Writing Your First
Novel – the Essentials
by W.H. Matlack, author of the novels: Noir Town, Waiting to Run, and The Memory Walker
Writer’s Drive
To successfully tackle something as daunting as a
60,000-word novel, you’ve really got to see yourself as a writer. You’ve got to
have what I call, writer’s drive. It
comes from the essential core of every writer – being a story teller. No more.
No less. And believe me, that is
enough because writing is just another way of telling a story.
Writers are just story tellers in love with the written
word. Your desire to write probably comes from stories you’ve been telling your
friends and families for years. Without even realizing it, you’ve been honing
your writing craft. Perhaps your friends and family have been telling you to “write
that stuff down.” They are absolutely right, but don’t just launch into a
novel. You need to prep first.
Time
So you’ve finally retired, or you’ve gotten the kids off to
school, and there are no sports practices scheduled for a few hours. Or
something else has occurred to give you time to yourself. Time that gives you a
couple of hours to launch into that novel you’ve wanted to write since college.
Or maybe you’re still in college or in high school or even in junior high. More
than likely you’ve had to make the time, which is fine. What counts is that no
matter what you had to do, you’re looking at time to write, and that’s the
first essential. You just need to manage your time into planned steps.
Short Stories
Every time you engage your family or friends with one of
your tales, you’ve actually been honing your short story writing ability. Keeping
people engaged during a party or family gathering from beginning to end really
tasks a story teller. You’ve learned how to edit out what doesn’t work and how
to embellish what does. You’re ready for the next step – writing down those short
stories.
Now the cool thing about this is that when you write out one
of your favorite stories, all you have to concentrate on is the writing
process. You’ve already come up with the characters, the scene, the dialogue,
the timing, everything involved in the story. You are free to concentrate on develop
your writing style. You can explore different styles – humor, drama, and
tragedy - virtually anything you want. You just need to find your writer self,
and you won’t have to worry about plot development or character building.
You’ve already done all that.
The trick is to keep them short as you experiment. 1500 to
2000 words is a good length. Avoid the temptation to go on and on. You want
short, punchy, entertaining stories. The most important guideline – have a
strong beginning, middle, and end,
and make the end as dramatic as possible. And please, don’t forget to break
things up into paragraphs. There’s nothing more annoying to a reader than
looking at a solid block of type. Confused about how to use paragraphs? Pick up
one of your favorite novels and analyze how the author uses paragraphs.
In fact, reading good novels is an important part of
learning to write. Learn to read from a writer’s perspective. How does a
successful author handle character development, scene transition, descriptions,
etc?
Getting Feedback
Like any exercise, writing takes practice and…the scariest
of all…feedback from your readers. Whenever you give someone a story to read
and make comments, you are suddenly out
there. What you need – what we all need, actually – is a safe place to get
feedback. What I recommend is signing up for a writing class through your local
community college or adult school. You can expect the class to discuss a
different aspect of writing for a while, and then everyone will get an
assignment or two.
It’s a great way to exercise your imagination. Sometimes
you’ll be given ten minutes to write a short piece on some theme or even a
photograph. At the end of the period, everyone will read what they’ve written.
That’s the safe part, because everyone will read and discuss, and these sessions
are primarily positive. Plus it’s loads of fun seeing how many different
approaches the other class members have with the same subject.
Branch out
When you feel it’s time to leave the safety of the class and
get some reactions from readers instead of just writers, take your stories to
an open mike at a local coffee shop. Nearly every neighborhood coffee shop
worth its “beans” hosts an open mike – usually one night a month, and they
welcome “spoken word” performers. That’s you!
If you have kept your stories to about 1500 words, you’ll be
able to read them within the ten minutes allotted per performer. The best thing
is you’ll get immediate feedback. Laughter, tears - the whole spectrum of
emotions you have layered into your work. You’ll get both positive and negative
feedback, but don’t be afraid of getting both. In each case, ask yourself what
you could have done differently to enhance the laughter or suppress the
negative. A lot of times someone will say that they didn’t understand
something. That’s the best criticism of all, because it gives you a chance to
clarify, and clarification is the best kind of editing. That and word reduction.
