Some things I know about writing a novel
That might sound like rather a pretentious title for a hub, and really it is; I'm writing on the pretence of being a novelist, when actually I'm nothing of the sort. I'm just a mum, who daydreams and scribbles. Oh, and I haven't written a novel. That's quite an important point to remember. But I still know some things about the process, and maybe I can add to the list when I make it to the end of the process.
Why, then, am I writing a hub instead of writing a novel? I could stop writing hubs, finish the novel, and then write hubs about what it's really like to write a novel. But would I be allowed to write hubs then? I'd be giving away words for free by writing hubs*, and would my agent-slash-publisher be happy with that? I don't know, because I currently have neither. But I bet they'd frown upon it, so I'd better get the hubs in now, while I'm still able.
*Okay, not totally for free - at a good rate of roughly 68ยข per month.
A limerick, of sorts:
There was a young novelist of virtue,
Whose novels were tiny, but they grew.
She pro-crastin-ated,
The lies she did paint(ed),
She died at the ripe old age of one-hundred-and-thirty-two after having published 397 novels and receiving the Booker Prize 74 years in a row.
And so, without further ado, here are the things that I know about writing novels:
- It is brilliant (bear with me, I go into more detail than this!)
- The ideas for novels come from nowhere, dawn on you with no prior warning, just appear in your head as a germ - when you've found one you just know it
- You might have to begin a few to find the one you're actually going to finish
- They're rewarding to write, whether you finish them or only write two chapters that you love but that no one else ever reads
- It's really hard to write a novel, whoever you are, and whatever your other commitments
- NOT everyone can do it
- Writing a novel can bring out the child in you - novel-writing is PLAYING!
- Writing a novel does not happen in mind maps, character profile sheets, synopses, chapter outlines or how-to-write books - it happens in your fingers, as you transfer the words from your mind to the page
- In the end you just have to sit down and write it
- A novel can be written in a few months
- A novel can take years to write
- It is very difficult to write an original idea, we are so influenced by what we read, subliminally: 'I know, if my character needs water, he can magic it out of the ground ... oh, hang on, that's already been done, Eragon'; 'Ooh, ooh, I know, they could get into the other world by stepping into a wardrobe that's made from the wood of a tree grown in ... oh, Narnia. Already done'
- Writing a novel is a solitary task, which is why I love it so much
- But it's good to share words, once you've made them pretty - that's why we hub! Narcissistic, all of us!
- To write a novel you really need to think that you are brilliant
- When writing a novel you will spend a large proportion of your time thinking that you are useless
- The whole process involves contradition
- The whole process is a contradiction
- Writing a novel is frustrating
- Writing a novel is uplifting
- Writing a novel is tiring
- Writing a novel is invigorating
- Novel-writing makes me drink large quantities of tea and eat a lot of biscuits, neither of which I really want to consume, but have to because they're the easiest things to grab at short notice
- When you have managed to string a few words together into a perfect sentence novel-writing is the best use of time that has ever been invented
- Inactivity breeds inactivity
- Productivity breeds productivity
- Productivity brings on arthritis/RSI/carpel tunnel syndrome
- Some novelists spend a lot of time Googling
- Wikipedia is very useful
- Old encyclopedias are even more useful
- Novelists can justify spending all of their spare (and not spare) cash on books because it is imperative that novelists read
- Novels can be written in a messy work area
- Novels can be written in a tidy work area
- Several times a year a novelist may consider giving up writing altogether - it's just too hard
- Most days in a year a novelist will think 'I love writing, I'm going to do it forever'
- Novelists are procrastinators
- Novelists like to talk about writing novels
- Novelists don't all like to bear the same job title - writer, author, or no-title-at-all-because-writing's-a-secret-and-we-won't-tell-anyone-we-do-it-until-we-can-be-sure-that-it's-good-enough
- I tell EVERYONE that I'm writing novels. They are all disappointed in me for not completing any novels, yet
- Having young children makes finding time to write very difficult - there, I've said it; I'm not whingeing, it's just a fact
This is all I have for now, but there is much more to say. I will return to this hub!
