How I Learned to Write a Novel

I learned to write a novel by doing everything the wrong way. Perhaps I can save you some time in your own quest to the finish line; perhaps not. Like many things in life this may be something everyone has to suss out for themselves. But here, for what it's worth, is what I learned.

1. Have a strong main character that audiences will identify with, and like. My first novel started as a kind of adventure story about a hard-boiled young woman who kicked a lot of ass. She had her soft side too, but mainly she was rude and headstrong. Some people may have related to her, I don't know. I think she was a lot of things I just wanted to get off my chest. But ultimately, she wasn't likable and it wasn't entertaining. My next version of her went the other way and she cried way too much. I'm not sure why. But as my novel--and my writing--matured, so did my character. I like the final version, but it took a long time to get to her. She's strong yet vulnerable, alone in the world and a little defiant about it, but a genuinely nice person. I guess the lesson I learned here was, start with someone you're going to want to finish with. A novel is a little like a marriage: it's a long haul kind of thing. If you start to despise the character, it falls apart.

2. Always remember the audience. Self-indulgent stuff is fun to write but who is going to want to read it, other than you? I'm not saying you shouldn't write what you want to write, but a novel should be a careful balance between details rooted in personal experience and universal themes. It can be therapeutic to write a revenge story about a relationship that didn't end the way you wanted. It might even be a great story. Just remember that if you want to sell it, others need to relate to it too. Of course, just writing that story might save you a lot of money at the therapist's, and just getting it out of your head might be well worth the time and effort. Stick it in the drawer, and move on with your life. But I'm writing these tips with the assumption that you want to be published, so, onward.

3. Try to work from an outline. Oh, how I rebelled against the outline. I don't want constraints on my art! What a downer, man! What I learned is an outline is the key to completion. It doesn't have to be a formal document filled with roman numerals. It can be a single paragraph, or even something that's just in your head. But knowing where you're going helps ensure you might actually get there. My novel meandered all over the place, into dead ends and impossible situations, until I learned to steer it. I do think this is something that you have to learn for yourself. I've heard of people who use an Excel spreadsheet to plan their novel: whatever works! And what works for me, may not work for you, but here's what I use now: a series of paragraphs, one for each major part of the novel, which I then flesh out as I go. I don't include every scene, because that really would hamper my creativity. But I do include scenes that occur to me as I go along, even if it's something short like, "have her lose her job here." The result is a story that knows where it's going, and I have one completed novel to show for it.

4. Keep it simple. This is just something that works for me. I'm not talking about the storyline or your characters here. What I mean by simple is don't clutter your writing with unnecessary elements. I needed my main character to find her mother, from whom she'd been estranged for many years. My first attempt was to have her get a job at an inn across the way and watch for when her mother left the mansion where she was staying, because my character didn't get along with her mother's new lover, whom she'd known when she was a child. I discovered that while this might work very nicely in a character piece, it didn't work in my action-paced novel. It slowed it down. I had to add characters I wasn't invested in, like her new boss. It was too complicated for what I wanted to accomplish, and wasn't meant to be such a major part of the novel. This is part of what I mean by steering. I decided ultimately to have her and her mother both be on the same private cruise, her mother by invitation, my character through a bit of subterfuge: she knew Mom was on the yacht.

5. Be careful about casting your side characters. I started with a whole bunch of bad guys, who were a bit cartoony mixed with the Sopranos. In other words, a little laughable. And my hero was a bit callow. What was weird was, I started writing and one of the "bad" guys ultimately became my real hero: he was much more interesting! When he decided he wanted to kiss the heroine I realized I needed to rewrite the story and dump everyone except him and her. I did have an interim version in which Mr. Callow turned out to be the bad guy but I scrapped that too. My final version of the story has the heroine, her parents, the hero, and everyone on the private yacht. That's pretty much it apart from one or two incidental others.

I need to stop here but I plan to revisit this topic. Until later, ciao.

Why I Write

I write because I can't not write. I think that, in a nutshell, is what makes one a writer. Unfortunately, it doesn't always mean you have the talent to back it up. But like many things, writing improves with practice. I always knew I wouldn't be a "real" writer until I hit 40. I was just self-aware enough to know there was a lot I didn't know yet. And I was right.

I've been writing since I was nine years old. I started by writing what I thought people wanted to hear--I was an insecure kid, what can I say. I then moved on to what I suppose were hilarious gothic stories where everyone died, to fantasy stuff in my teens and early twenties. I was an English major in college, with an emphasis on creative writing--I studied under Lorrie Moore, and if you think that was intimidating, you're right. I was afraid to write what I really wanted to write for ten years after that, she was so dismissive of genre fiction, and, if I'm being honest here, of me. She's been my nemesis, supremely talented but a little snotty about it. To be fair to her, she is barely nine years my senior and was probably too young to be an objective teacher when I knew her. Sadly, she probably doesn't even remember me, but I unfortunately can't forget about her.

Still, I now thumb my nose in her general direction and write what I want to write, which is romantic fiction. I realized, after reading countless books, that what really interested me was human relationships. I also realized that there is a dearth of good writing in the romance writing field. There are of course exceptions but for the most part it is formulaic dreck. I knew I could write better than half of the published authors I came across and so I decided to give it a try.

