How to Start Writing a Novel

 

You might be wondering, how does someone write a novel? Not everyone does it the same way, of course. There are plotters and pantsers. I am a plotter. (Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants and just let it flow). I do a little of that too as I am actually creating. Sometimes things happen or characters arrive that I had no idea were coming. But, I thought it might be interesting to share the process I am about to embark upon, as I gear up to write book #2. Whether you are a writer or a reader, either way, I think it is interesting know how a particular writer does the deed.

Step 1 - read what I have.

I have already written a beginning, but I wrote it a year ago and I will most likely change elements, as the story has evolved in my head over time. So, first I will read what I have and see what I still like.

Step 2 - go over notes.

I also have written pages of notes already – again over the last year. I have a character list, and a rough plot outline, at least where I thought it was going then. So again, I will read them and see what I still like and refresh my memory.

Step 3 – write more notes.

I will revision my plan and come up with a working outline. I write my outline in the computer, so I can change it as I go. But I write notes and ideas and diagrams and mini outlines in a large artist’s sketchbook. By the end, I have lots of notes and outlines. My outlines are living. They change and evolve. As I write, I go back to the outline and flesh out ideas in a list. Events, emotions, and purpose. For me, every chapter has to have a goal of what I want to get across. I remember the first draft of DISTILLATION, before I had learned this, had whole chapters of description and what I thought was character development, but no action, nothing to move the plot foreword. Now, I consider the purpose of every chapter. Often, when I finish writing for the day, I will cut and paste the next part of the outline below my stopping point, so I know where I am going the next day.

Step 4 – write chapters.

This is of course the longest process. At somewhere around 100 pages I will go back and read through, and usually edit and revise that, as well as my outline, before I move on. For COLD SPRING FIRE, I have a past and a present to deal with. Two separate arcs of intertwined plot. This is the challenge for me this time around. Weaving those two sets of events will be the primary focus of my work. Depending on how caught up in the story I get, I can write a hundred pages in about a week. Or, a hundred pages can take me a month. We will see...

So, that is how I write a novel. Or at least how I get started. There are twists and turns and music and pictures and a lot of pacing along the way too.

How do you do it?

As a reader, do you like books that have past and present?

What kind of plot structures turn you off or on?

Truth in Fiction

Come the end of June, I can finally focus again on writing. Happy to have found representation for my DISTILALTION, this summer I will work on one of two new novels I began over the past two years and maybe come close to completing a draft. I have chosen to work on the one tentatively titled COLD SPRING FIRE, and for the past few months I have been considering what I have so far and where I want to go with it. Much of what I have been thinking about is the truths I will spin into the fiction of that story, and how that fiction will make sense out of a variety of "truths" that haunt me.

I write fiction to exorcise demons and dreams. Writing fiction is a way for me to process places and experiences from the near or recent past and to turn them in to something completely different, something that turns my impressions into a new truth. There is no one truth. All different perspectives make up a varied truth. An individual truth can never be true to anyone but the person who creates it. And a person's truth about a single experience can change over time.

In DISTILLATION, I delved into my time spent in a little town in western, Massachusetts. The events in the novel have nothing to do with my life there, but the shapes of the characters and the especially the main character's feelings, issues, and personality were spun from real life. No one in the novel portrays a real person though, and so when people ask me if they are in my novel, I can say of course, or I can say no. Both are true. Interestingly, people like to hear they are in the novel, but even more interestingly, they often miss the qualities sprinkled here and there that I actually took from what is my truth about them, because it is not the truth they see for themselves.

COLD SPRING FIRE  is based on my formative years. My teenage years. I spend a lot of time with teenagers, and one of the reasons I went in to teaching was because I liked being a teenager. It was great fun. But it was also a time, as it is for all adolescents, of great insecurity, great risks, great fear, and many mistakes. The world comes at you like an onslaught. It is hard to understand why things happen as they do, or to make rational decisions about your options when you are young. Scott Fitzgerald called youth a form of chemical madness. I have to agree with this. Teenagers push the limits just to find out where the edge of the world is. Teenagers have a love affair with darkness. They want to rebel and to seek an identity all their own, but are of course shaped more than they know by the identities of their parents, even as they defy everything their parents want. And the ways in which teens often try to control their destinies and deal with their emotions appear to those on the outside as madness or destruction. Both perspectives of course are true.

The new novel will again be about living in a small town, just as DISTILLATION was. I love the atmosphere and mystery of small towns, especially rural ones where there seems to be nothing but trees. In towns like this the school is often the center of life. There are families that come and go, and those that have been there forever. There are appearances to keep and secrets behind every neatly mown lawn.

