Dazed and Confused!

This is a tall order, but I'll try.

You still have the original idea that sparked the Hey, I could write a novel! deal, right? Okay, write that down. Answer the key elements about it: Who's involved? What's happening? When is this all taking place? Where? And the biggie, why?

By answering each of those in some detail, you may find yourself churning up some details, even new ideas.

Maryn, who'll hunt down a longer post on this

Edit: Here's the longer post:
Give yourself permission to write crap. Lousy idea, poor grammar and spelling (imagine me telling someone that!), stilted dialogue, thought or past events in action lines. Write it anyway. Written things can be revised or rewritten to improve them.

Change your writing environment. Try something radically different. If you write on your computer in a quiet room, try a spiral notebook in a park or coffee house, or ruled paper on your grandmother’s dining room table. (Not recommended: your blood on walls.)

Perform writing exercises. (Google for thousands of them.)

Move physically. Play a sport, go for a walk or run, swing on a playground, whatever you like, but get your blood pumping. When it's racing through your body, the brain gets plenty of oxygen--and ideas.

Give yourself blocks of unstructured time when you’re not likely to be sleepy. Find a quiet place, think about your current writing project, and let your mind wander. Rein it back to the subject as needed. This can be combined with physical movement--a long walk may be an idea wellspring.

Play 'What If' with what you see. What if the kid cutting your sandwich suddenly plunged that knife into the woman at the cash register? What if he merely put caustic chemicals in the mayonnaise? What if the sandwich and kid are fine, but you choked, right here at your table? What if you gave your sandwich to that lady over there who looks poor? What if she thanked you for it by giving you something valuable (that she didn't think was worth more than the sandwich)? What if you sold it and couldn’t find her to give her any of the money? What if she found you and demanded all of it? What if...

Write daily, every day, no exceptions, for a set amount of time. If you can't write, you must remain in your writing environment for the set amount of time anyway. Your choices are write and don’t write. No games, no internet, no music. (This is the BIC method--butt in chair.)

Stimulate your mind with new experiences. If you're a movie fan, see a play or watch street performance. Hear live music rather than CDs, or listen to something in a genre you know nothing about. Eavesdrop on or observe people unlike most of the ones you know. People watch (and invent lives for passers-by). Attend a sporting event (any kind, at any level) where you don't know anyone and watch the crowd rather than the players.

Further thought: Maybe the outline method just isn't you. Maybe you need a story board, or a synopsis, or index cards, or to soar without a net (no master plan).

One idea I've seen here recently is to write the query letter selling the manuscript first, then write the novel it describes.

Seriously, try that, and get it critiqued here at the Share Your Work board for queries. It'll help you focus on exactly what story you're trying to tell.

Maryn, not sure she's particularly helpful

I would just start writing. Don't worry about whether it's perfect -- It's only a first draft. Write the story from beginning to end, even if 3/4 of the way through you are still not exactly sure how it ends. You'll figure it out.

It will be a mess, but that's okay. Hemingway said "All first drafts are shit" and he was right.

When you've reached the end (and ONLY when you've reached the end) it will be time to read through that big beautiful mess and start thinking about draft two. You may discover that the character who started out as your protagonist is no longer the protagonist, and some secondary character has taken the role. That's okay. You may discover gaping holes in the plot. That's okay. You may discover entire plot threads that don't enhance the story. That's okay. You may find you've switched from first person to third person. That's okay. Or you may find you want to have the story unfold on a different timeline, say, a year rather than a month. That's okay.

Because by doing this first draft, you will find out that you can write a piece of extended prose. And your characters, by the end if not well before it, should have revealed themselves to you and become real to you. And you will have many scenes and plot threads that actually do work, and will end up in your final draft.

It's a process, and it's all worth it.

Another good question is "what could go wrong". I find myself falling into a trap of letting things go according to plan (for the characters), and then the story goes nowhere fast. Throwing monkey wrenches helps move things along.

Perhaps the idea just *isn't* a novel. Without specifics I can't say for certain, but this may be one of those ideas we all have that even though we think it's much bigger and obviously we'll have lots to say on it, we really don't.

As for outlining, or not, or whatever - once upon a time, it seems, you were a writer. Of shorter works perhaps, but a writer. Some part of you still is, and would like to be so again. (And that's a big club here, I'm sure.) I would suggest that you try and reconnect with whatever impulses made you write in the first place.

And don't worry about volume. You ARE writing consistently, even if it's just a couple of paragraphs. That's more than most will EVER do. So work on those few paragraphs, and then perhaps take the time and work on other, smaller ideas again. Get the creative drive flowing again, because I guarantee if it did once it will do it again.

