Anyone else writing a book?

[Locutus of Bored]

I have started many a novel and have tons of outlines, ideas, and notes written over the years. It's the follow-through part that I have a problem with. I get bored easily and lose interest in the subject matter when I come up with a new or improved idea. I have to learn to set aside a block of time daily to write and just do it, no matter what, and to continue writing on that subject until I complete it.

I know that feeling. In my opinion, the best novels are often the best planned novels, and I tend to use up all my creative drive for the story in my planning stage and can't motivate myself to actually write it, or when I do, because I'm not feeling that creative anymore, the resulting prose is lacklustre. I write better when I'm making it up as I go along, but then the novel as a whole doesn't have structure. It's a tough trade off.

I've had similar problems. I think the best thing to do is make a rough but flexible plan, so that way you don't destroy the intrigue for yourself, but you also have enough of a framework to go by.

Remember, there's no reason you can't go back and clean up plot holes, inconsistencies, and the like once you've finished your first draft. You aren't committed to whatever you put to paper the first time around.

I, personally, think of a story plan as a "backup." You start with that, but if you think of something better along the way, go for it! There's no sense sticking to a plan through an entire story if you realize halfway through there's a better direction you could go.

The last book I wrote turned out completely different from how I originally planned it. And it was, in fact, the third or fourth attempt at the story in question, and what I did differently was having a willingness to ignore the plan and let the story follow its own course.

However, it wound up being very tightly-plotted, because when I did change the plan, I went back and wrote out a new outline from that point forward. If you deviate from your original plan, you still need to plan the consequences of the deviation. But writing the entire plan up-front is not going to work so well unless you are 100% sure about the entire story from the getgo.

I look at novel writing a lot like software development. You do a design up front, but you know there are going to be bugs and additional features that come into play later. You leave room for those, and let the final product evolve, rather than shove it into a prefab box that allows no change or flexibility.

Good advice. Thanks.

 

[Holdfast]

I got a great (and very contained and practical) idea for a book just as I was going to sleep last night, as well as a good title for it, so add me to the list.

You going to write it then?

Probably. It helps that it's not a novel/fiction but would still have broad market appeal. I'll try out a couple of chapters, see how it goes. Publishing it would be simple enough (a friend owns a publishing business), though distribution/marketing for its subject matter would probably be better suited to a different publisher. All depends on how motivated I get, really.

 

[BrotherBenny]

I got a great (and very contained and practical) idea for a book just as I was going to sleep last night, as well as a good title for it, so add me to the list.

You going to write it then?

Probably. It helps that it's not a novel/fiction but would still have broad market appeal. I'll try out a couple of chapters, see how it goes. Publishing it would be simple enough (a friend owns a publishing business), though distribution/marketing for its subject matter would probably be better suited to a different publisher. All depends on how motivated I get, really.

Excellent.

I typed up the rest of chapter five today, and will start work on chapter six tomorrow. It helps that my chapters are so short, 1-2k, so I can keep a good pace and slow it incrementally if I feel the need to. I just need to keep up my own pace and not get bogged down in the research I will shortly need to do. That slows the writing process down considerably, but if I hadn't started writing BEFORE doing the research, the writing would not be getting done.

 

[cultcross]

I know that feeling. In my opinion, the best novels are often the best planned novels, and I tend to use up all my creative drive for the story in my planning stage and can't motivate myself to actually write it, or when I do, because I'm not feeling that creative anymore, the resulting prose is lacklustre. I write better when I'm making it up as I go along, but then the novel as a whole doesn't have structure. It's a tough trade off.

I've had similar problems. I think the best thing to do is make a rough but flexible plan, so that way you don't destroy the intrigue for yourself, but you also have enough of a framework to go by.

Remember, there's no reason you can't go back and clean up plot holes, inconsistencies, and the like once you've finished your first draft. You aren't committed to whatever you put to paper the first time around.

I, personally, think of a story plan as a "backup." You start with that, but if you think of something better along the way, go for it! There's no sense sticking to a plan through an entire story if you realize halfway through there's a better direction you could go.

