A Leap of Fatih: How To Start A Novel

 My advice to a student was to END IT.

I had a student when I was teaching a creative writing class at ACC ask me how to begin her novel. She kept trying to begin it in different places and it wasn’t working. She’d tried and tried and tried.  She was discouraged. She felt lost. She had never gotten past page three in her novel.

     “Just end it,” I said.

     “It’s not as bad as all that,” she said. 

     “You have to,” I insisted.

     “No really. I’d prefer not to. I’m only nineteen.”

     “You have to.”

     “I could always be a lawyer, ” she said.  “A lot of my friends are going to be lawyers.”

     “You can end it. You’ll feel better.”

     “I don’t want to die.”

     “The book,” I said.

     “What?”

    “End it.”

     The above is a fictional dramatization, of course, because I’m a fiction writer and sometimes it’s just more fun to write the scene you want than what really happened. But the gist is there. Like a lot of writers this writer keeps starting over because she knows the beginning isn’t right and she’s worried about starting in the wrong place. But here ‘s the thing. We mostly start in the wrong place. It might be almost right or it might be very wrong. We can’t know until we write many pages.  And really, whether this happens on the first or second draft, you can’t know until you write the words THE END at the end of the manuscript.

You have to struggle through your first draft, telling yourself again and again that you know that many things are wrong. When you write THE END you suddenly have a destination. Then you can go back and work on all those wrong turns you made. Put content in and take content out. Find your way to the end with points in your story, each moving the story or/and the character forward toward an ending that will seem inevitable to the reader.

It wasn’t. You find it and you make it inevitable by revising plot points and character and sometimes setting. 

So don’t worry about beginning in the right or the wrong place. Begin. Add to that beginning and keep adding to it and when you get to the end you will have a novel. Often my first drafts are short, like maybe 20-30k. They have a beginning and some kind of end though. That’s what I focus on. Then I get down to the work that really matters. 

The truth is if you’re a discovery writer you need that first draft to discover your novel. If you’re an outliner you need to do the work on your outline. Either way starting a novel can feel overwhelming and frightening. Give yourself permission to find your way.

***

What I’m up to in my writing life. Writing the final draft of book 2 of the Old Men In Space series, Billy’s and Johnny’s Road Trip To The Hidden Planet. Book 1 is here if you want to take a look: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F66SVMCW

I admit that every time I start a new novel I have that trigger: how will I ever finish this story, where is the beginning taking me, how can I do this? It’s funny that I’ve written over thirty novels and I still have the feeling. It takes a leap of faith. Trust yourself. Just write.

Brian

Success: How I Found It

 Success: How I Found It 

 

(A word on success: of course, success means different things to different people. This is just my take on it. For me, now, success in writing is connecting with readers and writing exactly what I want and making a living as a writer because I am connecting with readers.)

 

I published five books traditionally and they won some awards and they sold some copies. I’ll be honest. Not a lot of copies. Not enough. But I was somewhat successful. Had an agent, had a publisher, was in bookstores and libraries.

 

My success, as defined in the first paragraph, didn't come until  I started self-publishing. And not right away then. It took me two years and six novels to get to my Strangely Scary Funny series. Even then the novels didn’t really take off until book three; and then they really took off. 

 

What did I do differently? I’ve always written odd, quirky, unusual fiction. But in that series I just went for it, swinging big every time. I just pushed myself a little bit more and a little bit more and I realized that what I was best at was humor. So I focused on that more than I ever had (my own brand of humor) and I pushed it as far as I could. Just that little shift in focus allowed me to find a specific kind of exaggeration in my writing, a particular way of storytelling, that felt natural to me. And that many readers responded to. 

 

Just that little push seemed to do it. I found a lot of readers. I’ve written a lot of books in that series and it’s been about three years and they’re still selling very well. Some people love it. (Not everyone, of course; I’ve got some haters). They write me kind emails and sometimes texts to tell me how much they love the stories. Reaching that many reader and having them be passionate about reading the novels is, to me, success. It’s been the most satisfying connection with readers of my writing career so far. 

 

 

Here’s what you need to do: be fascinated by humans and their stories and the human condition. Communicate that fascination to your reader on the pages you write. Keep trying to do this in your particular way. That’s what you have. Especially now with AI the many books that get published practically every day. It’s hard to stand out.

 

 But only you can be you. Be you. 

 

You’ll write your best writing if you allow yourself to be yourself when you write. It’s not just your voice. It’s how you see the world. It’s how you live in it and express how you see and live in the world. Do that. If it’s realistic or horrific or futuristic, do that. Don’t handcuff yourself. Write what keeps you excited.

 

Write you.

 

More personally: I have the first novel in a new series out today. Its title is Billy’s and Johnny’s Interstellar Road Trip. I think it’s a pretty good read. Check it out here, if you’re so inclined. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Billys-Johnnys-Interstellar-Road-Trip-ebook/dp/B0F66SVMCW/

 

 

Happy writing,

 

Brian

Characters Can Show You The Way

 Characters Can Show You The Way

I was dreaming last night about my WIP, which woke me, which made me think about my dream, which had my characters in it talking about something that had nothing to do with my manuscript. But then that got me thinking about a scene, and anyone who has insomnia from time to time knows that once you start thinking in this way, sleep is not coming back.

 

     I blame it on the characters.

 

     Our creations can be quite vocal sometimes. You can hear them grumbling and moaning and laughing. I’m just glad they can’t talk to us directly, or I would get no sleep at all. I can imagine many conversations:

 

     “Dude, are you going to leave me there with this guy talking about Forrest Gump? Just kill me.”