Editing
Editing is an ongoing process. It comes first when you
finish a piece and then read it over carefully. You’re sure to find awkward
phrasings, or words repeated too often. When we’re writing we are seldom aware
of how many times we’ve used a word. When my first novel went through initial
editing, I was shocked at how often I used the word, “little.” Every paragraph
seemed to have that word in it.
The other goal of editing is word reduction. When we write
we tend to throw in unnecessary words or phrases. All these extra words load
down our narrative and make our stories seem labored. Writing is mostly like
sculpting. You might need to take a “little” off there and add a “little” here.
Editing makes for good prose, and every author out there, no matter how
successful, gets edited. Look at the acknowledgement page in a book by your
favorite writer. The chances are pretty good that you’ll see an editor thanked.
Fiction
Once you feel confident in your writing style and editing
abilities, it’s time to turn to fiction. Now you’ll need to use your
imagination as well as your writing style. You’ll need to construct “workable”
worlds with everything in them, people, objects, mood, and everything else
needed to further your plot. I think of myself as a stage manager for a play.
All the props need to be established, and it has to be done without wearing
down the reader with excessive descriptions. It’s a different kind of
challenge, but a liberating one. Essentially you create everything your
characters need. If they need to quickly exit a room, and there’s no door. You
just create one!
Once it was pointed out to me that my character was in a
room that exploded, but I needed him out of the hospital in two days. My friend
said that with the kind of explosion I described, my character most likely
would have died. No problem. I just wrote in – or created – a concrete pillar
and heavy oak desk and put them between the character and the explosion.
Problem solved.
Tackling the novel
Once you feel confident with your short fiction, it’s time
to tackle the novel. What additional tools do you need? First of all, you need
to be organized. Going back and forth in a small 60,000-word novel is no easy
task. I don’t have any secrets for how to do it other than to make notes as you
go. I always have a list of characters on my desk with their names and
relationships with each other, and other things I need to keep in mind. A
timeline is also a good idea just to keep track of where you are in the story
development.
Key to the whole process is to understand your characters. A
strong novel takes time developing its characters. Characters are really what a
novel is all about. Think of them as little sculptures. Are they fully
developed? Does their motivation further the plot? Motivation is most important
in character development, but make sure they have enough character flaws.
That’s what makes them interesting.
Outlining?
There seems to be two basic kinds of novelists. First are
the outliners. They carefully outline each scene and plotline before beginning
the process of writing prose. The second are what I call “rabbit holers.” I got
that from a quote by Lewis Carroll who said, “I sent Alice down a rabbit hole
with no idea of what she would find down there.” I don’t know for sure if
Carroll actually said that, but it describes the class of novelists who bravely
go where no one else has ventured. The plot, characters and every other aspect
just comes to them as they write.
It’s absolutely thrilling when it happens. I call it a
“writer’s high,” and it’s similar to a runner’s high. It’s what makes writing
an art form. Of course there are writers who do a little of both.
Stuck?
Whenever I’m stuck in a story, I’ll put aside some time and
work up an outline, which I never seem to use as I get back to it. It’s a good
safety net, however. I have one friend who solves the “stuck” problem by
writing the ending and then just gluing the two together. Another writer I know
has her characters write letters to her. Both techniques work for them.
A word on poetry
Freeform poetry is by far the most accessible form of
writing because there are no rules. There are plenty of other poetry styles
that have lots of rules, some of them very complex. However, most beginning writers
start with freeform. I recommend that as a good exercise for beginning writers.
It’s a great form to build compelling imagery and mood, and it’s just a lot of
fun to do. Carry a small journal with you, and write short poems about what you
see on a day-to-day basis.
In fact, you may decide that poetry is what you want to
pursue instead of writing long novels. Go ahead. You’ll be joining a great
literary tradition, but just keep one thing in mind when it comes to marketing
your work. There are far more people writing poetry than reading it, and the
outlets for getting published are very few. It’s kind of like Jazz in the world
of music – very few outlets, but very creative and well respected.
Enjoy it
Remember, even if you are never able to sell a novel or
secure an agent, you are as much as writer as Hemmingway or any other. It’s the
process that makes it an art form. Once a story is finished, it becomes a
product, and you have to switch into a sales and promotion mode. No matter.
It’s your story. You’ve created it for yourself, and if you’re happy with it,
that’s really all that’s necessary.
Good writing to you!
