Writing a Novel

Almost everyone says at some point in their lives, "I want to write a book," or "I have a novel in me."  Because of time constraints and the demands of everyday life, few people ever realize this dream.

Writing a book of any type is hard work.  Writing a novel is especially challenging since it goes beyond "how to build a widget."  The novelist must create a compelling premise, realistic characters, and a believable world for them to inhabit.  It's hard work.

So how does one go about writing a novel?  There's no single way, and perhaps the muse guides us all differently.  One can always jump headlong into the process by accepting the challenge of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.  Participants are expected to produce a full-length novel, usually 90,000 words in length, in 30 days.  (November is when the challenge takes place each year.)  It's great practice, but can one learn to write a compelling work of fiction in thirty days?  Maybe.  Ray Bradbury said that he wrote the first draft for Fahrenheit 451 in seven days.  But not everyone is Ray Bradbury.

To produce a quality work of fiction--book-length--usually tales several months.  Sometimes, it takes years.  My ghostwriting clients give me outlines or synopses, which can be executed in about four to five months, give or take depending on the length of the novel.  And that's fine.  Some of these novels have done well.

Personally, I think that novels must, in a real sense, write themselves.  An author can have a distant guiding star to direct the plot, but it is dangerous to tell the characters what they're going to do.  They must tell the writer what they should be doing.  One can over-outline a novel, leaving the work without much life or energy.  Novels need to grow organically.

But perhaps this applies to literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction.  Genre fiction is easier to execute (this is a gross generalization) and might lend itself to outlines.

When writing under my own name, I allow a story to take me where it wants to go.  That's when the magic happens.

~ William Hammett  

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