Novel-Writing Tips

[scheherazade_79]

It started out as a short erotic story, but now 28 pages into it with the plot still in its infancy, I think it's going to turn into a romantic lesbian novel that just happens to have some very explicit sex scenes.

The problem is, I've never written something this long before. Does anyone have any tips for how to stay on track without contradicting yourself or losing your way in the story?

All suggestions much appreciated.

 

[NoJo]

Hi. My last story here was 30 pages, which turned out to be about 11,000 words.

Is that about right?

Anything that long probably needs a bit of planning and structuring. I use a couple of very simple features of MS Word to help me navigate and restructure stories of that length. PM if you use WinWord and are interested.

 

[Weird Harold]

The problem is, I've never written something this long before. Does anyone have any tips for how to stay on track without contradicting yourself or losing your way in the story?

Sounds like you need to Outline where you intend for the story to go.

It doesn't need to be a formal outline as such, just short notes about what you want to happen when that you can expand into your narrative when youreachthat point in your story. Think of them as way-points in your story or events you need to set up for as you wrap up the preceding section.

A sample of what I mean from a story I've had on the back burner for a long time:
Lady is gorgeous.

Lady offers to repair broken zipper -- (Yahoo)

Lady turns out to have lesbian lover/roommate even more gorgeous than she.

Hero takes wrong turn on way to use the toilet and is waylaid by <dozens> of horny, man-starved coeds.

(Bliss)(Exhaustion)

Hero retrieves repaired trousers and rides into sunset.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I've never had to use an outline for any of my novels, but then my plots are never very involved and the story's liable to change during the writing, so the times I've tried to use an outline, I've ended up tossing it when the story veered into a new direction.

I do tend to write in chapters though, where each chapter has its own development and climax and resolution before moving on to the next one. It gives a natural rhythm and organization to the story, and is just easier for me to deal with.

---dr.M.

 

[carsonshepherd]

I suprised myself by writing a novel. I planned on 3 chapters, tops; turned into 59,000+ words. I never used an outline. I stayed on track by writing chapter-by-chapter, fulfilling my plan for the story in steps instead of all at once. Granted the plot was pretty basic; it got to be so long because I made myself a promise to fully develop every detail. Looking back at it a rewrite would probably help, but I've moved on since then. My only advice is to let the characters speak to you and tell you how the story must be developed. Stay true to that and you won't get off track.

congratulations.

 

[TheEarl]

It started out as a short erotic story, but now 28 pages into it with the plot still in its infancy, I think it's going to turn into a romantic lesbian novel that just happens to have some very explicit sex scenes.

The problem is, I've never written something this long before. Does anyone have any tips for how to stay on track without contradicting yourself or losing your way in the story?

All suggestions much appreciated.

Scheh: My novel came from pretty much the same thing. 42,000 words and growing now. I actually winged it all the way through. I knew pretty much what was going to happen and occasionally wrote myself notes as I thought of new future ideas, but apart from the vague picture I had no outline. I think it's better that way; if you have an outline, then you're more likely to stick to what it says, rather than what the story says you should do.

The Earl

 

[Weird Harold]

I do tend to write in chapters though, where each chapter has its own development and climax and resolution before moving on to the next one. It gives a natural rhythm and organization to the story, and is just easier for me to deal with.

That's really the sort of "outline" I was suggesting -- breaking the story down into smaller peices that are more manageable. Whether they're "chapter titles" or "Outline headings" or whehter you follow them exactly, it's good idea to have some idea of wher you expect the story to go and some target to steer back to when the story veers away from what you expected.

 

[carsonshepherd]

some target to steer back to when the story veers away from what you expected.

That can make the story even more interesting though... a tangent that demands exploration.

 

[Weird Harold]

some target to steer back to when the story veers away from what you expected.

That can make the story even more interesting though... a tangent that demands exploration.

Letting a story go where it wants to without some idea of where it's supposed to be going more often results in a rambling, disjointed mess than it does in an interesting story.

The original post asked for a way to prevent the story from getting out of control -- the answer to that question is an outline of some sort.

 

[carsonshepherd]

True...

In my novel the plot was narrow enough to allow surprises. I discovered things about the characters as I wrote them and just developed them as I went. The action stayed on track because I knew exactly where it was headed from the very beginning.

 

[Weird Harold]

The action stayed on track because I knew exactly where it was headed from the very beginning.

Then you had an outline -- if only a mental one.

 

[KarenAM]

For me, the trick to writing a novel (or even a short story) is to have at the least a general idea how I want it to end (as CarsonShepherd said), and then to write toward that ending. Along the way a theme for the work usually appears, and that helps guide it too. Characters grow as you write, and more still as you go back and rewrite and polish your draft.

But I think everyone is different. I'd say just keep writing and see what happens.

 

[scheherazade_79]

Thanks so much for all the great advice and words of support, guys. I've just been out and invested in some novel-writing software. It's a fantastic program that lets you plan everything. It can generate characters, with real backgrounds and personalities, it can create diagrams to show character relations, it has sections for you to record any ideas, sections for you to plan out various settings... It suddenly feels like the organisation fairy just came down and got rid of the headache for me. The program can even plot out a timeline of events for you!

