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- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
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@overcomer Is that the podcast hosted by Daniel Thompson? If it is then yes I have listened to it (not recently though).
Wait, you draw dragons? I do too! that’s awesome:).
@kate-flournoy 🙂 I actually didn’t feel too tired, (probably because I finished it in the morning) just intensely relieved.
I was also kind of happy because I was able to finish the first draft before my seventeenth birthday (which is next week). It was kind of cool how it all turned out.Yes it is, @winter-rose . It’s actually the only podcast I listen to. Feel free to recommend others if you know of any good ones, although I honestly doubt that any could be as good as his. 🙂
I sorta draw dragons. That is, my main character in the novel I’m writing is a dragon, and I wanted to be real descriptive in my writing so I thought it might help to draw him. So far, not super helpful, but I’ve got a head design I like. I might just skip finishing his body until I write more about him.
You draw dragons, huh? If you have any advice or tips to offer they are more than welcome, they’re seriously welcome! *Tries not to sound too desperate* 😉
Drawing from my imagination is pretty tricky but kind of fun in an almost agonizing sort of way. 😉 Actually, I do like it, I just wish my skills were sharper so that I could draw more of the things I imagine, or at least, more completely …
Calling for backup! @winter-rose @faithdk @rolena-hatfield @aella @kate-flournoy @hannah-c @daeus @gretald @bluejay @zoe-wingfeather @sarah-h @belegteleri @anna-brie @hope @spradlin
Have any of you ever written a first draft of a novel before? If yes, do you have any advice, suggestions, ideas, encouragement to offer me?
You see, it’s like this. I’ve got most of my notes together now, and am about tackle the mess that is my prewriting/ideas/mayhem/sorta outline and turn it into a first draft of my novel.
Only I’m reading snippets of writing books and overanalyzing my storyline-ish thing and trying not to freak out, despite the fact that I’ve told myself that “there is no wrong way to write a first draft.” “It’s supposed to get fixed later.” “It’s okay.”
I know that I can do it, but I still worry that I’m choosing the wrong ideas, or beginning it wrong, or that my storyline won’t work when I try to write it out, or any number of things that probably really don’t matter at this stage in the game at all. :/
Any advice, you pros?
Well, I’ve never written a novel, but I have done a novelette. Basically there is no wrong way and it will get fixed later. 🙂 I feel it’s just like writing a short story so just go for it.
*stares at post*
That wasn’t much help was it??? I’m too tired to think. I have been playing in the snow. 🙂 We have an awesome hill to sled down and we’ve built a snowman and a snow hut. That is, it’s made out of snow. Kinda like an igloo. Only it doesn’t look like one.
@overcomer@bluejay- That sounds like fun. Where I am, it’s over 100 degrees. 🙂
@overcomer – I’ve only written a long short story, but what I learned probably applies to a novel, too. With my story, I had the basic outline in my head, so I sat down and tried to write it in order, starting from the beginning. I kept getting stuck on little things though, like finding the right verb or working in a minor detail. I could get stuck for hours on a single paragraph. So, I learned, when I hit those blocks, to hit the return key a few times, fast forward to the next scene, and keep writing, and fill in the holes later. That helped me a lot.
Also, don’t wait for the right words to come. Just write. Even if it’s the worst sentence structure ever, just get the idea out on paper. It’s far easier to go back and edit than to try to phrase everything just right in your mind the first time.I hope that was a little helpful. 🙂
I’ve written one first draft and I’ve started another one.
What I found helped was writing it out on paper, so I couldn’t make changes. Don’t edit if you can avoid it. Certainly don’t worry about whether you’ve got the right words. You can fix them later and sometimes they don’t turn out to be as bad as you might have thought.Don’t even worry about whether the plot is good. It will change as you write. I’ve rewritten the whole beginning of my book, I will rewrite large bit’s of the middle and end. Also the end wasn’t even in my head when I started writing.
Throw in every random idea you get along the way. Don’t worry about whether it fits with everything else. It probably won’t. Some bits, where I was running with an idea I quickly discarded, still only need a little tweaking to work.
Do make sure you know what your character wants. Or at least have some idea of it. It will probably change too. be flexible.
I actually wrote a blog post that might help. http://annasbrie.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/13-things-ive-learnt-in-year-of-writing.html
Don’t pay to much attention to the first point though. Perhaps I didn’t know where I was going and got into trouble, but I also got out of it again.You might need to do the same. Don’t be afraid of getting stuck halfway through. It’s better than being stuck at the beginning. Perhaps if you do get stuck, that’ll be the time to sort out your characters motivation.Now I hope my rambling will be useful to you.
Oh you poor thing @overcomer. I’ll see if I can help. I’ve written eight full novels (only four of which are worth mentioning) so I should probably know how to fix this.
Thing is though, I’m not sure I do. 😀
But I shall try.My modus operandi is to sit down and write. So helpful, I know. But I’m NOT an organized person at all, and truth be told I’ve not outlined a single one of my four 400,000+ word novels. It sounds like your writing process is different than mine, so this mightn’t be much help.
But the single most important thing you can do with any work is figure out for sure and certain what it is you want to say. As in, what point you want to make. The theme. That’s the first step to figuring out what works and what doesn’t as far as plot/characters/setting goes— those that don’t play into the theme some way should probably go.
Just throwing that out there because it might be part of the problem.As for procrastination and overthinking… well, just know that you can’t correct it if you don’t have it written in the first place. And honestly, don’t worry about how awful your first draft is. Really don’t. The first draft of my WIP was wretched— and once I finished it and read through it once I knew exactly what I had to do to fix it. The best thing sometimes is to write it down, let the story infiltrate the grey matter, and then go over it again once you know it so you can polish the strong bits and rehash the weak ones.
