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Thinking Big: Starting a Novel

John Irving writes the end of his novels first. Stephen King doesn’t know how his novel will end until he gets there. Julian Barnes writes a key scene and then builds his novel outwards from there. It’s obvious there’s no single ‘right’ way to write a novel – there are probably as many methods as there are books. But that’s not much help to novel-writing novices wondering how to begin.
This year I did something I’d never done before – I started writing a novel. As some OCA students may be writing, or thinking about writing, their first novel, I thought I’d share some of my experiences as a fellow beginner. I had lots of questions such as ‘How do I manage such a big project (and not feel daunted at the scale of it)?’, ‘Where do I start?’ and ‘How long’s a novel?’
I’m writing a historical novel about the Victorian art critic John Ruskin, and it hardly needs saying that this kind of book calls for plenty of research. So I broke myself in gently with some reading and note-taking. I did this for about six months until I read a blog by biographer Geoffrey Wall who said, ‘Don’t wait until you know everything. […] Because you will never know everything.’ Excellent advice for historical novelists as much as for biographers.

Austria_-_Göttweig_Abbey_-_2015

And so the day dawned when I wanted to start actually writing. I put ‘Chapter One’ at the top of the page. I made a cup of coffee. I washed it up. How to begin? I had sort of assumed that I’d write my novel in a linear fashion, from start to finish. What a crazy idea! In fact, the only way I could begin writing was by going through my notebooks page by page, typing up my ideas into the appropriate word documents, which I named ‘Chapter  One’, ‘Chapter Two’ etc. I also started other word documents for character sketches, a timeline, a synopsis, a list of things I needed to research, and so on.  Once I started typing up my notebook ideas, I found other thoughts flooded my mind – dialogues, scenes, images, –  and I put these straight onto the computer.
In terms of length, I’d read that most novels are somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 but that 80,000 was quite typical. That’s not to say anyone should feel restricted by these lengths, but personally I like to have an idea of what I’m aiming for. That kind of size can be pretty unnerving, but I soon found myself thinking in terms of chapters rather than the total word count. I decided to aim for twelve chapters, which means each one is about 6,667 words – much more manageable than 80,000. Of course, all this might change, but for me it’s helpful to have a vision of what I’m doing to start with, and from which I can deviate later if I want to.
There’s something very satisfying about typing up ideas. Once they’re in a word document I can cut and paste them and make bold changes to the book’s structure and organisation. I’m too cowardly to delete big chunks of text – these go into a different document called ‘spare bits’ so I can retrieve them later if I change my mind. I’ve realised I’m not writing a novel from start to finish, I’m putting together an 80,000 piece jigsaw.
Are you writing your first novel, or maybe thinking about it? What’s your experience so far, and do you have any questions about the process? Comments and advice from some of my more experienced colleagues and students are very welcome!
 
Image Credit:Jorge Royan – ‘Gottweig Abbey Library, Austria’


Posted by author: Vicky MacKenzie

6 thoughts on “Thinking Big: Starting a Novel

  • It’s so interesting the way everyone’s process is different. I’m not a planner at all – I have an idea and think about it for a bit and then I just start. For me, planning takes the fun out of the writing. If there is a section that needs research, I mark in in red on the MS and go back to it – and I do like the research process, but I don’t want it to hold up my writing. I realise the research has to come first in the case of a historical novel based on a real person, though. Hope it’s going well, Vicky!

  • The article and Barbara’s comment are really helpful. I am just starting my novel. I’m a bit of a planner, but then again I sometimes jump straight in and write something, not knowing where or even if it will fit. I’m using the software Scrivener, which I find really useful for organizing notes.

  • I didn’t think I was a planner either but I’ve recently come to realise that having at least some idea of where my characters are going stops me giving up on them.

  • I tend to start from the beginning. Sometimes I hop, leaving a gap to be written in, but I always end up dissatisfied by the ‘filler’. I like to get to those two words ‘the end’ and think of the material as a rough draft, with lots of work to do on it. This may be a slower way of writing than aiming for a good first copy, but it works for me. Hope this piece of exerience helps those struggling with their first novel; I was always a bad planner, but as my novel ‘total’ mounted up, my planning got better, as did my eye for spotting where I was going wrong. I’m not saying it gets easier, but it’s certainly got quicker…deadlines concentrate the mind!

  • I have written two novels which seemed to have been delivered into my brain in installments. I’m not sure if I had a structure at all to them – they charged along like unruly beasts . I am an experinenced editor and the pruning has been th toughest bit. After writing them both I waited two whole years before reading them again. I needed to get as far away from them as possible to be able to bring an objective and dispassionate view.
    I think they are good peices of work (but my editor at Bloomsbury hasn’t yet agreed…)

  • I started a novel thirty years ago. The idea is still there and the scraps of paper. i feel sure that I will write it some day. Since then I have been trying to learn the skill of writing so that I can finish it. In my writing group they say ‘get on with it!’. Yet others say ‘may be this is the novel that never gets written but which keeps you wanting to write?’. I’m not sure. i could try and plan the novel but I am not entirely sure where it is going yet so that would be quite difficult. One of my thoughts is to go away for a week with all my pieces of paper and write and see what happens. Reading this through I sound a little fatalistic. I don’t think I am! I think perhaps working towards my novel is what has kept me going. Of course by now there are a few others waiting in the wings!

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