get me started on my dog and i may never shut up!
How do you start a novel? I don't know why, but that has always puzzled me. Does it start for you of its own accord? Does it begin with an idea, or a character, or a message? Or do you just start at the literal beginning and let the story flow as it will?
I'm sort of going with stream of consciousness type questions, otherwise I will just sit here for hours trying to figure out how to word one specific question and never actually ask a damned thing.
Did you wake up one day thinking you should be a writer, or have you always expected to be? Or, are you just doing what comes naturally? For instance, I sketch, because I enjoy it, not because I intend on being an artist.
*deep breath*
I may be back with more, when I've had a decent sleep...
Sorry to take so long to respond, but I spent the weekend rebuilding a busted computer. Just now getting things reinstalled and reorganized.
When I start a book, it's generally after having thought about the plot for weeks or months. I will lay in bed at night and daydream in that book's universe. I'll have conversations as one character with other characters. I'll go through scenes that will never make it into the book, but help create the personalities of each character. During this period, I will jot notes in a Word document, write sketches of little scenes, and begin outlining the overall plot.
My outlines are pretty detailed in structure, but loose in content. That is, they headline what each scene is about (where, what, when, who), but that's it. When I go to write the scene, things become more fluid. Surprises pop up. Dialog is free-ranging and dynamic. But everything is moving to the end of that scene and toward the next one, so I'm ushering along a mob that remains lightly out of control.
Did I wake up one day and think I'd become a writer? No. I wake up every morning shocked that I've become a writer. Which is weird, because I've always wanted to and always dreamed of becoming a writer. And I've always written. Short stories for contests, the beginnings of dozens of books, letters to family and friends, awesome forum posts on DD, book reviews that weren't too shabby. Just like your sketching, it starts as something you enjoy, a compulsion, really, but if you chase it, it becomes something more.
What's funny is that, looking back, I see how I could have started this ten years ago. Would the books have been as good? Probably not, but I would be a whole lot better at it by now. What was holding me back for so long is not knowing that I just needed to motivate myself to push through to the end of every story. That's the key. Write your way through to the end. The four or five rounds of revisions will fix the things that are making you stop and doubt yourself.
NurseRonda: You'll have to start bugging Lizard on the release date. I'm almost done with my final edit, so the deadline's on her, now!
Lizard: