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How Do I Write A Novel? Or, Hugh Howey Is My Co-Pilot

Writers are often broken into two camps: plotters and pantsers, that is, they write by the seat of their pants, starting out blind and seeing where their characters take them. I fall between the two. I like to know where I'm going, but I also want the opportunity to deviate from my course along the way, bring in new characters and explore aspects of my story I couldn't have conceived of until getting deep into it. At the very least playing and sidetracking can confim that my destination is good.

I think I've come up with a decent system for taking this more casual route from "once upon a time" to "happily ever after" (or, in my case more likely "then the world exploded"). The system enabled me to write my first novel, and it seems to be working for my second, even though the chapters in the first are generally built around one character and set pieces while those in the second build towards moments of intersection between the lives of many more characters.

Please let me know what you think. Every system needs continual refinement.

(Mods, if it's too self-promotional to post a link to my own blog, please let me know.)
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
This is cool. It's very similar to what I did on my first novel - after a few false starts. I basically started with three words "Boy meets girl" and then rewrote that, adding more and more details each time. It worked out really well and I'm trying the same thing for my second novel - except I keep coming up with other things I just need to write first. :p
 
Hi,

I see the camps not so much as camps but rather positions on a spectrum. I personally am at one extreme - almost pure pantster. I simply write a scene, then see where that scene takes me and go from there. So the most plotting I do is to have a rough idea of where the story will go. This is the right system for me, it allows my creative muse almost complete freedom with characters and plots etc. But it comes at a price that being that most of my books never get completed, simply because I reach a dead end where I don't know where it's going. That being said having published twenty books it works for me. In terms of your blog it also means that I have absolutely no idea how long a book will end up.

Case in point, I just finished The Arcanist first draft and am waiting to send it off to my editor after she'd finished the book she's doing for me now. I had it I thought almost finished for about a year and a half, with only a few chapters to write. Just the final battle. When I restarted the book intending to finally finish it about three or four months ago, I discovered I was wrong and ended up writing half a book.

I could not plot because when I start writing a scene or a chapter I don't really want to know where it's going. I want to be surprised. I want my characters to be free to tell me what's going to happen. In this way I think they are more true to themselves. They don't win or lose because it's necessary to the story. They do it according to their own skills etc.

Having said all of that most plotters say that they do feel free enough to write and that in fact having their plot all worked out in advance encourages them to write. And there are many who will do a complete plot.

But most people I suspect do something in the middle, plotting some things in some detail, but still allowing themselves the freedom to change story elements as they go. In the end this is something that each writer has to discover for themselves. What works for them may not work for others. And what works for others may be useless for them.

Cheers, Greg.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I suppose I fall closer to the middle of the spectrum. I start with a sequence of idea's encompassing the whole plot. I don't do an outline, but I do write a first draft that incorporates those ideas, discovering multiple issues along the way. Then I put it away for a while before doing the rewrite that fixes most of those issues.

The novella I'm doing now is a bit different: I didn't realize until after I started writing that I had a couple of great big built in plot holes, so for one of the few times ever, I did an actual written outline...which only sort of helped. Now I'm getting into a position that reminds me of Hemingway:

one of the great authors friends comes over one night to find Hemingway absolutely devastated. "How bad is it?" The friend asked. "How much progress did you make?"

Hemingway looks over at his friend and goes. "I spent all day at this and have managed just five words."

Friend looks at Hemingway, "Well that's five words you didn't have before."

Hemingway goes, "But I don't know what order they go in!"

Except with me, it's scenes: different things happening at different places, some of them at almost the same time. There is a definite sequence - some scenes *have* to come after others - but the scenes leading to those points are a bit of a muddle. I suspect the rewrite will involve determining the correct order.
 

MineOwnKing

Maester
I believe a stand-alone novel can be approached differently than a series. A singular story anchored within one novel might cry out for some basic structure. A series can be party to an initiation of the swirl effect (my coinage). Like water swirling in a toilet, exploratory, fluid ideas, can twist before being sucked down the pipe of shared, literary dreams. The author’s vision then pools within the imagination of the target audience, exploding with action, reaction or smoke rolling to a fizzling dud.

In my opinion, it is less important to follow a guideline than it is to self-evaluate one’s own talent. What does it mean to you personally to be a writer? Where do you fit in the folds of literary humdrum? The definition can spectrum between the well paid mundane to the starving artist genius or vice a versa.

My current struggle is that I have a grand vision that is near completion but the dialogue between characters flings out of my fingertips so fast that I am forced to write entire chapters of dialogue before the moments expire. There is much drudgery in this for me because I am forced to go back and fill in the rest. I do not enjoy writing in this fashion, but it cannot be helped. However, it does give my writing style a taste of uniqueness and it forces me to edit, edit and reedit.
Both as a reader and a writer, I prefer beatific and lyrical compilation. If you endow your characters with compelling dialogue, I will relish your work and admire your inescapable literary immortality. I will be a fan.

I think you should do what feels natural, but aspire to make it beautiful.
 
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