I'm feeling quite buzzed at the moment, so if you don't see me on the AH for several hours, you'll know what I'm doing!

Thank you!

 

[neonlyte]

Thanks so much for all the great advice and words of support, guys. I've just been out and invested in some novel-writing software.

Thank you!

That sounds great, what is the program called, might be worth investing in to save the task of 'making' my own.

One technique I use is a time line, each charcter represented. Birthdays, age relative to parents, immediate family, children etc., significant event dates, like first meeting, first date. You get the idea. Gives you an immediate historical reference and saves time puzzling over where you place an significant story event in the time line.

 

[scheherazade_79]

That sounds great, what is the program called, might be worth investing in to save the task of 'making' my own.
QUOTE]

It's called "Write Your Own Novel: Professional Edition". I paid £30 for it, which is probably a bit pricey for what it is, but now I have it I'm realising that I really would have struggled keeping up with what was in my imagination.

 

[Boota]

The best advice I've ever gotten about planning and outlining a novel came from Christopher Moore, the author of Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. What he does, and I do now, is to get the largest sketch pad you can find. Draw a timeline along the bottom of the long edge. Write a brief note about the beginning of the story. Write a brief note about the end of the story. Look at all that blank space and drop in notes somewhere along the timeline in the approximate place of where something needs to happen. The coolest thing about using this approach instead of a formal outline is that the page is loaded with blank spaces. Those blank spaces are where all the really great stuff happens.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Thanks so much for all the great advice and words of support, guys. I've just been out and invested in some novel-writing software. It's a fantastic program that lets you plan everything. It can generate characters, with real backgrounds and personalities, it can create diagrams to show character relations, it has sections for you to record any ideas, sections for you to plan out various settings... It suddenly feels like the organisation fairy just came down and got rid of the headache for me. The program can even plot out a timeline of events for you!

I'm feeling quite buzzed at the moment, so if you don't see me on the AH for several hours, you'll know what I'm doing!

Thank you!

That would kill me. I'd spend all my time screwing around with the software and probably never write anything.

The way I work, I guess I just couldn't use an outline. I think that if I already knew everything that was going to happen in a story, what's the sense in writing it?

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

That would kill me. I'd spend all my time screwing around with the software and probably never write anything.

The way I work, I guess I just couldn't use an outline. I think that if I already knew everything that was going to happen in a story, what's the sense in writing it?

---dr.M.

Hear hear!

That's the aspect of novel writing that I derive the most pleasure from. I write novels the same way as you, Doc, and it really is like reading a very enjoyable novel as I'm writing it. I usually never have a clue where it's going, and it's a lot of fun writing them that way.

I can be writing a scene, with a vague idea of where I might want it to go, then something unexpected happens, and it takes a completely different direction. I love it!

My plots tend to be quite complex, but somehow I manage to pull it off. I guess my memory serves me well there, and helps me to not fall into the trap of inconsistencies.

Also, I do write scene by scene, and tend to write in 3PL - switching POV with each new chapter or scene - that way it helps me keep things more consistent.

Lou

 

[scheherazade_79]

That would kill me. I'd spend all my time screwing around with the software and probably never write anything.

The way I work, I guess I just couldn't use an outline. I think that if I already knew everything that was going to happen in a story, what's the sense in writing it?

---dr.M.

I like to think of myself as quite a spontaneous writer, and at first I was really cagey about getting novel-writing software. My biggest problem is the sheer quantity of ideas I'm trying to juggle all at once. I'm a really disorganised person - I rarely write in order and am constantly writing notes to myself. Things like place descriptions, ideas to be used as symbolism, lists of foreign / colloquial phrases I can use if I'm not writing about home. Before I used to save them as various documents and spend forever looking for them, or sometimes forgetting them altogether. Now they're all stored in the same database.

It's also really handy if you want to add a subplot and are getting confused over what happens when, because it displays a timeline for you of the events in your novel down to the minute they happen.

If I can't remember what type of underwear a character wears, I can access the details with one click. I know everyone works differently, but for me it makes the creative process flow a bit more without losing any of the subtleties.

OK, shameless plug over! I'm going to get on with it!

 

[Guest]

 

[TheEarl]

That would kill me. I'd spend all my time screwing around with the software and probably never write anything.

The way I work, I guess I just couldn't use an outline. I think that if I already knew everything that was going to happen in a story, what's the sense in writing it?

---dr.M.

I'm with you Doc. Couldn't write like that.

In the later chapters of my novel, I had three simultaenous threads, all three lasting from 8.00pm to 5.00am, with three major characters acting independently, but with their actions affecting the others. All the timing had to be very precise and I actually had to stop halfway through and sit down with a miniature notepad and plotted out who was doing what in each hour and what actions had to happen concurrently. That was hard work. Even so, I couldn't have it all plotted out before I started. I'd get bored if I knew exactly what was going to happen.

The Earl