In the seventies, there was a UK TV programme called the “Morecombe and Wise Show.” Sometimes Ernie Wise would sit at his typewriter, hammer away furiously for a few minutes and produce a finished play. This is the origin of the West End show: “The Play What I Wrote.” I imagine it’s also a poignant satire of the difficulty of writing comedy at a high level.
Anyhow, this morning I’m the complete opposite. I’ve spent an hour faffing around with my blog and looking at stats and other sites but not writing a post. It reminded me of when I tried to write a novel. Actually, when I tried to write two novels.
I thought I had a great heroine who was a composite of a couple of my friends. A great setting: MI5. A great plot: what would happen if al-Qaeda hacked into the air traffic control system to cause all kinds of airborne chaos as a cover for a private jet on a sinister mission. Of course my heroine would discover the plot and thwart it. This was in the second half of 2000 so all this al-Qaeda plane stuff seemed a bit ‘out there.’
I bashed away every day, producing on average 500-1000 words until I reached about 50,000 words. It was quite fun ‘being a novellist’. I would write in the morning and do fun stuff in the afternoon. But then I hit a brick wall – I could not figure out how to get from where I was in the story to the conclusion. Writing became a struggle and the book got away from me. When I tried a second book in the spring of 2001, the same thing happened. I wrote about 40,000 words and lost the plot (quite literally).
My friend Stuart writes thrillers and plots them out minutely on little index cards and I think this may have been my mistake. I had the big ideas but hadn’t put the work in on the plot. Another friend had suggested a different approach: write one page at a time and see where it takes you. I guess I was beset by conflicting advice. The painful thing was to have it happen twice. It’s really put me off the prospect of writing a novel.
I’d like to give it another go but I think the Charles Dickens approach of writing by instalments for weekly publication might be a good way to go. I have no problem writing and deadlines are highly motivating for me but this approach might give me the energy to carry me through the troughs. Also I think I have to write about flying – something I know very well. Spy novels are fine but perhaps not for me. Does anyone have any other suggestions about how to solve this plotting / momentum problem?
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No suggestions i’m afraid. Not sure my experience could compare to yours. I would say that some of the greatest books ever written have been written in weekly installments for publication. HST – fear and loathing in las vegas.
Not sure if it will let me put a link in here, but if you search for a Jim Rossignol he has experienced similar problems.
Matthew – I’ve had the same problem. Here are some tips that have helped me.
First, I think it helps to get one sloppy draft down quick, even if it’s a dog’s breakfast, even if it looks like a bad Ionesco play, and even if it makes you feel like hiding in a sofa cushion fort for the first time since you were six.
You said you were halted by conflicting advice. There’s a lot of that. Some writers like to forge ahead without an outline or an ending; others plot it out in detail before they start. You just have to figure out over time which method you’re comfortable with. Even if months have passed since you left the book, it may help to go ahead and plot out just from the point you stopped. Start small. Just take a few index cards and write down why you stopped, where you were at, and a few ideas for getting to the end.
Also, maybe you didn’t feel a strong enough connection to your main character. It helps to limit the point of view. One thing I’ve done is to write a story using my main character just to get reacquainted, maybe in a different setting, and to experiment with an ending for the book. Another advantage is that you can have the characters in the book refer to something that occurred in the story.
When I’m stuck, it’s helped me to talk to an expert, especially to aid in the actual ‘main character saves the world while resolving her own problems’ part, or the sequence leading to that. The expert may have an anecdote or a fact that energizes you, sparks an idea.
A book that may help is Chris Baty’s ‘No Plot? No Problem!,’ which helped me get through my first NaNoWriMo. It’s a funny, ass-kicking little book that helps you pound out a 50,000 word draft in four weeks (you can write more, of course).
Hope this helps.
If you do the writing in monthly installments and it’s fun like the MI5 thing, I’d definitely subscribe.
If you do the writing in weekly installments and it’s fun like the MI5 thing, I’d definitely subscribe.
At the risk of upsetting the purists, might I suggest Dramatica Pro – http://www.screenplay.com/products/dpro/index.htm
I use it and it’s fabulous – it really makes you think through the implications of your plot and/or character, and helps you make decisions along the way that work to improve the story, not detract from it.
The only reason I haven’t finished the novel I started in it is because blogging so suits me – I write in small doses; concentrating for hours at a time is too hard for a bear with very little brain…