 

     Or someone else would complain about how they’re not getting enough page time. Or someone else would complain about how I’d made him or her less kind, more kind, weaker, less intelligent, mean, not mean enough. 

 

     Characters are demanding. A writer has a hard time getting them out of his/her mind when they start making noise. Which is a good thing because we need interesting characters, and if a character is demanding to be heard, that’s a good thing for a story because the truth is nothing is more important that characters for a story.

 

SO HERE IS A TIP, especially for you discovery writers: freewrite your characters and then, as you’re writing your novel, keep thinking about the most interesting scenes you can put them in to develop them the way you think they should be developed. You’ll likely be able to build scenes and so plot just from your characters.

 

If you pay attention, you’ll figure out a large part of your story this way. Not all of it, but enough. From there, you’ll still have work to do, but you will find your way. Keep letting the character guide you through the story.

Characters Can Show You The Way.

My Best Writing Advice

 My Best Writing Advice

 

Don’t take anyone’s advice about writing as gospel. There is no gospel for writers. What there is: some general advice that novice writers, especially, can use to improve their writing. Even if you’ve been writing a long time, you should, and I do, keep looking for advice from other writers. But once you’ve got the basics and the advanced basics down, you’ll be looking for more specific advice because that’s what you need. Advice that helps you, the unique you, that writes the books you truly want to write.

Why? All writers are unique. Writing is one of the most personal, idiosyncratic activities around. What works for one writer might take the life out of another writer’s writing or at least lead them to do things that weaken some aspect of their writing.

Each writer has to find his or her way and take what he or she can from every source and leave the rest. It’s hard but finding your own way requires going the wrong way a lot.

So should you take my advice about writing to not take anyone’s advice about writing?

There Are Three Rules For Writing A Novel

 There are three rules for writing the novel. “Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." --Somerset Maugham (famous old writer guy)

 

Unfortunately.

 

But today I think that there is only one rule for writing a novel. Fortunately, I know what it is.

 

In your face, Somerset.

 

When I start writing, as a discovery writer, it’s like looking at a mountain from a distance and imagining myself climbing that mountain. From a distance, it looks challenging but I can see myself doing it. I’ve done it before. From far off it doesn’t look that hard, actually.

 

So-o-o-o easy to fool yourself. You can do it without even trying.

 

So I actually sit down to write and I get to the base of the mountain. Everything changes. Once I get up close, the landscape becomes something very different. It’s wilderness. Confusing. Confounding.  Hard. The imagined stroll becomes a marathon, a long-distance climb through all kinds of terrain, with bad weather and darkness and somewhat disturbing sounds all around.

 

But also exhilarating—all of it. Breathtaking views, beautiful sunsets, and the wonderous terrain of the great outdoors.

 

You can’t get to the good times if you don’t struggle. It’s true when you’re trying to become good at almost anything. It’s true in writing. So here is my one rule in writing, the only one you need. KEEP WRITING. If you expected some fancy and wise secret, sorry. It’s the simple and hard truth. The people who finish a novel do not let themselves not finish. They keep writing, knowing they’ll have the chance to rewrite.

 

 

One rule. Finish that first draft. Know it will likely suck. Permit yourself to write a not great first draft so you can write a better second draft and maybe a third or even a fourth. I generally write four drafts before I’m done. The first is always the hardest. KEEP WRITING.

 

Good luck.

How Do You Stand Out As A Writer? How Does Your Fiction Stand Out? It's Easier Than You Think.

  

We don't know where we come from and we don't know where we're going to. While we're here we try to have a good time. Generally, with mixed results. We try to help others have a good time unless we're selfish jerks. Generally, with mixed results. Still, it makes for a pretty good story.

 

You can tell this story in a million different ways. It can be long. It can be short. It can be realistic. It can be fantasy or scifi or horror or comedy or whatever you want.

 

Here’s what you need to do: be fascinated by humans and their stories and the human condition. Communicate that fascination to your reader on the pages you write. Keep trying to do this in your particular way. That’s what you have. Especially now with AI and all the many books out there.

 

 Only you can be you. Be you. 

 

You’ll write your best writing if you allow yourself to be yourself when you write. It’s not just your voice. It’s how you see the world. It’s how you live in it and express how you see and live in the world. For me it’s through fiction. If, like me, you like to make up crazy worlds and characters and some pretty incredible, possibly odd, stories. Do that. If it’s realistic or horrific or futuristic, do that. Don’t handcuff yourself. Write what keeps you excited.

 

Write you.

Show Don't Tell /Nonsense

 What's it mean?

What does my sheepdog mean when he puts his head in my lap and stares up at me? He might mean he loves me—really, really, really. He might mean he wants me to pet him. Please. Please. Please. He might mean that he’s feeling a little low and he would like to be told how good he is, preferably for the rest of his waking life. Good dog. Good dog. Good dog. Maybe he means something else I haven’t thought about. He could, for all I know, be telling me that he’s sorry for eating my tennis shoe, which by the way wasn’t nearly as good as he thought it would be. Do I always have to buy Converse?

SHOW DON’T TELL. Yes, but

 Some gestures aren’t clear. They need context to make showing them add to the story. And sometimes they need more than that. Sometimes it’s more important to tell and violate the rule (this one is definitely made to be broken on numerous occasions) and be more specific. Expressing with precision the experience of the character—how they’re affected by what’s happening or how they affect another and the way it fits with the rest of the story—is vital. The reader has to be in on what’s going on in order to share the character’s experience. Show. Tell. It doesn’t matter how you do that. It just matters that you do