Above all, stay positive. You don't have to be "half-full" kind of person, but you don't want to be a "half-empty and probably contaminated, too" either.

Good luck!

AnnieColleen said:

Another good question is "what could go wrong". I find myself falling into a trap of letting things go according to plan (for the characters), and then the story goes nowhere fast. Throwing monkey wrenches helps move things along.

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Oh, good point! What is it they say? Get your protagonist up a tree, then throw bigger and bigger stones at her, then help her down from the tree.

(Actually, she should probably help herself down from the tree.)

No doubt I'm misquoting that, and I wish I knew who to attribute it too, but it's very true. Conflict = story. When you get stuck in a scene, make something go wrong.

I can't really talk about paltry daily writing, seeing as my minimum words per day is 300. (But at the end of a year, that comes out to 109,500, so don't knock the slow-and-steady method.)

Nobody can tell you what method works best for you for your story. Some stories I have to outline every minute detail. Some I have to just write and see where I go with it. But nobody can tell me which method will work for what.

But I can hazard a guess that you'll hear one thing consistently here: JUST WRITE

I agree with the above, especially two things.

1. Set a regular schedule. The discipline makes a difference. Train yourself to to write at a specific time of day. BIC works. Look around the boards and you'll see that we have various support type groups that push and help one another to produce. It helps not to feel so alone. Middle novel slump? We feel for you. End of the novel fears that you can't bring the story home? Been there. Done that. Have a friendly shoulder to cry and some cyber brownies. The point is, that you don't have to bo through it by yourself. That's why communitites like this exist.

2. Give yourself permission to write garbage. You can go back an fix the stinky poo and make it something worthwhile later. But the Crabby editor in your head that's telling you that your writing is crap is keeping you from actually writing. Lock him in the closet.

I'm going to add one thing. You'll always ask yourself "what if" if you don't give the novel a serious try. So what if you write it and decide it's garbage? You never have to show it to anyone, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you did it. You climbed the mountain and that rush of joy when you reach the summit is worth it.

Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!

AtavisticEndevor said:

Ok, here's the deal. 5 or 6 years ago, while having a "night with the guys" a conversation with a friend led me to come up with what I thought was a great idea for a novel (sci-fi/fantasy). ...Beyond the basic premise of the novel, I have no earthly idea as to what the hell I'm going to write.

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Most stories (novels or otherwise) can be summed up with simple sentences.
Carrie: Outcast girl with wacky mother develops supernatural powers
Jaws: Deadly shark starts picking off victims outside its normal habitat
Star Wars: Farm boy must save the universe
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Robert Jordon must work with rebels to blow up a bridge
Gone With the Wind: Scarlett O'Hara must whatever she can to survive the Civil War

Maryn had great ideas right out there in the second paragraph. Here's my bent on it.
There's characters. Interview them. find out what makes them tick.
Seriously, do this. Ask them all sorts of questions, who they admire, what do they consider important, what's their favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's. A lot of this won't make it into a book. But imagine the fun the author of "Silence of the Lambs" had when interviewing Hannibal Lector. (Favorite ice cream flavor...hum?)

There's a pinpoint, a locus for your idea. You have your idea. What thing, theme, event, emotion is most important to portray? In Carrie, religious intolerance and ignorance spawned a terrible killer. See? Gone with the Wind, even the most pampered belle can have a steel backbone...maybe I missed the point on that one, but you see where I'm driving? There is a reason you have your idea. JK Rowling wrote about intolerance and predjudice, do you think that "just happened" because she began writing a story about a young wizard? No, some of that theming was already driving the initial idea.

So. Now you have characters, a driving idea...you need background. Where do they live? Why is that location necessary?

There's more things to consider:
events...obstacles...conniving villains...people working cross purposes of your MC

All these things are in a novel. The more you flesh out the details that won't go into your novel, the more you'll find sticky things making themselves absolutely impossible to keep out of your novel. They'll keep rearing their ugly little heads until you get it.

I hope I helped.

Amy

AtavisticEndevor said:

Thank you all so much! So then, outline may or may not work, and I'm not some no talent ass-clown if I can't really crank one out. Mix up my routine a bit to encourage creative thinking (makes perfect sense, actually) Physical activity (yeah.. I need to do that anyways hehehe) Observe events around me, and "run with them" in my mind. Conflict = win. And no matter what else, no matter what doesn't work or does work keep my butt in that chair and keep cranking out *something*

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From what I've seen, this sums up AW fairly well. Just add "Love grammar," "Read more," and "Watch out for liars who want your money."

Thinking I had to outline killed my desire to write for over 2 decades. When I finally just sat down and wrote, the story showed up.