The last book I wrote turned out completely different from how I originally planned it. And it was, in fact, the third or fourth attempt at the story in question, and what I did differently was having a willingness to ignore the plan and let the story follow its own course.

However, it wound up being very tightly-plotted, because when I did change the plan, I went back and wrote out a new outline from that point forward. If you deviate from your original plan, you still need to plan the consequences of the deviation. But writing the entire plan up-front is not going to work so well unless you are 100% sure about the entire story from the getgo.

I look at novel writing a lot like software development. You do a design up front, but you know there are going to be bugs and additional features that come into play later. You leave room for those, and let the final product evolve, rather than shove it into a prefab box that allows no change or flexibility.

Good advice. Thanks.

Yeah, ditto, I think I'll take that approach with a story I've sort of had brewing for a few weeks. I really need to get out of my tendency to shoehorn aliens or magic into everything This story is going to be real-world damn it.

 

[Mr Light]

I have to have everything meticulously planned out before I can write. If I'm writing and I reach a point where I haven't already thought it through I just hit a brick wall. When I wrote my book a few years ago I basically spent the entire week working out the chapter in my head and writing down a beat by beat summary with the best dialogue bits before finally sitting down and writing it in a single three hour heat.

 

[The Super Brando]

I wrote poetry when I was in high school, and as I got older I became more interested in narrative storytelling. I've been brainstorming and outlining a Scifi series and a high Fantasy series as a hobby for the past couple of years, but recently I've decided I'd like to take my creativity more seriously. I'm now trying to be more disciplined and consistent, and eventually want to actually publish my stuff. That's my dream anyway.

 

[Kestra]

So people that are writing ... are you writing to get published? For yourself? I struggle with a purpose because I don't think anything I write will be good enough for anyone beyond myself. And it's such a commitment.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I've been attempting to write the great american fantasy novel for a couple of years now, it's about a young boy and the giant interseller praying mantis who grows to love him (this description is mostly facetious, but there is in fact a giant intersteller mantis in the book). I got about 25,000 word in and then got stumped on what to do, then I set it aside for about a year and in the past three weeks or so I've written another 5,000 words. At this rate I think I should be finished sometime early 2010.

So people that are writing ... are you writing to get published? For yourself? I struggle with a purpose because I don't think anything I write will be good enough for anyone beyond myself. And it's such a commitment.

I'm doing it because I know I will regret NOT doing it if I never get around to it. Writing was always the easiest creative enterprise for me and if I ever found myself an old man without having written any kind of novel I know I would regret it. I really would like to be published and I'm certainly going to try once it's done but it's kind of a strange book, I'm not sure anyone will be interested. I think my family will appreciate it though as it draws on a lot of my childhood experiences.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

So people that are writing ... are you writing to get published? For yourself? I struggle with a purpose because I don't think anything I write will be good enough for anyone beyond myself. And it's such a commitment.

Publication. I am taking a multifaceted approach to it, though.

 

[Mr Light]

I wrote to write a book and learn the trade but I certainly hope I get it published. It's a long shot, obviously.

 

[BrotherBenny]

I will try to publish my book when it's complete.

I tried to publish the first one I wrote four years ago, and I have a nice pile of rejection slips.

Here's to this one getting accepted, and for anyone else who wants to get one published

 

[Kirk's_Tights]

That's a book I would like to read. Let me know when it's published.

Are you a mod now? Congrats!!


Anyways, I don't write professional novels or anything but I do occasonally throw together a story. I wrote a really good one when I was a teen but haven't found it yet. I hope I do, it was damn good, lol.

 

[RJDiogenes]

So people that are writing ... are you writing to get published? For yourself? I struggle with a purpose because I don't think anything I write will be good enough for anyone beyond myself. And it's such a commitment.

I've always written (and drawn) because that's what I do; I feel compelled to create Stories and Poems and Art. I Post a lot of it on the Internet and I've published a couple of collections, because I like it when people enjoy what I create-- but I really just do it for myself.

You know the old saying: Talent does what it can, genius does what it must.

