PLANNING A NOVEL

we live at the edge of the miraculous

You might wonder why I included my own art journal page on this blog that is supposed to be about writing a novel. Well I found this saying in a fortune cookie--"we live at the edge of the miraculous" and I thought it applied.

Writing a novel is a miraculous process, one I've engage in several times. Some to completion, while other novels sleep soundly in my file cabinet never to be awakened again. As I approach this coming new year I must make a commitment to actually writing a novel. I have the idea and have spent the past two weeks planning it.

Planning involves an overall description of important scenes or plot points. It means coming up with characters to inhabit the story and giving them names, jobs, personalities and physical descriptions. 

I'm not a big outliner and over the past few years I have read books on outlining and tried to write the last novel following a scene by scene outline that took hours to create. For this coming year I am going back to my "seat of my pants" style. I have the general idea and I am just going to sit with my spiral notebook and blue ball point pen and just write.

You see when I outlined I never finished the novel--I got too caught up in the planning. Prior to that I wrote 3 novels from the seat of my pants. Granted they required vast revision--but the writing energy was strong and I did get to the end. So I'm giving it a try once more. 

The only preplanning was coming up with important plot points. Those are sketched out as well as the general story line. And I will hit 2016 with pen in hand ready to write this thing.

I'll keep you posted on my progress and perhaps hold a contest for a title for the book since I don't have one yet. That's unusual for me but I have to plow ahead and write. 

I want to keep this blog going! Post a few times a week on progress and offer some hints, advice, book recommendations, prompts and contests.

Keep reading and follow this miraculous journey to the final page and "the end."

Comments

  1. Debra MarrsDecember 21, 2015 at 11:24 PM

    So happy for you to be starting this journey, Renee. Your artwork is a vivid accompaniment to bring forth your miracles. #keepwriting!

    ReplyDelete

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