Really, when you're starting out, there are no expectations. As someone else said, you have our permission to write absolute garbage. Crap. The worst stuff ever.

And then you have our permission to write more. To improve the crap, to write something new that's better, maybe only by a little, maybe by a lot. And so on.

Writers write. Or they think about their characters and their plots and their settings. And then they write.

Do so, likewise, and become a writer.

Worry about whether or not what you're writing will sell after you find out if writing is in your blood or if it was just a grand idea you don't enjoy in reality. Either one is fine. And you're still welcome here if you discover you aren't a writer but just want to hang with them. And if you are indeed one of us, welcome to the wonderful world of.

Do realize, however, that your first attempt at a novel is most likely going to be crap. I think the majority of published authors here will tell you that their "first" book was actually more like the third or fifth. Writing a novel is like any other art - you have to practice to get good at it. You may be really good with modeling clay, but it's still going to take you a few tries before you can use a pottery wheel. Which is not to say that this book is going to end up in a dust bin somewhere - but it very well may go through several evolutions before it is "done."

Lots of good advice here. Just another idea, but it's one you've probably already started.

Okay, you said you've been back at it for what, three days? After how long a hiatus? You need some limbering up.

Writing should become a habit, just like any other daily routine. If you haven't written for a while, you may be rusty. The juices don't flow. I've been there, same thing happened to me.

It's like an athletic endeavor, you need to practice regularly and often. And if you let up for a while, you have to go back and retrain because, sorry, but you lose it. (Okay, you couch potatoes can't relate, but it happens!)

So, write something every day, whether it's crap or not, and keep at it. Tell yourself it is your right to sit down at the keyboard or notepad and produce something every day. Don't put limits on the amount, but do set goals. What will happen is that sooner or later your ideas will flow onto the page.

O.K., here’s what I would do. You need to write scenes. Think of your story in terms of scenes. Lots of scenes. Twenty, twenty-five scenes. Number depends on length.

So how do you know what scenes to create? Take your idea and rough out a story arc. Something like group of government scientists discover an anomaly (I don’t do sci-fi, so I have no idea what that is, but it always sounds good when somebody says it) near enough to earth to be reached by secret near-future space flight technology. Government secretly brings together a diverse group of individuals to investigate. They go to anomaly, discover lots of weird stuff. Intrigue, betrayal, death and redemption ensue. A few make it back. More betrayal, death and redemption ensue back on earth.

Captain of the spacecraft is a…woman. First mate is a…Russian, no Chinese, no Russian, whichever creates more conflict. Navigator is a…man, who used to be the lover of the captain until he lost all his self-esteem and became a drunk after he navigated his last vessel into the side of a mountain on…the moon, no Mars, no Venus, no Mars. Because of the crash, he’s confined to a wheelchair. Maybe, may change that later.

Person in charge of the probability drive engine room is a…woman. A very petite beautiful woman. She is a…genius, so smart she is the only person in the world smart enough to run the probability engines. She has a hand-picked crew so loyal to her they would protect her with their lives (and will probably have to later on). She doesn’t relate well to normal people. For some reason she doesn’t like the captain (foreshadow). Rest of crew marks this down to her general weirdness.

O.K. enough with the characters. You need a few more, but you get the idea. Maybe a hybrid, the product of secret government cloning experiments. Hybrid of what though? Maybe keep that secret until later when some ability is needed, then reveal what his hybrid abilities are. But enough with the characters.

Now, how much time will pass during your story? Let’s see. A couple of months to
bring everyone together, a few weeks to train. Another few weeks to reach the anomaly (probability drive engines are really fast). Another few weeks on/at the anomaly (to the crew, anyway, back on earth no time passes, it’s one of those anomalies).

So your story is a couple of months long. Don’t have to worry about long stretches of time. That’s good.

So all this to get to your scenes. Now what are the logical location for scenes? Let’s see. When the navigator gets rescued by government agents from under the bridge where he’s getting his ass kicked by enforcers for the Scandinavian mob for not paying his gambling debts. That would be a good scene to open with. Have to decide here if he really is confined to the wheelchair. I say…yes. That way he will be able to walk when they get to the anomaly, and won’t want to return to earth. More conflict.

Second scene. Explanation of mission from government scientists, introductions all around. That government liaison guy seems a little too friendly, though (foreshadow).

Third scene. The ex-lovers confrontation would be the logical one. Many accusations. They end up furious with one another. Mo conflict, mo conflict.

Third scene. How about when the crew meet the genius in charge of the engine room and the irritating young crew member says something inappropriate to her
and her crew jump him and attempt to beat him up, but he holds his own because they don’t have much in the way of muscle tone because they’ve all castrated themselves so they won’t be tempted to violate their crew chief/high priestess. Okay that last part is a little weird and may not make the final cut (so to speak).

