Recently, I’ve read many posts on social media that all equate to the same dilemma:
- Plotter, planner, or plotster?
- Should I edit as I go?
- Crit group or MFA?
- What writing software should I use to write my first-ever novel?
The answer to all of those questions—just start—is just that easy and just that hard.
I’m not saying that tools and strategies won’t help you revise, track, and organize your book—they will. Crit groups are great for constructive feedback as well as developing editorial skills to apply to your endeavors. MFAs will…not keep you from writing your book. Editing-as-you-go strategy isn’t efficient. It’s avoidance.
No sheepskin, gang of ink-stained miscreants, or software will do the most important job for you.
WRITE THE BOOK
Don't have an outline? Get the story down. Don't have a story? Explore what sparked your imagination—a murder, a business betrayal, a cursed dragon in search of her prince—start writing who, what, where, when, and why. See what happens.
I started something like four novels without finishing a single one. Those attempts were attempts to recreate the stories that I loved but they were not my story. Then I heard Walter Mosley say, "Whatever you read, whatever you write, it's supposed to be fun."
What's fun? Start there?
None of the stories I attempted to write had been especially fun. None of it especially scared me. None of it mattered to me, either.
While pondering those issues a line sprang from the deep recesses of my thinky-thoughty thingy.
Roosevelt pulled himself deeper into the shadow of the dying oak. Husking-breath close, the murderous cop circled the tree, pistol first.
That's it. That's all I had. A name, a scene, and a question: who's good, who's bad, who decides?
Oh, I would LOVE to tell you that the words flowed and I wrote like a runaway prairie fire and "the story practically wrote itself," and all those other pithy platitudes. The truth is it was fast, it was ugly, and much of it was ill-advised.
The point is start writing and don't stop until you have a completed draft.
Rough, illogical, damn-near incoherent—get it down, “Once upon a time...” to “...something-something-ever-after.”
Is the book done? Can you trumpet your triumph from the ramparts? Certainly not.
A couple of decades ago, Science Fiction visionary, Philip K. Dick spoke on a writing panel that included the following exchange with Judy-Lynn del Rey, the mother of modern Science Fiction (and patron of PKD’s work). Obvs, I paraphrase, (badly).
“On speed, [amphetamines] I can write 6000 good words a day,” —Philip K. Dick
“Well, not good words…” —Judy-Lynn del Rey
The point is once you’ve completed your story it isn’t “done.” That is good news! It’s not etched in stone. It’s not good. It’s not terrible. It is complete.
It’s a completed draft and a draft is not ready for submission. It’s not ready for editing. It’s not even ready for a crit group. It is, however, EXACTLY what it has to be—a completed idea, indulgent voice, Swiss-cheese plot, atrocious grammar, bad breath and all.
The artistry, the real writing, is in the revisions. You may find that the middle is actually the beginning of the story. The (former beginning) is now a truncated flashback or a charming interlude between drug-fueled shootouts. You may end up with more endings than a “choose your own adventure” book.
All neatly organized with that spiffy software that you now have a purpose for.
But you can’t get to that until the bones are laid down. Until the draft is completed—beginning, middle, and end—you don’t have a story. You have a name, or a scene, or an idea which will never be anything more than a passing whim without some ugly work put in.