What I look forward to most is the weaving. When I write I become entranced by a river of shining threads. They originate from my memories, my fantasies, my day to day experiences. The sound of the wind in the trees. A remembered moment passing between two people without words, spoken just with the eyes. Laughter from another room. The dry heat and cedar smell of a forest on an August afternoon. Moonlight on water, soaked with the stink of pond. A black and white photograph hiding a secret. The smell of fire in the spring.

It is like a visual, auditory, and olfactory symphony in my head and it consumes me once I really get going. It is interesting too that sound and smell play such a large part in both my memory and my writing. I am very affected by these senses, more so than most it seems at times. These are how my truths take shape. This is how I turn my truth into fiction. Or perhaps, how I turn my fiction into truth.

How do you define truth?

The Great Gatsby - Life is But a Dream

My favorite line from The Great Gatsby is: "In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars." It is of course one of the most famous lines. Evoking ephemeral, romantic images is one of Fitzgerald's great gifts to literature.

As you may know, I am an American Literature teacher and it is Gatsby season. In five days the new movie comes out. My students are so worked up over this novel. But this novel has, this year, come full circle for me. After ten years of teaching it, I feel I have a deeper understanding of the work, the author, and its place in the canon because of its relevancy across generations.

Over the past year, I read The Paris Wife, Tender is the Night, and most recently, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.  And what I come away from it all with is that truth is as diaphanous as dreams. What is truth? Can there be one truth? Or is truth different for different people? Can a truth change?

Scott was my first literary love. And as I have read and taught Fitzgerald's works, though I often ask my students to examine the novel through a feminist lens for at least one lesson, I have always laughed at his portrayal of women. How absurd they are. Daisy is vapid, Myrtle tragically trashy, Jordan haughty. All of them careless. The men treat them as objects and yet are so utterly wounded by the ultimate betrayals and downfalls of these women, and we somehow end up feeling bad for them. The men. Especially Gatsby.

Like Daisy and Myrtle, I had always believed it was Zelda who had ruined Scott, or at least had been the unstable one. Scott Fitzgerald was to me Jay Gatsby, a sad romantic whose dreams were never quite as real as he strove for them to be, mostly due to alcohol and his wife's need for a high life style he could barely provide. Interestingly, in Z, Therese Anne Fowler takes the opposite argument. In her notes, she acknowledges that there are two camps. One that claims Zelda ruined Scott (fueled mostly by the tales of Ernest Hemingway who infamously believed Zelda was jealous of Scott and trying to undermine his work). Then there is the camp that believes it was the other way around, and if anything it was Hemingway for all his over the top manliness that was jealous of Zelda's relationship with her husband.

Could the truth I had been fed for so many years by the male literary establishment, be so  misconstrued? Granted the two feminist point of view books are fiction. But so is Tender is the Night. So is The Great Gatsby. So is For Whom the Bell Tolls. Both Scott and Hemingway unapologetically used the very real events and conversations of their lives the people they knew in their writing, sometimes barely fictionalizing it at all. So, where does the line between fiction and truth lie? Is there even such a thing?

I say there is no such thing as truth. Truth is a fabrication. All of life is a story, one we write for ourselves and one others write with us in it. What is real to one person, might not even exist for another. What an individual imagines can be their whole world, made true only by their undying belief. Could Daisy love Tom and Gatsby both? Could both Zelda's story and Scott be true? Can our dreams be as true as our realities? And if we die still believing in our own truth, who is to say we anything less than what we imagined?

Better than Ever - Big News!!!

Well, it has officially been (just about) a year since I was blogging. After last year's Muse and the Marketplace Conference, I took a hiatus to, among other things, query DISTILLATION  and to see what played out. In that time a lot happened in my life. Good and bad. One of the great things was I threw myself whole-heartedly into teaching this year, which I think has been my best year ever. It was a nice to think about that costume for a while and to stretch my wings. I think in the end I am a better teacher for it and more in love with my day job than I ever thought I could be. I have to admit the new film for Gatsby has helped a lot. But, I am now rounding out another school year with a new perspective, and more than ready to put my writer hat back on.

As it happens, when you are busy paying attention to something else, other things tend to work themselves out. And so...I have news. Big news. I HAVE AN AGENT. I am happy to say that I am now represented by Victoria Lea of the Natalia Aponte Literary Agency. It happened so fast. I sent a query and a month or so later she responded saying she was liking it and asked to know more about me as a writer. A week later, she offered representation. For all of you who I know have waited and struggled and written and rewritten and picked yourself up again and again after each rejection, I don't know what to say, except that when it happens it happens so fast, it leaves you speechless and stunned.

I am ecstatic to have someone on my team. Someone who believes in DISTILLATION, who liked the story and thinks editors will too. It is the next stage and I am ready to get to work. Thank goodness summer is right around the corner.

For those of you not in the writing world, I should explain. As I have told friends and family that I have secured an agent for DISTILLATION, they almost invariably respond with: So when is the book coming out?

