Starting My First Novel

[rjolly10]

Last year I flirted somewhat with the idea of writing a novel. I had a nice little plot and everything, left the ending open for me to write so I would have something to look forward to. But since then I've not thought about it much since now. Basically I need some fresh novel ideas. I find things like bank robberies, the underdog success stories, or anything that requires the main character to be very intelligent to be interesting. Now I know what you are going to say... Make an intelligent underdog bank robber.. That might be the answer, but I am still looking for a few suggestions. Anyways thanks in advance.

PS- How old are most writers when they start or get published? I know it varies, but it'd be an interesting piece of trivia to me.

[dempsey]

My suggestion: Go write it.

What others might say: Ideas aren't fresh. The way you treat them is. Go write it.

[rjolly10]

No, I mean it's not that. I just have to have one single idea to get the process going. I'm trying to hurry up with an idea right now so I can start before I loose interest. (But I do agree with you)

[nevada]

So? What? You expect us to give you an idea? Shall we write it for you too? Writing a novel is very hard work. It'll take you a year to write a first draft, several revisions, possible rewrite. Hard slogging 7 days a week. After that, who knows how long before you land an agent, and then a publisher, if you even do. Most first novels get filed under the bed and several more are written before one is ready for publication.

If you think you're gonna lose interest in the next few years, maybe writing isn't for you. But you don't know till you start. With your own ideas.

[C.bronco]

Fill in the blank: I'd really love to read a book that _________. Then write that book.

[Gillhoughly]

Fresh idea place: the public library.

Read it. The whole thing. Seriously. Every book you can find. It worked for Ray Bradbury. It worked for me. When I ran out of books I liked I started writing my own.

A Joe Bob Briggs wrote:

There are no new ideas. There are only individual expressions of old ideas. If you and I write the same thing, it will come out in two versions so different that no one will notice, but both versions will be extremely similar to things written 3,000 years ago. To put it another way, your imagination doesn’t belong to you--it’s just something you’re entrusted with for a time.

How old are most writers when they start or get published?

Age is the one thing that doesn't matter in this craft. Your words stand or fall on their own merit, not how many times you've orbited the sun.

I started reading my local library in a serious way at 12 and started writing about the same time.

I sold my first novel--after 11 months to first draft plus two years of shopping it, 25 rewrites of chapter one and 2-3 full rewrites--in my mid thirties.

I'll PM the whole Joe Bob thing to you. It changed who I am as a writer.


Nevada--Everyone has to start somewhere and at some point, and they usually don't know what they're getting into.

But that's what makes it fun.

[Gillhoughly]

PS--rjolly10 -- Welcome to AW.:welcome:

It's noisy, but most everyone is friendly. Please stick around.

Try reading "Learn Writing with Uncle Jim." It the best thread on the whole forum.

[maestrowork]

What do you like to read? What kind of writers you like? What are the kinds of books on your book shelves?

You get ideas all the time. Sometimes they're grand, high concept ideas, and sometimes not so.

But unless you start putting words down -- one word at a time -- it would only be talk, talk, talk.

I'd talked about writing about a novel for years, but nothing happened until I sat down and actually started writing in 2001. I finished and got it published.

Start writing. Now.

[nevada]

Yes sorry, I meant to say welcome too. I know I sounded a bit bitchy. I just finished watching Munich. That'll be my excuse. Sorry.

Welcome to AW, there's tons of great info here to help you as you explore your ideas.

[Gillhoughly]

There ya go!

I luv yer doggie!

[Sunshine13]

Welcome to AW! It can be a tough crowd on some days. But really, honestly, great lovely people here that are or can be brutally honest.

I'll agree though. Go write it. I use to be the type to make excuses on why I couldn't start a project. Finally, when someone close to me said if I was really serious about it I'd just do it, I finally got sense kicked into me and did just that. I DID it. I just started to write. Eventually everything fleshed out. Don't expect your first draft to be more than that - - a first draft. It will suck crap, that's what first drafts are for. It usually doesn't take long to write the novel compared to how long it takes to revise it. THAT is what writer's do the majority of their career. Edit, revise, polish, word chop, reword, add word, Edit, revise, polish, rinse, repeat. I learned this the hard way, no one told me how much work you do AFTER you finish writing your novel to really finish it.

If writing is what you really want to do, and seriously, then as Nike says: Just do it.

As for age of publishing, I have no idea, I'm sure it varies.

[rjolly10]

Hey thatnks guys. I know it will be hard work for sure and I know it will take a long time, not doubting that. The simple post from C Bronco helped me out a bit, I'll be thinkin about what I'd like to read and hope to start tomorrow. And I definately don't think I'm going to publish or get an agent or make any money period, I've kinda wanted to do this for a few years now. I'm only 20 so it's a good thing I started thinking about it young huh. Thanks Gillhoughly, I'll take a look at that! Thanks to everyone again.

