I’ve been working on a new novel for the past few months. Currently I’d say I’m somewhere between one third and half way through the first draft, though it can be difficult to tell.
I know many authors plan their novels meticulously before sitting down to write the first draft. Personally I find that method can drain my excitement for the story. If I plan too thoroughly before I begin, then I feel as though I’ve already told the story. I get bored, and move on to my next idea.
My personal system for planning stories is a bit loose, but goes something like this:
- Initial idea / spark of inspiration. This is often a single sentence describing a character, setting or plot point. I’ll jot this down in my ideas notebook.
- Interrogate the idea. Come up with four or five bullet points for the plot and characters. Figure out the core conflict that drives the story forward. Importantly, this stage also involves coming up with an ending. If I do not know the ending of the story, then there is no point in trying to write it. Some ideas fail at this hurdle and I scrap them.
- Research and development. This includes research, world building, character development, and a more detailed plot structure. Not many ideas fail at this stage, but some get put on hold for long periods while I work on others.
By the time this is over, I’ll normally have a page or two of bullet points that outline all of the key plot points, and maybe another page or two of bullet points about the main characters and setting. This is the prefect stage for me to dive in and start writing the first draft. I know just enough to write the story, but not so much that I am bored of it, or start to doubt its robustness.
Writing the first draft can take a long time. For a short novel it takes about 3 or 4 months. Longer novels can take six months, or even a year.
When I began the novel I’m currently writing, I thought it would end up at about average length. It has already become clear that is not going to be the case. I’m just reaching the end of the first part of the story, and the draft is already the length of a short novel.
Many of those words will be deleted or revised in editing. But assuming the draft continues at this pace, it could easily end up being the longest I have ever written. I was hoping to have the entire draft finished by the end of August, but now I suspect it will be the end of the year. Perhaps even the start of next year, depending how life goes.
While it is frustrating when the first draft takes longer than expected, in some ways I’m quite happy about it. Until now I’ve always had more trouble with my stories being too short than too long. It’s nice to have the opposite problem for a change.
Until next time,
Ed
Edmund Axton 