Looking for Advice on writing novel - structure, routine

Just spend time reading the forums. All the advice is already here. There's a search tool, too.

Also, welcome to AW.

Don't worry about getting it published until you've finished it and accept that you will need to rewrite it at least a couple of times.
Try to establish a routine of writing, get something (anything) written five days out of seven

AND DO YOUR BACKUPS!

First advice for historicals: Show, do not tell.
2nd advice: Be sure you have researched accurately.
3rd advice: Avoid anachronisms.
4th advice: Write your first draft all the way through, then revise.


Welcome and enjoy.

Hello! I'm going to advise you to work on the book every day. Whether that means 100 words or 10000 words a day, it's up to you. Also, write the draft all the way through before you start revisions. With later books, you may decide you work better by revising as you go, but for this first crucial one, just plow ahead, making notes if you must of things you have to change in earlier chapters (like Charles is now Charlene and she no longer is a sheriff, but a horse-trainer), and just move forward as though those changes are already in place.

And have fun with it. Follow tangents. Be surprised. Don't worry about the business side of it until you've finished the draft, but in your downtime, feel free to explore the knowledge here.

Study is your most important priority at the moment. Resist the temptation to abandon all your schoolwork in lieu of writing. So reserve a time after you've done all your study to write, or on the weekends.

If you're anything like me, your first novel won't be the work of pure genius you perceive it to be. However, completing my first novel taught me a lot of things - like sticking at a project until it's completed, developing a story, weaving in subplots - all that sort of stuff.

"Dark Sky" is actually a re-write of a novel I wrote when I was your age. The writing was terrible - passive voice, showing not telling everywhere, purple prose - but the overall story was good. So it's worth reworking sixteen years later, with a fresh approach.

If you do get this one published, all congratulations to you. If you don't, don't despair. Just keep writing.

What everyone said.

Write every day.
Try to establish a routine that sits you down at the computer with the INTERNET TURNED OFF and a clear space of working time.
You cannot advance in the story unless you apply butt to seat regularly and keep plugging away.

The first million words are for practice.

Tell the story.

Best advice I've heard is to just keep writing.

There may be days where you go "this is complete dog poop." Doesn't matter. Keep writing past the poop and to the end. The beauty of our craft is that we can always change things before people see them, so don't be afraid to go crazy.

Just. Keep. Writing. No matter what. I was sick in the middle of my first draft, and had to throw up in between pages. But you know what? I had decided from page one that I was going to be Serious Sam about it, and I was. And that meant I had to keep writing even when I HATED it. Try to find that dedication within yourself and you will go places.

Write the way that you find most comfortable. I have to edit continually. I'll get a nagging feeling when I'm starting on chapter four which means I have to read again from the start. And I usually find a rough patch that my muse is telling me is wrong. When I've fixed it I can get on with the job and feel much better about it. I hope you're not like me; it's a very uneconomical and inefficient way to go about things. But if it is your way, that's the best way for you to do it.

Only one major problem. You'll never know until you start writing. So write whenever you can. Set a pattern that doesn't get in the way of your study. Use writing as a reward - if you finish everything else you can write with a clear conscience.

And welcome and good luck.

Hi, ZA, and

I've moved this to Basic Writing Questions, since it seems you're asking most of them at once!

I'd like to echo what everyone said wholeheartedly, and elaborate on Dempsey's advice: Do look around this forum, then Novels, and if you're writing in a genre you might want to look around the forum for that genre too. Read the most recent threads, search on terms of interest (more than 3 letters long) using the Search function you'll see on the top blue bar.

Then take a deep breath and start reading here. It's long. That's okay. So's the process of writing a novel, and you don't have to read it all at once.

If you have specific questions along the way, people will be happy to help you with them. We're a friendly bunch But do search to see if they have already been answered, or some people get a bit grumpy because it's the fifth time someone's asked them in 10 days, etc. You'll get more responses for particular questions than very general ones, normally -- but you have some great advice to start you off right here!

Hope you have a good time here. I know it's helped my writing immensely!

I'll tell you the one thing I really wish I'd done before I typed one sentence for my first novel: UNDERSTAND THE BASICS. Things like basic grammar, punctuation, point of view, and tense. If you're lucky, maybe you already know all this, but if you don't, I'd very strongly recommend looking around this forum for as much info as you can find. Understanding the basics won't keep you from writing total crap at first, but it will give you a solid place to start improving from.

Honestly, you shouldn't be thinking about publishing right now. The first draft of your first novel is simply not going to be publishable, no matter how talented you are. You will have to write A LOT before you start producing decent quality work, which is where the saying 'the first million words are for practice' comes from (for me, a million words was quite an exaggeration; I started writing some good stuff after about 150,000 words of practice. But you get the idea). This doesn't mean you won't revise your first novel into the next best-seller, but thinking about publishing at this point is getting ahead of yourself.

As far as structuring your time, do whatever works for you. I've never structured my writing time, and am working on my third novel in twelve months. When I was first starting out I wrote when I felt like it, and didn't when I didn't (this is still pretty much what I do). I've always thought that if you're truly a novelist, you won't have to force yourself to sit down and write a novel. You enjoy writing, so you'll end up doing it (editing, however, is a whole different matter, lol).

Oh, one last thing. Don't worry about following whatever 'rules' you may hear about writing (other than grammar rules, of course). Write the story you want to write the way you want to write it, and only change things if YOU don't think they work.

Good luck and have fun!