It doesn't work that way. In this day and age one needs an agent to approach publishers. Agents are the gate keepers. Most publishers don't even look at a manuscript that is unagented. So...getting an agent is a major step and, for many, that step is a long and difficult process. As I have said before, they are not kidding when they say you need a thick skin and perseverance beyond all reason. Now that I have an agent, editors will take a look. That is one of the amazing things an agent does for a writer, they pitch the book, they share the love. Agents also handle contracts and all the rights to the work, including foreign, digital, and film rights, if such things come up, which often they do in one form or another.

So, from here, my agent will query and send out my book to editors she has relationships with and hopefully one will fall in love with DISTILLATION too. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I have two other novels brewing (more on that another time) and one of those I will throw myself into this summer, now that DISTILLATION is in good hands. Although, I will also have to do some more work for that book of course. The real work is just beginning in fact.

I am officially on the agency website, under "Our Authors." This has been the most exciting part so far. My picture is above, but you will have to stop by their site to read the bio. It has been reviewed by my fans as giving an "impish" impression. Which I think is fitting. The whole bio and author photo makes me feel official. I also loved talking with other authors, M.V. Freeman and Debbie Herbert, also represented by Victoria. They made me feel welcome and excited about the whole deal. So check out the agency website when you get a chance and from here on in, I am back, blogging again. Say hello and I'll stop by to see you all soon.

Muse 2012

What I learned today at this year's Muse and the Marketplace Writing Conference put on by Grub Street Writers in Boston:

1. Grub Street really does a great job in helping writers write and understand the market. I am consistently impressed, every year, with how much thought and care is put into the line up. The conference is big and it is grand. I highly recommend it.

2. Agents and editors are people too. I knew this already of course, but this year I signed up to eat lunch at a table with two agents, an author, and an editor. I thought it might be awkward, but all were warm and friendly. It was perhaps the most comfortable and chatty lunch I have ever had at the Muse. Rotating seats was a great idea too, as the four writers who were at the table to network got to talk to different people. I really think the lunch was the best event of the day.

3. Agents differ in opinion on a lot of things. I was surprised to see two agents disagree on the etiquette of the "no response means no" rule that is more and more common these days. One thought it was down right rude, where as the other defended the need to allocate time where it was most useful. I also heard variances about whether a writer should offer a genre at all or comp titles in a query. It does put a writer in a category that might influence the agent's expectations, but then again if the comp or genre is right on, it might help.

4. I learned that there are debut authors out there who have gone through the slush pile. They experienced the same ups and down I know many aspiring authors do. It was really encouraging to hear their success stories and to feel understood.

5. Authors are much less critical of writing than agents, perhaps understandably so. I attended two "Idol" sessions, where writers submit one page anonymously and it is read in front of a panel of "judges" (authors or agents respectively). They listen and when they feel they would stop reading, each one, individually, raises a hand, two or three and the reader is told to stop and the group explains their reasoning. This was very insightful. The authors were much more inclined to listen to the whole page and then offer positives and negatives, as if they were in a critique group. The agents found fault almost immediately. This give a lot of insight into their mind frame and their process.

6. Lastly, I learned, or remembered, how great it is to go to a conference with other writers and people in the industry. It is rejuvenating and gives me a chance to connect with people who love the same things that I love: books and writing. What a great experience going to a conference is. It is worth it to put your brave costume on and to walk up to an agent and introduce yourself. It is awesome to sit next to an author you admire and talk to them not only about their work, but your own.

I highly recommend that anyone who is writing a book go to a conference like The Muse and The Marketplace. It can add definition, purpose, and knowledge to your endeavor.

X-ed Off, Yikes!, and Zzzzzz

I admit it. I am pooped. This whole A-Z challenge started with great optimism and high hopes and the challenge certainly lived up to them. My own personal world, not so much. I had some let downs this month and some rough spots, but I am getting my ducks back in a row. Although I am in a state of regrouping, tentatively tipping my toe in the torrent, it does not mean I can't finish this thing. But I am going to cheat. Here goes:

X is for X that one off my list. Has anyone else who is querying come across this disclaimer on agency sites that the querant must acknowledge before submitting?

"Said Agency and/or any of its clients may have created, may create, or may otherwise have access to materials, ideas, and creative works which may be similar or identical to the Material with regard to theme, motif, plots, characters, formats, or other attributes; and (v) I shall not be entitled to any compensation because of the proposed use or use of any such similar or identical material that may be or may have been created by Said Agency and/or any of its clients..."

I know people still submit to these agencies, and perhaps it is totally kosher, but I shy away, even when there seem to be some awesome agents at "Said Agency." Why do they include this? All the other disclaimers seem appropriate, but this just screams, "...in case we steal your story." Which I certainly don't think reputable agencies would do, but then why include this? What do you think a writer should make of this?


