The next novel ..... but how?

[macandal]

I just finished my first novel. Everywhere I've read it is recommended that, to alleviate the anxiety of finding an agent, a writer move to his next project. But how do you do this exactly? If you already know what your next book will be, fine, but what if you don't? How do "find out" what your next novel will be? I would like to distract myself from the anxiety of agent-hunting. Reading works a little. I haven't been able to finish a book in months so I think I need to involve myself in something more personal, more hands-on, like writing. Help please!

[Perks]

Ahhh!!! Get out of my head!!

[macandal]

You too, huh? Sorry. I'm desperate. I've began reading anywhere from 6 to 10 books since I finished my novel. I haven't been able to finish one.

[KTC]

Just do a series of writing exercises and see if anything speaks to you. Or jot down a list of topics that pop into your head and then write from that list. Maybe once you start writing in one vein it will burst open and you can move forward from there. Don't try to think about it first...just write. I always make lists of ideas in the back of a journal and use them when my in-the-moment thoughts aren't exactly bursting onto the page. The prompt list you will make will be subjects that you might want to explore more fully at a future date. Refer to your list when you run out of steam on one topic and shoot forward with the next.

OR...write character sketches of people in your head who want to come to life. Once you start writing about their characteristics, their means of living, their loves, their hates...you may find a story forming around them. Go from there.

[three seven]

Ok, probably an obvious question, but where did the inspiration for your first novel come from?

[macandal]

Ok, probably an obvious question, but where did the inspiration for your first novel come from? Well, my novel is composed of eleven stories. At the time I was working on a novel that was going nowhere very fast. I stopped and worked on a story about a child I had been thinking about. Then I wrote another one, not about this child but related. Then I wrote another one, and another one, etc. I have tried to revive this. I have tried to write about things that have been in my head for a while but I am not able to write them at the moment, which, knowing me, means that they are not ready yet. I was able to write my just-finished novel because I was ready to write it.

[ted_curtis]

Some of my best (unwritten) ideas came from the game of "what if?" I'm just driving to work or watching TV and I think, what if the Pope was in hiding? What if the President was kidnapped by terrorists? What if I woke up one morning and couldn't remember what my name was?

Then the idea sort of simmers, and next thing I know I've got a plot and characters. But focus on whatever grabs you most -- plot, character, setting, etc.

[Jamesaritchie]

Good question. I can only say my next novels comes by sitting down and starting to write. For me, "Ready to write" means sitting down and writing, not waiting to be ready to write.

Stick an interesting charcter in a sticky situation with an interesting setting, and that's my next novel.

[Ken Schneider]

In the newspaper everyday there are Ideas for books. You have to read with this in mind.

Stephen King's book, "On Writing", tell you this. Find two good ideas and mesh them.

Just like: What if there was a newspaper reporter that went into a phone booth and changed into a life saving super hero. Sounds goofy, doesn't it?
Superman made big bucks.

A man bitten by a spider that takes on the traits of same.

Set down and think about it. Listen to the news, or read the paper with the thought in mind of finding a story line.

IMHO

Ken S.

[mistri]

Usually, I must admit, I have a stack of ideas waiting to be done (sorry). But are there any subjects you'd like to write about? Perhaps if you think about them, you'll come up with a story. For example I've always wanted to write a fantasy book about cartography, and probably will after I've completed the next couple of things demanding attention in the to-write list. I don't know what the plot will be right now, but I suspect that doing a bit of research into the subject would give me a few ideas.

Other people have already suggested the what-if game. Sometimes that works for me, other times I know I want to write about a particular kind of *place* or *person* and the story comes from that.

[Fishmonkey]

You might want to break things up by writing short stories. I'm usually not eager to get into another novel right away, and I take couple of months off to write shorts -- takes about a week or two to write each, so you can accumulate a bunch very quickly.

[Happy-Go-Lucky]

This is how I get jumpstarted. I write a page of words, about whatever. A story starter. Just start writing. It doesn't matter much what you put down, cause there is a good chance it will get erased as you start again. After about 3-? times, I hit something that goes...and keep going...till I'm too tired to write anymore. Ussually about 10k words. ***Oh, btw, outlines are for sissies...hehe***

[maestrowork]

Read the newspapers or magazines or books on some topics you've never heard before. Chat with your friends and family. Do some traveling... eventually an idea will come to you. In the meantime, write something. Anything. Blog. Letters to editors. Short stories... whatever that keeps your creative juices flowing.

[willietheshakes]

How do "find out" what your next novel will be?

Well, it's different for everyone.
For me, it was the result of a conversation.
I was discussing my currently-being-shopped manuscript with an editor who I knew was going to be reading it shortly. She asked what I was going to be working on next, so I mentioned one of my ideas. The following week, she requested a slightly expanded reminder of that idea, so I sent her a one-page summary of what I thought the idea would turn into.

When she bought both the current manuscript and the in utero follow-up , I pretty much found out what my next novel was going to be.

[macandal]

You might want to break things up by writing short stories. I'm usually not eager to get into another novel right away, and I take couple of months off to write shorts -- takes about a week or two to write each, so you can accumulate a bunch very quickly.

That's basically what I've been doing and I don't want to do this anymore (well, for now at least). I have an idea or two, maybe, let's see what comes of them. Thanks.

[pepperlandgirl]

I watch TV and do the what-if exercise (works best with history stuff and documentaries.)

Or pick your favorite Shakespeare play and rip it off. "Young man suspects mother and uncle of killing his father. Plots revenge. Crazy or justified?"

[MichaelSt]

May I request a slight divergence here?

I work in an industry where creativity is absolutely not acknowledged nor rewarded and most of my coworkers seem fine with this fact. Whenever I try to enlist them in conversation, it seems, try to share the concepts that interest me and motivate me to write, then both I and my speech are most often met with the same sort of quizzical stare one might see on the face of one's cat when one is practicing the harmonica.

KnowwhatI'msayin?

Michael, Dull'sville is just ahead, first exit past the "Mikki-D's," in Seattle.

[reph]

I work in an industry where creativity is absolutely not acknowledged nor rewarded and most of my coworkers seem fine with this fact.
Your plight would be similar if you stayed home all day and had no coworkers. In either case, one finds another arena for discussing and encouraging creativity or decides to do without.

The Water Cooler is an arena . . .

[fallenangelwriter]

What do you write?


I imagine the techniques for coming up with stories vary from genre to genre.

I write fantasy. when i sit down to think through a fantasy story, i focus on four basic elements: magic, setting, plot, and characters.

usually, i start with a wrold or an idea for a system of magic, and build the rest aorund it. with my most recent story, i came up with a means of working magic, then a person who does so, then a situation for him ot be in, then the place where it all happens. other times, i've started with a character, like a rebellious angel, or a setting, such as a real-world college, but with magic.

Another tactice i've found useful is to take a hard lookat the cliches of fantasy. i'll often take a couple and mash them together, or rethink them so that they make mroe sens eot me. for instance, I don't really like the whole "predestined hero" charcter, so i decided to write a story about a "chosen one" who just gives up and goes home, abandoning his purpose. eventually, i decided that the prophecy would be a manipulative lie.

I imagine that a mystery writer would start with the crime (or the detective) a romance writer would start with the main characters (or just the nature of their relationship), and so on.

[Mike Coombes]

What if the President was kidnapped by terrorists?

Well the world would be a safer place. As long as they didn't give him back...