On a more micro level, find an opening sentence that clicks for you and take it from there. 😉
Whew… I feel very strange giving advice to twenty-year-olds. 😛 😉
Hope that was helpful. Best of luck— I know you can do it. The snippets of your writing I’ve seen (mostly on the Writing Game thread) are consistently impressive. Go for it.
@overcomer *dashes to the rescue* *stumbles over own feet* I’ve written several novels, so let’s see what I can do. *rubs hands and grins*
I like to write chapter by chapter outlines if my work is bigger than a novella. That way you already know how the story is laid out, how it flows, etc. Though even with an outline, don’t worry if parts of the story change while you write it. That happens to me all the time. But just having an outline and knowing the end help immensely, whatever others may say. *shoots sideways glance at @kate-flournoy*
But once that is done, just sit down and write. The beginning can always be reworked later on, or shortened or made snappier. But if you can get into the voice telling the story, and you have an outline to base your work off of, go for it! Don’t worry about changes which might happen (and they will happen, unless you’re an expert at planning) or bits that sound rough. Just write. Once the rough draft is out, it will be much easier to polish and correct.
You can do this!!! 😀 😀 😀
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
@overcomer Let’s see, I’ll try to say something new. First of all, you seem to be doubting your very outline. What makes you so unsure of it?
As for the writing, don’t edit along the way (doing writing corner might help with that) and don’t go back and edit. You can change an idea for what’s going to happen later on, but don’t change anything you’ve already written unless it’s absolutely necessary. It will be discouraging.
Once you’ve done your first pass of editing though, chances are you’ll be feeling much better and will be able to tackle the rest.
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- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1486
@overcomer You can do it! It looks like you have a great start with all your notes (and a working printer 🙂 )
I don’t have much to say, (I’m probably just repeating everyone else), but an outline (like you doing) is REALLY helpful. I got stuck in the second half of my book because I didn’t know much about how I was going to get to the climax.
And like what some people have said, things will change along the way, definitely. You may enter a scene and randomly add something that you’re like, man, that’s not foreshadowed or mentioned at all. But the wonderful thing about a first draft is that you can go back and change things. (that and no one has to see the first draft. Ever.)
Just keep writing, even if you think your writing is the worst thing ever, because it’s not, even if it isn’t pretty.
For me I’ve discovered setting daily word count goals is really helpful. They keep me writing (and from procrastinating) and chop the process into bite sized chunks I can work with.
Oh, and about dragons and podcasts…
Yea the very serious writing show was the only one I listened to as well 🙂 I’ll have to get back to listening sometime…
Dragon tips… naw I don’t really have anything sage to tell you. I think how you draw dragons just depends on your style. I’m not a pro at it by any means. 🙂
Yes drawling from the imagination is fun yet torturous, because you see the picture in you mind, but you can never get it quite right on paper.
@overcomer I’ve written one full novel which I’m currently editing. My advice is: Write Without Fear. When you’re in the writing zone don’t stress about how perfect every word sounds, just sit down and write. Get the idea out. Once that’s done you can go back later and make it sound pretty. I didn’t follow this rule when I wrote my first novel and so it made writing more stressful and daunting. Now I’m on novel #2 and I have adopted the above motto. It makes writing a lot easier.
Also, having some sort of idea where you are going, what message you want to put across, and where you want to end up is a good thing to have. @Hope-ann I like your idea of chapter by chapter outlines! I might just try that…
HC
- Rank: Wise Jester
- Total Posts: 68
@overcomer wow i am so blessed to have been tagged oh my word
sadly, i have never published a novel and cannot help. in fact i’m reading the replies of the more experienced writers to help ME with my llame novel. XD
sorrrryyyyyy
@hannah-c Yes, do. I also do chapter outlines and that really helps because then there’s very little to have writer’s block about.
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@overcomer I haven’t finished a novel before, so I can’t help much there. Sorry! However, I know exactly how you feel because I’ve felt the same way. I’ve heard that the hardest part of writing a novel is writing the beginning. I don’t know whether you’re a plan-out-the-entire-novel sort of person or a start-from-scratch sort of person or a plan-out-some-but-leave-room-for-new-ideas sort of person, but I know for me that it doesn’t help me to outline. Of course, I like to know the basic premise of the story, but other than that, I just kind of go with it and just write. So my advice to you is not to overthink it. Just write. Don’t search for the “perfect words” and don’t stress about whether you’re telling or showing. You can go back and change word choice and how you tell part of the story later. You can always edit and rewrite, if necessary.
I really, really love you guys! 🙂
Seriously, this writing community is the best thing that’s ever happened to me as a writer.
@bluejay, that is helpful. 🙂 And your day sounds awesome! It’s steamy hot here.
@daeus , your question hit the nail on the head for me. When I asked myself that question I discovered that what really makes me so unsure of it is my story goal. I’m worried that it won’t end up meshing with my plot (despite my attempts to tie the two together in my outline) and that it will make the atmosphere of my story too serious when it’s supposed to be funny.However, I worked on it a little and I’ve come to the conclusion that for now I just need to have faith in it and write, and if it doesn’t work, maybe I’ll wind up with two stories instead of one. 🙂
That’s where your advice comes in handy, @kate-flournoy , @anna-brie , @hope , @hannah-c , @winter-rose . You are all right. Some of it will change as I write, I can fix it later, and if I get stuck or something doesn’t work out I can change it. I will never know what needs fixing or changing though if I don’t write. I feel much more confident now. 🙂 ☀
Thanks, @zoe-wingfeather and @gretald ! It’s actually encouraging (in a different way) to hear from writers who haven’t written a novel yet because sometimes I feel like the only one …
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