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Seekrit Steampunk project is progressing nicely, currently at 35,533 words of an estimated 50,000 for first draft. a Nano sized novel of hopefully superior quality. final draft should be 60k+, and finished by June if I have any say in the matter. I've already written a stellar query letter and compiled a list of potential agents. i can't wait to get this baby out there.
When I think about how many writing projects I've started AND finished, I feel all warm and giggly inside. I know I'm not a published novelst YET, but I've got over one of the frist hurdles of the business - finishing work. Becuase you've GOT TO HAVE a completed novel to query anyone. Not personally knowing any published novelists, I'm actually the oone of only two people I know (that's know as in "am friends or casual acquaintences with" not "in the biblical sense") who has completed a novel. The other person has been unpublished longer than me, with somewhere between 10-30 novels I believe. She writes MG-YA though, at 20-50k a pop. I know lots of people who've started, lots of people who have the ideas...hell, even CDF's confessed to penning half the first chapter of a Cussler-esque underwater adventure.
So how do I do it?
If I hadn't thought long about it, I would have no idea. But I get asked this question a lot, so I've thought about it. The answer seems glaringly simple:
KNOW THY ENDING
When I start a book, I know virtually nothing. I start with an idea - a logline. For In League with Satan it was "humourous story about bogans fighting in the apocalypse". From that, all else flows. I don't draw maps or spend months researching various species of subtropical plantlife. I let the idea smoulder until I have an idea for a scene, then I write that scene, then I write another, and before I know it, I have a book.
But I HAVE TO KNOW THE ENDING.
Even if it's simply "protag dies, character 1 lives, character 2 marries protag, which is complicated since he's dead". one sentence or two that describes that ending, that overall FEELING you want throughout the novel. atmosphere is so important. I chose words and scenes and plot and characters and ENDINGS based on the atmosphere - what I want the reader to feel when they walk away from the book.
Simple no? Sometimes it isn't. Some writers write the ending first, then write the rest of the book to the ending. I usually write the ending about halfway through, when I have a good idea for an ending scene. If it changes, it changes, but having it there really helps keep your novel on track.
Remember, bookbogan writing tip 1: KNOW THY ENDING
So how do I do it?
If I hadn't thought long about it, I would have no idea. But I get asked this question a lot, so I've thought about it. The answer seems glaringly simple:
KNOW THY ENDING
When I start a book, I know virtually nothing. I start with an idea - a logline. For In League with Satan it was "humourous story about bogans fighting in the apocalypse". From that, all else flows. I don't draw maps or spend months researching various species of subtropical plantlife. I let the idea smoulder until I have an idea for a scene, then I write that scene, then I write another, and before I know it, I have a book.
But I HAVE TO KNOW THE ENDING.
Even if it's simply "protag dies, character 1 lives, character 2 marries protag, which is complicated since he's dead". one sentence or two that describes that ending, that overall FEELING you want throughout the novel. atmosphere is so important. I chose words and scenes and plot and characters and ENDINGS based on the atmosphere - what I want the reader to feel when they walk away from the book.
Simple no? Sometimes it isn't. Some writers write the ending first, then write the rest of the book to the ending. I usually write the ending about halfway through, when I have a good idea for an ending scene. If it changes, it changes, but having it there really helps keep your novel on track.
Remember, bookbogan writing tip 1: KNOW THY ENDING
Comments
I wanted to argue about the ending thing, I really like the idea of organically growing a story out of some initial elements, but it has to be admitted that the long projects I undertake tend to finish when I have an ending in mind.
My Nano attempt was only the first book in a series and it ended at 60,000 in the month. My latest YA began as a short story I knew the ending for and turned into a novel.
It's the editing that I need to work on next... Yeah I can knock out a draft but at some point I really need to stop polishing!
I do still think that organic stories work, my short stories often start that way, a scene or character and then it grows into a short piece.
But it makes me wonder about the novel idea I had a while back, because its all about the setting and intial drama, but not so much about resolution... I kinda wonder where it would end up.
I'm very curious about this Steampunk thing, I read an article about the concept the other day and it reminded me how much I love it!