[Gillhoughly]

Most cool.

Have fun, and STAY AWAY FROM PUBLISH AMERICA!

(We have our reasons. And a thread in the Bewares forum.)

That's pretty much all you need to know for now.

[Mumut]

You don't need to know how it starts to start writing a story. You've got an idea so develop that. Then, if the problem hasn't solved itself (which I find it does in most cases), write out a list of what ifs based on how did MC get here in the first place. And welcome to AW.

[Mandy-Jane]

:hi:

[dempsey]

Yeah, sorry if I sound mean. I'm just, er, direct :)

[Cyia]

First of all -- HOWDY!

Now... go sit in a chair and stare at a blank wall. Pretend it's a movie screen. What do you see? Picture it, write it down... rewrite it... SPELL CHECK (while paying attention to make sure you have your it's and its straight).. rewrite again. Toss it in a drawer for a week... read it, then fix whatever doesn't make sense.

You may find that a burst of inspiration hits and you can tear through a first draft in a couple of months, but you still have to pretty it up.

Have fun!

(p.s. Some of us aren't as nice as others... some of us are snarky and proud of it.)

ETA: I won't give you the idea, but I'll give you a nudge. If you want a bank robber... goody. Ok, why does he/she/it (no one said it had to be a human) rob banks? greed? revenge? boredom? compulsion? forced against their will?

What kind of banks? cash? electronic? blood? (even vampires get desperate sometimes)

Are they good at it, are they bumbling? do they trip over their own diaper because they're 14 months old and too smart for day care... or so old it's either rob banks to pay the mortgage/nurse or go to a nursing home?

Past, present, or future? United states, Switzerland, or the Caymans?

Was it all a giant misunderstanding?

[The Lonely One]

The bank robber is a good start, but it's not a novel. A novel is the thing by which the bank robber is able to show us a deep truth not only about himself, but about ourselves as well.

Find that and you got yourself a book.

[blacbird]

No, I mean it's not that. I just have to have one single idea to get the process going. I'm trying to hurry up with an idea right now so I can start before I loose interest. (But I do agree with you)

Dempsey is exactly correct. Go write it. Don't sweat THE BIG IDEA. Start thinking characters and scenes. Even if you don't know how they all fit. Every story starts with characters and interaction. If you bury yourself in advance worry about THE BIG IDEA, your writing career is over.

caw

[nevada]

The bank robber is a good start, but it's not a novel. A novel is the thing by which the bank robber is able to show us a deep truth not only about himself, but about ourselves as well.

Find that and you got yourself a book.

WHAT????? you mean, it's not enough to entertain and take someone's mind off his/her troubles for a couple of hours? Geez, now you tell me. Damn, I see rewrites coming.

I'm actually only kidding. I started out with a fun frolicking medieval speculative fiction with Wyverns (they're sort of like dragons) but in the rethinking of it ended up with a Canadian literary novel about a vet with PTSD who may or may not be imagining middle eastern terrorists and who has visions of wyverns sometimes.

But I still think some books only mean to entertain and that is good as well and sometimes that's all I want.

rjolly, Cyia is absolutely right. Play a giant game of What If? I usually discard the first few things i come up with because those are the easy answers. You want the not-so-easy answers. And don't worry if you think "it's been done before." It's all been done before. The difference is in the telling. But like everyone says, you've got to write. Even if it's only the what if stuff. It doesnt count if it's in your head. All that counts is the words on the paper.

and sorry that I was bitchy before.

[Alex Schroeder]

Just start! Have fun with it. Write a couple of interesting scenes. Flesh out the characters. Let them develop. Let yourself be surprised. Definitely forget the big idea like blacbird said, or at least don't get too attached to it. Novels have a way of taking on a life of their own.

[The Lonely One]

But I still think some books only mean to entertain and that is good as well and sometimes that's all I want.


IMO, Deep truths are sometimes so entertaining you don't know they're there. :)

[roseangel]

Just write away, old or new ideas, it doesn't matter.
My first, first draft is based on an unfinished ms, my second completed first draft I started with one scene near the end in mind.
Just write what you like, and feel free to go crazy.

[Makai_Lightning]

Yo! Welcome!


I'm gonna go ahead and echo the "just write it," thing. That's how I ended up with the draft of my 1st novel; I wasn't even intending it to be a novel. I just really wanted to write something, and I had this idea I wanted to screw around with and enjoyed poking fun at, then the momentum just carried me through until I ended up with a novel length thing.

All I had to start with was a few characters and a general idea of where I was going, which changed pretty drastically.