So there you have it. Write 10 or so of those for the trip. Say 15 while they’re at the anomaly. Make the 25th one the big climactic scene and throw in number 26 for resolution/wrap up/crying/kissing/greetings/farewells, and you’re done.

And as for what the anomaly is, I have no idea. It’s your story.

Personally, since you don't have anything invested in the story yet, or what you had has been lost, I'd start fresh with a new idea. This one is giving you writer's block.

AtavisticEndevor said:

...
In hindsight, I think that a good bit of my problem was an inability to shed my inhibitions and just..... do it. Kind of like singing, or dancing, public speaking, or whatever....

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Yay you! It takes some of us a lot longer to realise this basic concept (took me four years, )

Congrats on getting started, now all you have to do is plug away till The End. (Well, I mean, that's not all but it's all for now)

It's called BIC: Butt In Chair.

The only way to be a writer is to ... write.

Yeah, but Uncle Jim, my writer buddy has a bad back and types standing up. Maybe for him it's EOD, Elbows On Desk?

AtavisticEndevor said:

Actually, I sat down tonight and decided to just WRITE. Even if it was absolute and utter garbage. I cranked out about 4000 words I started in earnest about 9 this evening, and have just now finished for the night, not due to lack of ideas, but due to exhaustion and the fact that my brain just kind of... well... crapped out.

In hindsight, I think that a good bit of my problem was an inability to shed my inhibitions and just..... do it. Kind of like singing, or dancing, public speaking, or whatever. The true test though will be in my ability to maintain progress, even if the rate isn't as noticeable as it was tonight. I shall leave myself no choice but to do so. In the coming days I will be at my fiance's place, and away from internet or even a computer, so, I'm going to go to wally world and grab me a spiral notebook and a pen. I won't be able to do as much writing longhand (I tend to cramp up easily, and my penmanship is complete shit) but, I'm still going to be setting aside a two our block each night (preferably at the same time each night) in which nothing but writing will be done. Then when I return on Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll type up what I wrote, and resume the process from there.

I doubt any of what I put out tonight would have happened (at least not with such good results) had it not been for the encouragement of you folks. A tip of the hat and many many profuse and sincere thanks to all of you. At some point, when I think i've got enough done up, I'll begin posting some in the SYW area or begin looking for a beta reader (my fiance has volunteered, but her ability to remain objective is unknown)

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Yay for you! Well done!

And, for SURE, post in SYW and find a beta reader. Our nearest and dearest are not normally the best judges of either our talent or our abilities in this kind of endeavor. And many times, they also have no idea whatsoever of what will sell (looks over at the hubs AKA Litmus Test Man -- if he likes it, it's 99.% doomed to failure, if he hates it, it's gonna be a big, big hit).

BTW, if you're concerned for consistency, there are some simple things you can do/join, all free, to keep you going.

On both the Humor and Horror forums, there are weekly update threads. Join either one, or both -- nice folks at both (spoken modestly, God love me). On Humor we update what we've done each week; on Horror, goals are set each week and then verified the week after. Either way works very well, and gives you supportive people to feel accountable to. You don't need to write either Humor or Horror in order to update on these threads, btw. We welcome everyone.

There are a variety of "challenge" threads throughtout AW. Find one that speaks to your needs and join it. Same thing, accountability. I find if it's in your sig line, and you have to see it every time you post, it helps spur on achievement.

Third, join Club 100 (via Yahoo Groups). Commitment there is 100 words a day for 100 days, you fall off the writing wagon, you start the next day at 1, etc. The beauty is that 100 words is easy -- not daunting at all (there are, as en example, far more than 100 words in your post I quoted and my posted reply). It builds consistency, and most find they write more than 100 at every sitting.

No matter what you choose to do to help you write consistently, well done and we're all very happy for you for taking the plunge and just doing it!

AtavisticEndevor said:

Flash forward to a point roughly 2 years ago. I decided it was time to give the novel a shot, instead of simply saying "one of these days" like so many others. I wrote about... oh, say, 40 pages give or take a couple. Then came The Time of The Great Deleting. Something, be it a virus, or power surge, or just plain old crappy equipment caused 95% of basically everything I had ever written to go the way of the dodo (other files were lost too.. but that's neither here nor there).

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Lots of good advice so I won't clog up the thread with any more except to say, at the end of the day use a flash plug to back up your work. My son is always nagging me to do this and he's right. You never know when your computer will conk out on you or reduce your work to gibberish. I didn't read all the comments thoroughly so if anyone else said it it bears repeating. I always need to be told something twice, or three times, or.....
Linnea