What I realized was that publishers look for only two things, good writing be damned: 1) are you prolific enough to invest in and 2) will it sell. I also realized that if you are a parent (I am), married (I am), work full time (check), and actually want to have a social life (I do!), the novel takes a very far backseat. I've also noticed that a lot of writers I enjoy are empty-nesters, or never had kids to start with. So there goes prolific, at least in the sense of my novel writing. My online stories are going gangbusters, but they aren't, strictly speaking, novels. I actually see them more as a sort of television series in my head.

I write my online stories because writing in a vaccuum isn't as fun. Getting feedback gives me inspiration to write more. That's why I recommend a writer's group, if you find yourself flagging in your own writing. Having an assignment of sorts every week, or month, moves your story along that much faster. And of course, with online, you can easily have a writer's group with people all over the world: I do! We post our "real" writing on a hidden thread for our little group to comment on. I admit my novel is still going slowly but it is doing much better than it was without my group to cheer me on and make suggestions.

I write online to hone my craft. I hope to build a following but this writing is mostly for my own amusement. It is romance writing in that a lot of people fall in and out of love. It is action writing in that there is always something going on. It is fantasy in that it takes place in a made up town that includes vampires, werewolves, witches, fairies, and other strange creatures. Mostly, it's just fun. I've been told my stories are fun to read: They're certainly fun to write!

And that, really, is the best reason to write: Because you enjoy it.

Ideas for Beating Writer's Block

I may not be officially published, but one problem I do not often struggle with is writer's block. Here are some tips you might find helpful.

1. Don't think of it as writer's block. No one is creative all the time. You have a good story, and sometimes a good story takes time to form. If you're feeling rotten, or have had a bad day, don't worry if the ideas don't flow. Pushing yourself when you don't feel like writing is a sure road to burnout.

2. Think about your story as you do other things. Some of my best ideas come to me when I'm excercising--walking is great for getting my ideas flowing--or doing chores. Instead of listening to music as you scrub the floor, listen to the ideas in your head.

3. Don't force your ideas. Let them simmer. Like a good sauce, a good scene sometimes takes time. Delilah finally discovers who the murderer is, but how, exactly, and how do you want to convey the scene? Is it scary, devastating, absurd? You may end up jumping up in the middle of the night with the best idea ever, which leads me to a corollary tip: Try to have a pen and small notepad, or an electronic writing device, with you when you are out and about.

4. Know where you're going with the story as a whole, but write one scene at a time. Thinking of the entire story at once can be daunting. I find one scene often leads to another, and another. For example, I know they're going to end up married, it's a romance after all, but how does Ariel feel about being beholden to a man she's not so secretly in love with? And how does he feel about the situation? Will he kick her out, or propose? Or will he just leave things as they are, much to her frustration?

5. What outcome do you want from a scene? Will your characters fight, or reconcile? Will Jimmy find $100 to help Mom pay the rent--and will he give it to her? Will Sarah realize some uncomfortable truth about herself? Will the brothers finally speak after years of estrangement?

6. Think of a good opening line. I often find I can write the rest if I can just find the right words to get me started.

7. Be true to your characters. You may want Jeremy to join the ballet but he may have other ideas. Maybe he's more the mechanic type and would be much better off fixing cars. And how does his mom feel about that, after spending all that money on dance school? Consider everyone's feelings, show only those that are relevant, and your story begins to write itself.

8. Have fun with it. If you're not enjoying a story chances are your readers won't enjoy it either. So if you're bored to death with George's job, have him quit or get fired. If a romance isn't working, find a way to shake it up.

9. Think about the consequences. OK, Joe is a werewolf now. How does that affect his love life? His job? His personality? Daisy has finally achieved her lifelong dream, and she's miserable. What does she do next?

10. Try a writing exercise. Write about an emotion or personality conveyed by how someone shops for groceries or washes their car. Write about someone completely different from yourself. Write a what if story about yourself: what if you had moved to Europe instead of going to college? What might you be doing right now? The act of writing often begets more writing. Your local library has dozens of books with writing exercises just like these.

I hope this helps you get over that hump. Until next time, happy writing!

Welcome!

Hello! And welcome to my blog. I'm Surprised by Witches, among other names, and this blog is about my writing.
I am a prolific unpublished writer, though you can read some of my stories on the web. I have written a complete novel that I'm attempting to sell, a completed online saga based on the Sims 2, and an ongoing opus (14 stories and counting) about the same small town. You can read my online fiction at Wayward Ink.com. Please stop by, and
if you're so moved, join the site and leave comments. It's free, and you won't be spammed. Please follow the guidelines at the top of the page: we have taken precautions to make sure our site is spam free, so you'll need to send an email letting us know you're a real person.
You will find stories by several gifted writers, about a lot of different topics. The stories are mostly for a mature and open minded audience. There is some sex but that is not the purpose of the story--sex, like death and taxes, is just a part of life.
We started as a sims fiction site but our stories, while based in the game, use it mostly as a springboard for our imaginations. We've included some illustrations--another bonus of using virtual characters.
When I was a kid I thought it would be so cool to have a game where I could bring my ideas to life, and now, lo and behold, it exists. For me the game is like a sandbox where my ideas play and coalesce into a whole. And it's fun to play besides. I've been playing since 2005 and still have not exhausted its possibilities.
But this thread is about my writing, not the sims. I hope you will find the blog interesting, amusing, and informative in your own writing journey.