When I was in high school I had tried writing a novel many times. But I never got very far. I got the ideas in my head and even got a little on paper, but it would always crash and die after a few hundred words. What saved me, years later, was organization and outlining. Organizing my characters and making outlines one what the frig is going on, instead of just flowing with the groove. Because no matter how great your groove is, I bet it'll eventually die away if you don't have a somewhat clear picture of where you're going.

Yeah, and write every single day.

Hi mate

The best way is to read forums, talk to people or find a mentor.

Anyone can write words on paper, Zak. You obviously realise there's more to effective writing than that.

The craft of writing is being able to put those words on paper in such a way that people want to read your first sentence, then your second, then the next and so on to the end of your novel.

There is a craft to writing, and it has to be learned.

In other words, techniques have developed over the years by consecutive generations of writers and there are definite techniques for making one's writing more effective.

These must be learned by the budding writer. 'Blindly going one's own way' is not the way to proceed although keeping writing till you reach the end of your first attempt is perfectly correct.

Follow the advices given above and read and learn how others achieve the effects they wish to achieve. There are accepted and proven guidelines (or rules -whatever one calls them) to the craft of effective writing and these are usually only broken by those who know them in the first place and therefore understand when and why they may be broken or ignored. Those who don't know them or make no attempt to master them in the first place are usually ineffective.

Good luck, and publication is way, way down the line.

I don't agree with this quote from Hope to the Horizon above

... Don't worry about following whatever 'rules' you may hear about writing (other than grammar rules, of course). Write the story you want to write the way you want to write it, and only change things if YOU don't think they work.
...

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Watch out for things to do with the book that seem productive but actually keep you from writing the book. I have a friend who "researched" for Western by making the holster his character wore. Making the holster seemed productive, but he stopped wrting to take the time to make it. Another writer spent her time drawing pictures of the clothes her characters wore, and again, while she was drawing, she wasn't writing.

Alsp watch out for unfinished project syndrome (recently discussed here). You'll reach a point in your story where you start doubting it, think it's terrible, and it's just not working--and bingo! Another idea pops up. It's new and exciting, and you just have to start it now. So you set aside the first project and start working on the second, only to get stuck, probably in the same place for the same reason. Another idea pops up, and suddenly you have a lot of unfinished projects. It's important to stay on the existing project and finish it. If you have a place where you can figure out what to do, put a placeholder in and jump ahead. You may figure out what you need later in the story. For the new ideas, record them in a Word document, and add any notes to it as you think of them.

If you're going to procrastinate, might as well do it here. That way you'll learn.

JJ

Do the same thing they always tell me to do.

Write

By the way, welcome to AW. I'm sure you'll improve if you stay here.

I used to be in the "revise as you go along" school. That led to a lot of stalled and unfinished projects and much attendant frustration.

Therefore my advice is write full steam ahead until you finish the novel. Accept that first drafts are imperfect. Even way imperfect. Even total crap. Get to the end. Rest. Then start revising and keep revising for as long as it takes.

Writing every day is best, or you will tend to drift away from the piece. Find at least one hour in the twenty-four you can devote to writing and stick to your schedule. Only a genuine emergency should keep you from your daily hour. NB: Not feeling like writing is not an emergency.

Read about writing. It's a great inspiration, and you've come to one of the best places to do it.

Hope To The Horizon said:

The first draft of your first novel is simply not going to be publishable, no matter how talented you are. You will have to write A LOT before you start producing decent quality work, which is where the saying 'the first million words are for practice' comes from (for me, a million words was quite an exaggeration

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For me, it wasn't. My first novel was a fantasy that clocked in at about 150,000 words. My second was the sequel, close to 200K. My third completed the Trilogy of Trash and went over 200K. My fourth was about 100K, but still bad. My fifth was 150K and has a good idea, but needs extensive revision and rewriting. My sixth is out on submission to editors.

ZAKelly13 said:

I am 17 and working on my first novel. I have the story all planned out and am no working on the most annoying, though enjoyable part, writing it. I am basically looking for whatever advice you guys can give me either on how I should structure my time or how I should go about getting it published when I am finished. Anything would be much appreciated.

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I don't believe there's any one way to handle the aspects about which you've asked; it's all about finding what works for you. But I do agree that you should focus on the writing of your novel before thinking too much about the possibility of publication. And absolutely check out all the AW boards. Welcome!

Try to write a lot every day. If you keep up the pace, you will outrun all those doubts that are chasing after you like a pack of pedophiles at a Hannah Montana concert.

They almost caught up to me during my first draft, but I kicked it into gear and tried my best to ignore the voice in my head that kept saying "you suck balls."

Welcome to AW, ZA! If your username is right, we have the same first name

And believe me when I say that writing IS the fun part. It's the editing that's fun but annoying. Though writing has its days.

I would say that you should definitely get into the habit of writing every day, but don't let it get in the way of your homework of course. Just find some time that you can do this. You'll be surprised at how you miss it if life gets in the way of your writing for the day.

And I would recommend getting a few basic ideas as to where you want your book to end and possibly a few scenes you want to see happen along the way before you even get started. It's a lot harder to walk away from the story when you have an ending in your sights. (even if that ending might get reshaped and even changed as you go along)

As for getting it published when you're finished, that will come much later. You definitely need to just finish the book first and then comes the seemingly never ending round of edits.

Also keep in mind that most people don't get their first book published straight off the bat. Sometimes you need to write a few and learn from the writing and editing process before you are at a publishable level.

Good luck with it! and you've definitely come to the right place for getting help with writing and the publishing process