.jpg) |
| Boris Karloff - Frankenstein |
Somebody said to me
the other day that they were surprised that I didn’t just sit down and write
the story starting on page 1. This is a reasonable question, after all that’s
how Jack Kerouac did it with On the Road
but unfortunately I’m not Jack Kerouac.
To stop me feeling
overwhelmed and confused by the scale of the story, I have decided to break the
novel into bite size pieces. I have written all the key events onto Post-It
notes and stuck them onto a wall in front of my desk. My plan is to decide which
event I want to tackle first and then write that part. When that event’s
finished I can look at the wall again and decide what to write next. The joy of
this method is that if I have difficulties with one event I can just leave it
and turn my attention to another one. There is a danger that the end result of
this experiment could be something that looks like Frankenstein, a stitched
together monstrosity, but I shall do my best to smooth over the seams and cover
up the bolts.
Anyway, the picture
below shows you my wall:
Apologies if it’s
illegible, but I wouldn’t want you to know what I plan to write too much in
advance, would I?
Well, that’s that. I’ve chosen my characters, I’ve tried out some of their voices in my back stories and I’ve got the plot. I really haven’t got any more excuses now. Better get to work. Just to be obvious, I think I shall start with the prologue. How about this?
It was a perfect day. The sun was bright but
not too hot and a few clouds provided a tasteful amount of shade from time to
time. The trains from central London
I think it is a good start and look forward to some more of it.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it. I shall do my best.
DeleteMany thanks for sharing the process of writing a novel with the readers of your blog! It inspires a lot of thoughts about one's own preferences in reading and of the difficulties involved in fiction writing.
ReplyDeleteMost likely also other persons books were not created by "just sitting down and writing the story starting at page 1" but involved a complicated and not at all straightforward process.
Considering Jack Kerouc's biography I think its better not to be him ;-)
Yes, well if I was like Jack Kerouac I'd be dead by now. I've always wondered how writers with a drink problem like Kerouac, Hemingway and Fitzgerald managed to write with a hangover. The most I can manage is to squeeze myself an orange juice.
ReplyDeleteBut then perhaps they wrote to stop themselves drinking - and that's why they were so productive. A chicken and egg situation.
Hmmh...where's the Scotch? I need to start somewhere.
First of all I would like to say great blog! I
ReplyDeletehad a quick question that I'd like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear your mind before writing. I've had difficulty clearing my thoughts in getting my
thoughts out. I truly do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are
generally lost just trying to figure out how to begin.
Any recommendations or tips? Appreciate it!
Here is my website ; contractor in Orlando
Dear Contractor,
ReplyDeleteHmmh! Only 10-15 minutes? I spend days sometimes finding ways to avoid starting.
Having said that, when I push myself to actually begin I find the best thing to do is not to think too hard. Simply get the words onto the page without judging them and carry on until the scene that you want to describe is done.
Next morning, or next time when I want to write some more, then I go over the previous session's work and make corrections. This then gets me into the flow of writing and I can get onto the next scene.
Hope that is useful.
J
Thank you for posting the post-its. Very interesting blog, James.
ReplyDelete