Yay! You've Started! What's (not) Next?

So, you’ve started. You’ve got your big scene or your compelling character with a dark past, or maybe-maybe-maybe you started with your ending. Now you’re typing your little-writer heart out to fill out the rest of the story. It’s all SO exciting. And every day is a new adventure.

Don’t worry, that won’t last

The brutal truth is inspiration does not magically result in a book. Work results in books. Your inspiration/idea/cool character either becomes work or it will wither and die. 

Upside, once you’ve accepted that writing is a skill, not some Yoda-given talent, you’re well on your way. See, in the writing you’re building the skills necessary to turn your inspiration into a finished book. It all comes down to the actual writing.

Now, who’s on first?

I can’t stress this enough, you need a plan for when that spark of inspiration is no longer quite so new/shiny. Note: I did not say you need an outline. To outline or not outline is a debate you can wrestle with (waste time on) once you have a completed draft. 

As I’ve previously stated an outline can become a labyrinth of self-diversion. On the flip-side, pantsing your way through can result in lost time and lost initiative as you try to remember where you were going each day. 

Day? You mean, like, every day?

Yes, you really should try (as close as you) to write every day. However, I live in the real world and suffer the slings and arrows of economic injustice (means I have to work for a living just like you). That’s the main reason I developed a plan. So, after two days, two weeks, or ~sigh~ two months away, you’ll appreciate a map back to the path of progress.

Even if it’s just jotted down plot points, the better you organize the easier the going will be. 

Research? Never heard of it. Kidding. Mostly. 

I strongly encourage you to complete your draft before you get into currency units from Dark Ages Cypress or the ignition switch for a 1959 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Believe me, I understand that research is important. I also understand, from pained experience, that research can/will get away from you. Ultimately, it saps writing time and initiative.

Plus, your completed draft will help you pinpoint the research you actually need to do, thus maximizing your research time. 

Until it’s done, tell no one…

It’s fun to talk about a new story idea. We all love exploring characters and motivations. The setting and emotional milieu is SO seductive. But all of that is energy drawn away from putting the story down on paper. In short, show (a completed draft) don’t tell (about something you haven’t done yet).

IT’S NOT READY YET

In my early efforts, I shoved first-draft chapters off on a patient friend for feedback. Then I revised, cut, or rearranged those chapters with the full expectation that said friend would gladly read the resulting product. Eventually that friend told me to bring him the FINISHED draft, when I completed it and not a moment sooner.  

I get it. No matter our inspiration or medium, genre or academic, goals or compulsions, we all want to be read. New writers can quickly become toxic and find their reading-friends avoiding, if not running from, them. 

Additional facts for consideration. Most people do not read. I’m in Texas, where asking someone about books or reading can turn hostile, fast. Therefore, a reader willing to tackle your MS is to be treasured not squandered.

Now, just to finish this MS and get—Oooo, what’s that new/shiny idea?

No new projects. Just, no. Sure, we all know that writer X works on multiple projects at a time without fail. To that I say, George R.R. Martin’s Winds of Winter has been “due” since 2011. In that time he has written six novels and contributed/edited at least two anthologies. Now he says he may never finish it. 

So, you just let that idea go?

Some folks write those ideas down to come back to them. I don’t. Writing the idea down can quickly become writing down character names, plot points, and before you know it you’re outlining and then drafting. I regularly have a new idea for a story and I leave it alone. 

If it’s solid and meant to be, that story won’t leave me alone. 

Finish what you started

It sounds/reads simple. It’s not. Simple stories get difficult. Taking the germ of an idea from a six-or-seven-word sentence to a full novel (60-120,000 words, depending on genre). You can do it. Thousands of our fellow scribble siblings do it every year. Inspiration will not carry you the entire way. Discipline will. 

Do not quit.

The image above, Darkmoon-Art by Dorothe Wouters, does not belong to me. It is used here by Pixabay agreement.

To Start...Start

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.

The photo above is free for use by Tumisu on Pixabay.