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To Write Your Novel: First, an Idea - Article from our Life Coaching Programs
To Write Your Novel: First, an Idea
K. Wordbird Bate The Writer’s Coach
You have never existed in the world of literature before. Your voice, your vision, your unique stamp…The face staring back at you is your most potent weapon. It’s the thing you bring to the table that no one else can. ~Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River
So you have an idea. A place, a person, an event; something that visits you over and over, and asks to be born. People suggest you focus instead on getting a real job, because there are plenty of much better ways to make an income, find rewards, become rich and famous, or create a stable future. In fact, just about anything is more secure, and pays better, than writing a novel. Writers write because if they don’t they cannot sleep, they are haunted by images, and they begin to totter down the streets talking to themselves. There is something in the mind and soul that must, in written word, express.
Therefore, the decision of whether you should write a novel is yours. Unless you plan to take a week, produce a best seller and then bask on the Islands for the rest of your life. If that is your plan, it is best you go get a real job. Novel writing is an idea, followed by a lot of practice, coming to a completely unknown result. You must write a novel because you are driven to write, and for no other reason. Though like an ice skater, football player or dentist, you practice, practice, practice, until you become quite good at what you do. When you are quite good, you will find success. You will develop, at a minimum, a rewarding hobby with which you are in love. If you choose, you will be able to publish, because readers and agents are delighted with quality stories. But don’t try to put the Island get-away before the horse.
Now, this novel idea. What should you do with it? To begin, write it down. Write down your idea. This says, “I am invested in this idea. I’m going to write a novel about it.” Your brain loves to work and it especially loves specific tasks to work on. Just as soon as you proclaim you are committed to this novel idea, and give it clear form, your brain will get to work. You will ponder, imagine, and percolate. Unconsciously while you sleep, while you ride on the metro, as you walk your dog, your brain will work on this idea.
Be prepared for a flood of images, words, new ideas, and associations. Write everything down, in one big messy collection of napkins, paper bags, post-it notes and copied off your hand. Write down the images, the scenes, the places, the words, the characters, bits of conversation, questions. Everything your brain offers.
Get a special journal or create a tech file. Put a tentative name of your novel on the front. Write your idea alone on the first page. Then keep everything about this idea there, as it comes to you.
Amazing! Your novel is begun.
Let Yourself Bloom,
© Kimberly Bate
photo by frogmuseum
How do find time to write in quantity when you are working, sustaining a relationship, trying to get the kids out of the house, feeding the dog, cleaning the kitchen counter or doing the dishes? Well you get the idea. Oh sleep...
I even have a reminder service send me an e-mail everyday to push me along as well as it is an everyday reminder in my calendar program.
To be honest i do write daily. I write a letter to my father in a nursing home 3 to 4 days a week. I keep a journal/diary when i remember and sometimes I even enter something into the blog on Tools. But my novel is going nowhere.
Hiya, I feel your pain. What worked for me was to keep thinking about the storyline and what I would/could write next no matter where I was or what I was doing, then I formally set aside just 5 minutes everyday (after I put the baby to bed!!) and somehow that 5 minutes turns into 10 then an hour before I even realise it, then poof, 1 page is done!...I think by committing to only 5 minutes rather than longer takes the panic out of it and thinking about it really lets creative ideas just spring up in your mind...hope this helps, I am 50,000 words in and have another 50,000 to go, wish me luck!!!
Great ideas. Time is tough one for most writers. For everyone, in fact.
Justdance: One thought is to make the last page of your letter to your father your time to write. You are already there, writing, so close your letter with him, and then do one more page, that is your novel. After all, if you had one more page to write to him, you would stay there and do it.
And yes! I know people, including me at times, who write in all the 5 minutes of their lives. As they wait for an elevator, while they wait for someone to pick up the phone, in the fast food drive through, (NOT at red lights!). You can at least jot down ideas, character names, plot twists! It all helps. It also gets your brain focused on that novel.I do a lot of "writing" in a tape recorder while I'm driving.
You can give yourself a few minutes before bed, write just half a page, and your brain will work on your novel while you sleep. Double duty!
For you, I believe, it's mostly about giving yourself time for you. Most of your life is about giving to someone else.
You could dedicate your novel to your father, and plan to read parts of it to him, or update him on its progress in your letters, as something you share. Then you'll blend your giving and connection with him, and your own progress.
You'll work it out. You have a deep need and drive to write.
GOOD LUCK Maisenreece1 on another 50,000.
I'm going to take another tack and talk about a REAL job, a USEFUL job. I quit my real, useful job three months ago to explore writing. I wasn't prepared for the identity crisis that crashed down on my head after the muss and fuss of the holidays was over. I was pushing myself very hard to find the perfect writing classes, courses, tutor etc. so I could get going and do something useful with the writing, making it my substitute useful thing to do with my life. I finally gave up and said I wasn't going to do anything until something really hit me between the eyes. Yesterday I found the perfect writing book! I am going to have FUN with this instead of making it into just another kind of WORK! A whole novel at this time is just too big for me so I am going to play with different styles of writing and funny words and phrases and maybe a poem or two. I really need to find the kid who got lost in all the duties of raising a family and taking care of elderly in-laws. (I still write my three pages of free-flow everyday to get rid of the censor.)
Thanks for another great inspiration!