over a year ago, and edited out nearly a quarter of the length!

The great part is that I have enough words to fill one-third of a novel, but I feel I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg.  This makes me confident that my plot is meaty enough to be novel-length.

After you’ve done some outlining (anywhere from basic to detailed),  set a word count goal range based on the desired length of your final draft.  Then add at least 10 000 words to that range for your first draft.

Although you can change your goal at any time, setting a word count range has more to do with pacing your story appropriately than with length. If you wish your novel to be about 350 pages long, but you’ve told your entire storyline in the first 100 pages of your draft, you have a pacing problem, or a plot that’s too thin.

When I began planning my novel, I had a beginning, a middle and an end, plus a handful of characters.  I knew one of these characters wouldn’t  enter the story until between one-third and one-half of the way in.

So, I set to the task of actually writing my book, starting near the beginning.  Consequently, for the longest time I put off naming this particular character who hadn’t yet turned up.

I can’t explain my motivation for this unforgivable procrastination, except that I may have thought there were no names that were adequate.  I daresay I was afraid of the whole idea of naming this character.

In the end, I managed to do the dreaded task, and I’m pleased with my choice.  However, I didn’t pull it straight out of thin air.  I made a list, played around with first names and surnames, shuffled and re-shuffled until I had one that felt right.

When naming your characters, don’t be tempted to slap a title on them too quickly.  Stop and think about the connotations of every name you use.  Research their ethnic origins and meanings.

For example, the character of Briony in Ian McEwan’s Atonement   (click here to see my book review , film review ) accuses an innocent young man of sexually assaulting her cousin, and spends the rest of her life trying to atone for her crime.  The name Briony comes from the plant bryony , which is a poisonous climbing vine.  It’s the perfect name for this character.

When you name a character, you should be able to explain why.  If you can’t, maybe you haven’t got the right name.

Here I am again, posting on the dilemma between writing a novel in the present vs. the past tense.

My blog is still getting quite a few hits on my former posts about the same topic, so I assume there are many other writers who share this concern.

When I started my novel, I found myself unconsciously drifting toward present tense narrative.  However, at about 10,000 words in, I recognized that it was bad, bad, bad.  There was simply no reason to use present tense in this case.  It’s a bad habit, a hold-over from the time when present tense was new and experimental, when it set a work apart from the masses.

Now, it’s become so commonplace, editors and readers are getting sick of seeing it.  People don’t want an ordinary story packaged up as something extraordinary on account of the verb tense.

For a while, I thought I could do some parts of my story in past tense and some in present tense, because it time-jumps quite a bit.  I realized that wasn’t necessary either, and I was only trying to rationalize the use of present tense because I didn’t want to give it up.

So, with all these thoughts in my head, I made the decision to write the entire novel in past tense.  It was a good choice, and I haven’t been tempted to switch back again.

Thoughts?  Please share.  I hope you’re not all as confused as I am.

I had to go grocery shopping this afternoon.

Initially, I was put off by this mundane task interrupting my writing.  However, when I got there, things took an interesting turn.

There I was, pushing around my mundane cart, looking at mundane loaves of bread, sorting through mundane trays of pork chops, when I overheard Christmas music playing in the background.

For those of you who don’t know me, I currently live in a warm climate, but my heart is inextricably linked to the icy North where I grew up.  And Christmas music holds very certain connotations for me:  SNOW.  And snow means cold.  And cold means misery.

I had no control over what happened next—it simply happened.

Upon recognizing the first notes of “Jingle Bells,” I instantly felt as if I’d entered the body of my main character.  I had become my protagonist, pushing around her sorry little grocery cart, completely appalled that there was Christmas music playing in mid-November.  And in that moment,  she became real to me.

Perhaps this all makes absolutely no sense to you, because you don’t know what my story is about.  It’s not a Christmas story, by the way, so no points for guessing.

My point is,  take advantage of being out in everyday life.  The most mundane chore can seem like a lightening bolt of creativity if you put yourself inside your characters’ minds.

I’ve been plugging away at my novel, and I can now confidently say that I’m about one quarter finished.

My end product will ( out of necessity) be a lot longer than the 50000 words required of NaNoWriMo contestants, so I’m not using that as my measurement scale.  The best part of looking at what I’ve written already is knowing I’ve hardly even hit the tip of the iceberg.

One trick I’ve found useful in my writing is to layer my scenes.  I’ll write a scene fairly quickly—just the bare bones—then leave it and move onto something else.  The next time I sit down to write, I’ll return to that scene, re-read it, then add a second layer. This process is repeated several times until I’m happy with it.

I don’t delete parts of the scene, even if I’m sure I’ll take them out later.  My goal is simply to get down as much as possible for my first draft.  The major editing won’t take place until I’m confident I have enough material to adequately carry my storyline.

I’m curious to know how others go about the novel-writing process.

• Do you spend a lot of time perfecting one passage before moving on?

•  Do you write your story chronologically from beginning to end? 

• Is there a special method you use, or are you spontaneous with your writing?

If you have a certain strategy that works for you, tell us about it.