 

[cultcross]

So people that are writing ... are you writing to get published? For yourself? I struggle with a purpose because I don't think anything I write will be good enough for anyone beyond myself. And it's such a commitment.

If I ever actually managed to complete a proper novel I'd probably try for publication - after all, why not? But it's not the main reason I'd write it. Mostly though I only distribute to friends online; The main reason I write is that I often find the real world tedious and need to get lost in a created one for a bit, and if there isn't someone else's universe I'm currently immersed in, I'll make one up myself.

 

[Starkers]

Bit late coming into this thread but that's what I get for mainly hanging out in the Dr Who forum

I'm currently writing my third novel. My first is now published, sort of, it's on Lulu but if I don't sell more copies than I already have it almost doesn't matter- holding a copy of my own book in my hands was worth it! Its better than just sitting on my hard drive if nothing else.

My second novel currently is sitting on my hard drive. Eventually (some time in the distant future) I might put it on Lulu as well, but frankly it needs a lot of work and I'd much rather work on something new at the moment.

I would love to have a novel properly published, if only because it would be promoted better than I'm able to do and it's proving a good year for me because as well as my self published novel I've got a short story into an anthology that's being published in October. Hopefully when I have novel #3 ready to send off to agents the fact that I have some already published works to point to might make me a more attractive proposition. From what I can tell it won't hurt anyway.

I would reccomend Lulu, but there are two downsides-the first is that you do need to promote your book somehow, the other is that the postage/shipping charges are astronomical unless you're buying in bulk. My novel retails for £8 which is quite reasonable, but postage is almost another £5 which I know for a fact has put several people off from buying it.

 

[Starkers]

I will try to publish my book when it's complete.

I tried to publish the first one I wrote four years ago, and I have a nice pile of rejection slips.

Here's to this one getting accepted, and for anyone else who wants to get one published

Yeah best of luck to us all! And you never know, if your second one does find a home, the liklihood is that your first one might suddenly become a viable option as well. I remember reading a book about James Herbert and one of the first questions his publishers asked after the accepted The Rats was 'What else do you have?" I think they expected him to have a bottom drawer full of rejected manuscripts As it turned out though he was lucky, The Rats was his first novel. I don't think most writers are that lucky.

 

[Amaris]

I'm having a little trouble right now. I'm in several chapters and doing well, but now I've started that itchy "let's go back and George Lucas everything" phase, and I'm fighting it off! Back, back I say!


J.

 

[Kommander]

So people that are writing ... are you writing to get published? For yourself?

I do it in hopes that one day I'll have a big stack of rejection letters and, therefore, be a real writer.

I'm having a little trouble right now. I'm in several chapters and doing well, but now I've started that itchy "let's go back and George Lucas everything" phase, and I'm fighting it off! Back, back I say!


J.

Yes, J., fight it! Fight it until it dies! This is the biggest mistake an aspiring novelist can make. You can go back and make changes--once you finish the first draft. If you do it before then you'll never stop, and the novel will never be finished.

I speak from 10+ years of making this mistake. I realize it's a bad thing, yet I keep doing it, and I don't know how to stop.

 

[trampledamage]

So people that are writing ... are you writing to get published? For yourself? I struggle with a purpose because I don't think anything I write will be good enough for anyone beyond myself. And it's such a commitment.

If you can swing what you write into a Star Trek setting (however vague ) - why not try the fan fiction forum monthly challenges. Because the deadline's a month, the commitment is therefore that much less, and it doesn't have the same pressure of trying to create a fully-formed novel or short story.

Come on in, we're friendly

That's a book I would like to read. Let me know when it's published.

Are you a mod now? Congrats!!

That I am, thanks! Helping look after the lounges.

Anyways, I don't write professional novels or anything but I do occasonally throw together a story. I wrote a really good one when I was a teen but haven't found it yet. I hope I do, it was damn good, lol.

You too should swing by the fan-fic forum.

 

[BrotherBenny]

I'm now paused on chapter six while I do some research (grrrr) but to answer an earlier question, I plan to have published some day, and write many more.