So whatever you do have--run with it! I personally believe you shouldn't be thinking so much "okay, I'm going to go write a novel" as "I'm going to go write about really cool idea X!" It sounds so much more exciting. ^.^

[foonting]

Hi and welcome. I second what people have said about -just write- but would add that I carry an ideas notepad for plots that hit me at times when I'm not at the computer. My first novel is now just topping 80,000 words, but it started life as a random jotting on one of my pads that languished for four years as an outline. l just kept coming back to the plot and character sketches as they stood head and shoulders above any other ideas I had had.
Write anything until the 'big one' hits you...blogs, short stories, shopping lists...just write!
And good luck.

[c2ckim]

Your main charactor could be a cop. Intellegent, always get his man type and your bank robber could be intellegent too, but your bank robber could be a friend from the cop's past, someone close enough to be his brother. The interesting part could come from the cop not wanting to believe his friend could actually be the one he's after and the steps it takes to capture him. MAybe he gives the robber one chance too many and in the end he's convinced that the friend really did do it and then he goes after him full force.
Just a thought

[FOTSGreg]

Maybe the robber is an incredibly smart, crafty, ingenious kind of thief who's also well-known and renowned as someone who always gets away with the crime. The main character could be FBI, InterPol, or even MI5. Maybe the robber is a sort of international kingpin and the main character is a James Bond type, or even an insurance investigator who has to become a James Bond type in order to catch the kingpin. He stumbles upon the kingpin's true identity, the kingpin finds out, sends assassins, and Bam! the chase is on. The investigator has to stay alive long enough to prove who the kingpin is and bring him down. Along the way he meets a few people who help him out or try to kill him.

Writers of a similar vein - Jon Land, J.A. Konrath, James Patterson just to name 3.

-----
BTW, It's two years later and my first novel is halfway through its 5th draft (and has been languishing there for about 3 months while real life got in the way). A second novel, unfinished, has been at least 5 years in the writing, has been stripped from 45k words back to 15k, and is now back up to 36k, but a long way from being finished. A third novel sits at 30k words with the characters (who are superheroes) having just been taken into custody by a small town Deputy Sheriff (they allowed themselves to be arrested). A fourth novel is in outline.

I'm also working on several short stories and plan to concentrate most of my energies there this year with the idea towards getting my name in print and starting to brand myself (as in brand-name, not the searing iron fresh from the fire) so maybe one of those novels might actually see print one of these years. Thrillers with a scifi or horror aspect is the current plan.

The point is that writing's a tough gig as others have said here. You have to be prepared for rejection, dejection, perfection, and putrefaction. You have to be prepared to spend long hours away from friends and family, wear out keyboards, suffer the loss of data, and then you have to rewrite everything all over again.

...and welcome aboard. AW's a good ship, a great place to learn and network with other writers, and there's a ton of good information just waiting for anyone to use.

[Charlie Horse]

Not going to repeat what everyone else here has suggested. It's all good. Listen to what the people around here say (at least most of them), then decided for yourself what works for you.

As for fresh story ideas, all I have to say is steer clear of settings that involve the midget wrestling circuit. That baby's mine.

[RJK]

Welcome to AW.

Here (http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickstory) is a site that will help you come up with story ideas.

Also, listen to what Gillhoughly said, read the entire 'Learn writing with Uncle Jim' thread. by the time you've finished that, you will have your story idea(s) and you will be inspired to write and write and write.

[DeadlyAccurate]

The bank robber is a good start, but it's not a novel. A novel is the thing by which the bank robber is able to show us a deep truth not only about himself, but about ourselves as well.

Find that and you got yourself a book.

Some novels are filet mignon. Some novels are Snickers bars. There's a place in the world for both.

If all you (the OP) want is to write a book where the guy saves the world, beats up the bad guy, and gets the girl, go for it. As long as it's entertaining and well-written, it'll find an audience.

[tehuti88]

For me it's not enough to have an idea and just write it. For longer stories, for example a novel, I really have to MULL that idea for a good long while. It's like forming a crystal. It gets bigger and bigger as more little pieces of the story attach and it starts to fall into place. It's not just a bank robber or whatever anymore...it's the bank robber, and why they're a robber, and what they're doing, and what this has to do with the rest of the story, and why the story is being told in the first place.

You run the risk of getting tired of an idea if you think on it too long, but on the other hand, you also run the risk of starting a story with an idea and then...having nowhere to go, because you didn't think it over long enough to let it develop properly. You'll have to find a middle ground that helps you actually start a story and finish it.

Anyway, good luck. :)

[rjolly10]

Wow, thanks everybody. I didn't really expect to get this type of response. I'm about to start writing this thing, just wanted to get my creative juices flowing. Again I appreciate everyone's input and I hope to come around here often for inspiration and updates.