Y is for Yikes! I am going to a pretty big writing conference next weekend, The Muse and the Marketplace. I will probably blog about it. It is very exciting. The attendees get to hob knob with agents and well known writers. There are seminars and panels and talks and keynote speakers. You can meet with an agent for a manuscript consultation. You can eat lunch at an assigned table with editors, agents, and NYT Bestselling authors. It is awesome, but it is also really intimidating. This year my Muse friend is not attending. So, I am flying solo. I have made a plan to approach a few specific people and introduce myself, just to put a face (mine) to a name (my query). I am excited to meet one of my fav authors, Katherine Howe (check out her awesome website), and I am excited to learn about a whole lot of different writing related things. But YIKES! I have to psych myself up and put on my Brave Girl Costume. Do you attend any awesome writing conferences, or other special interest events?

Z is for ZZZZZ. Sleeping is so important and I haven't been doing it well lately. In fact, I have noticed that many of my fellow bloggers and writers suffer from insomnia. Actually, a lot of my students do too. Why is this? Are we over stimulated with electronics? Is the modern world too fast paced? Are we stressed with information overload. I know too much and therefore I worry all the time. Are you a good sleeper?

So there you go. I did it. I made it through, with a little cheating. It was so great to meet all of you knew and interesting bloggers. Thanks for stopping by and visit again soon.

Western Massachusetts

 

I have noticed that many of the people visiting my blog are coming from places all of the United States and even all over the world! Since, very few of you are from Massachusetts, and probably think of Boston as the ONLY place in this state, I thought I might tell you a little bit about where I live. WESTERN Massachusetts.

   
As you will see if you look at the map above and to the left, these people didn't think it necessary to put my town on this map. In fact the entire area where I live has nothing labeled. Find Holyoke (pronounced Holy Oak - not Holly Oky - which I once heard someone say) Springfield and Northampton. Between Holyoke and Northampton is a small set of mountains or really hills called the Holyoke Range. Around here it is known as the Tofu Curtain. South of the Holyoke Range is a very different place than North of it. Northampton is an awesome, hip, college town. So from there, head North. To the left of the Quabbin (more on that later) and keep going. Follow the Connecticut River to the place where Massachusetts and the river meet Vermont and New Hampshire. Now back down a half an inch. THAT is where I live.

Massachusetts is really divided into at least three portions. Boston - urban, cultured, steal our water. Central, MA - a lot of commuters to Boston. Flat. Where I grew up. Western MA - which is really western central - also known as The Pioneer Valley and hill towns surrounding the Connecticut River Valley. This is where I live. Then there are the Berkshires - where the Berkshire Mountains are - & what I see as a place where New Yorkers go on vacation. I can't really speak for any of those other places. But I do know western MA.

I came here for college. UMass, Butterfield Alumni. I never left. I never left because the valley has a much different pace than where I grew up. Though there were rural sections of central Ma, there was still a mall, chain restaurant, fast paced, Boston oriented, mentality. Out in the valley we are much more rural except for our few semi-urban areas. For a long time I lived in a hill town on top of a plateau that was, for most, out in the boonies. But I can tell you, out here, 30 minutes to the store was not much compared to those who live between the hill towns and the Berkshires.

The book and the plow are the emblems of Amherst College and I think that fits this area well. It is both a farming and an academic community. There are professors mixing with good ole boys. The locavore movement is very strong here. Local foods, local products. Small family farms are flourishing and the art community is wonderful.

People in Boston think we are a place to visit. My family, who still lives East of here, always says, I'd move out there, but there are no jobs. Maybe not the kind of urban jobs they think of, but there is a different cost of living here and the slower pace, the organic lifestyle, the prevalence of sheep, chickens, gardens, and sugar shacks (which is where Maple syrup is boiled) is worth it. I am a teacher and my husband works for a large corporation that makes...scented candles. Can you guess which one?
It works out well for us.

In 2006, we moved from the hills into the valley because we were priced out of houses at the height of the boom. We hope to move back up there before too long. But we bought a house in the "city" of Greenfield. It is really a town. We live on a rural highway, but we have nearly two acres of land abutting 60 acres of undeveloped town land and 40 acres of Christmas Tree farm. We have 5 chickens, with three chicks on the way. We hope to have sheep, goat, and alpacas one day - but in the hills.

My husband is a native of the area, and about the Quabbin and Boston stealing our water thing. His family, descended from Salem (one of the executed witches), moved westward and settled in Dana. If you look on a map, you won't find Dana. It is under water. The Quabbin Reservoir flooded a few towns for Boston's water. Those families relocated. My husband's to New Salem, but not before his grandfather was one of the men who dug up the graves of the generations of people who had lived in Dana and moved them. Believe it or not, the people of that area still have a grudge against Boston.

So if you ever visit Massachusetts, don't just do Boston. Come West and stop in the Pioneer Valley.