I've been thinking a lot lately about how best to stay focused on individual tasks when the scope of a goal feels immense... in particular, I've been doing a lot of writing lately. I am, gulp, attempting to write a novel (yes finally joining the bandwagon). I keep going back and forth between excitement and joy at the process and utter bewilderment at what a huge undertaking it is, and how new it is to me.
The worst part is I keep picturing in my mind some deluded hipster lounging at cafe in soho- when he is asked what he does for a living he looks down his nose with an agitated expression and snorts "I'm writing a novel! You wouldn't understand." The phrase 'I'm working on my novel' should be banned from the english language, to most ears it sounds as if it might be the most self indulgent thing a person could do.BUT people do it and I've always wanted to do it. I've mostly considered myself a visual artist all this time, despite having published picture books that I wrote. Its just so different composing a story with no pictures! It is a nice departure though, from my usual method of storytelling. And its been interesting translating memories and personal stories along a theme...
Anyways I would love to hear from you experienced novelists about your process... how much do you plan out the twists of the story in advance, how much just naturally flows when you're writing? Do you start out knowing the precise fate of your characters, or does that become revealed over time?
ps It was a strange coincidence that Meghan's recent post about whether authors/illustrators ever really get time off came right before I got knocked off my feet sick this weekend (I never get sick)! I have spent the last few days sleeping it off and feeling guilty for not working, or making myself work anyways and feeling even worse! It really is a difficult thing to pry yourself out of your studio and declare a day off... my mind keeps coming back to whatever project is on my desk...
3 comments:
I'm not an experienced novelist, but will tell you the scariest thing I heard John Irving say last week (at the benefit King/Rowling/Irving reading) was that he knows the end of the book (including everyone's fate) before he ever starts writing the beginning. In fact he said he writes the last sentence first. I'm hoping that's just a personal style issue, rather than a requirement, but I've heard other writers talk about already having written the end, so I don't know.
YAY! You're writing a novel! I know you have so many great life experiences to draw on that'll make it mesmerizing.
I don't have a lot of experience to give great tips, but here are the couple of things I noticed when I made the switch from pb to novel.
First, right after Alvina read my rough draft, she sent me a note saying that I had to write at least 2 descriptions on every page...because I hadn't written ANY! When you write picturebooks, writing desciption is redundant; but a neccessity for novels!
Another thing I had to learn was how to relax with words. Picturebook writing is so disciplined and spare, every word counts so you don't waste any. But,Alvina kept telling me "make it longer!" Sometimes I felt like I was just spouting, adding superflous words; but then I realized that that was the picturebook author brain thinking and the novel brain needed to be turned on...
But just write it, I'm sure it will be great!
Thanks Grace, I keep running into those exact problems! Leaving out things I would normally envision in an illustration and too much streamlining of the text. I have to learn to be more long winded : )
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