posted
Ok, I'm writing my first draft of my first novel and I'm having issues.
I am trying to write the novel in sequence, the way it will be published, but I am proceeding in spurts. I'll write 4-5000 words in a day, then get to a part where I get frustrated and just can't get more than 400-800 words done. That's been the story this week.
The question is: should I skip ahead and write the scenes that are easy to write (action, etc...) or press through the hard times???
It's my first effort so I'm not sure if it's normal or I have a real problem!
Thanks for the input, and I never even thought about how skipping would make it such a drag to finish the rest. I knew I didn't want to skip any scenes, now I know why I didn't want to.
posted
I'll play devil's advocate for a moment. I got stumped when writing my own novel and found that when I shuffled the scenes and wrote them in whatever order I felt like it, I got a joy for the process again. Once I had the joy, then I could do the connective tissue with less pain. Your mileage may vary, because no two people ever write exactly the same way. Try a variety of methods and eventually you'll find one that works for you.
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posted
As autumnmuse points out, just because one writer does it one way (and has good reasons for doing it that way), it does NOT mean that that writer's way is the only way.
So, if doing it the way Swimming Bird recommends you do it doesn't work for you, don't do it that way.
I almost always recommend that you write the parts that you are most excited about and interested in WHILE you are excited about them and interested in them. If you wait until you get to that part in the story, you may not be as excited and interested, and the story will suffer.
Movies scenes are not made in the order in which they are shown in the movie, and story scenes don't need to be written in the order in which they will be read.
If you write what excites and interests you WHEN you are excited and interested, that is more likely to carry over to the reader.
And those less-than-exciting and not-so-interesting parts that you are trying to slog through to get to the better stuff may end up being so less-than-exciting and not-so-interesting that you will figure out how to cut them or summarize them anyway.
As autumnmuse has done, do whatever you can to keep the joy in the writing.
I've done it both ways and to be honest, I have trouble writing a scene when, for lack of a better word, the foundation is unsound. Until I write chapter 1 I stumble through chapter 2, even though I know, logically, what happens in chapter 1. What I don't know is what happens EMOTIONALLY in chapter 1. The story comes alive when I write it, not in the outline.
But that's just my own personal writing process. You'll find as many ways to write as there are writers. I have those slow days too. A lot of times it just means that I need to take some time and think things through a little better. Often, I find that the problem isn't with what I'm writing NOW but with something I wrote already.
I think Christine summed up how I am feeling best. I think I need to plough through the "mundane" parts (even knowing I may cut them later because they are too mundane) so I have that foundation to fall back on later. It's much harder for me to portray suspense or emotion if it hasn't been built up from earlier pages.
posted
Dibrix, take what I have to say with a pound of salt.
Keep in mind that the first draft is always crap. With my writing skills, my tenth editing is still that way, but that is a different matter.
I have written stories both ways. I have written the fun scenes and then filled in the details, I have also written stories from begining to end, aiming at the fun scenes. I have also "edited" a story into existance by expanding sentances of an outline. there is no right way to write if one gets results.
If you concentrate on the fun scenes, you can spend a lot of time writing without running out of gas. I do have a tendancy to add begining details in whatever scene I start with, details that would be at the begining of the book rather than at that scene. That can always be moved or removed later.
One thing to keep in mind is that the act of writing is like a muscle. The more you do of it, the easier it will get. Quality, on the other hand, is a skill. That requires a different type of work. I write daily story ideas, posted on other boards. I will write up to three pages of a presentation every single day, 365 days a year. It is almost automatic. Sitting and typing what comes to mind is real easy. I doubt I could write anything publishable, at least my previous attempts fell short, and have not tried since. I also never suffer from writer's block. If I sit down to write, I will write. So what I am saying, writing the fun stuff will eventually make the hard stuff easier to write, simply because you have had the practice of writing, and are within the minds and story you are creating. Work out any mis designs of the story in editing.
posted
I find that I mix the methods. When I get to a section I'm not excited about writing I'll sometimes just summarize it so that the beats are there, then I can come back and flesh it out later. Very often I find that I don't need to flesh it out. The reason I wasn't excited was because it didn't really need to be more than a summary. As in, "Ginger went to the nursery." I don't need to write a giant scene of her walking down the hall to get to the nursery.
The other thing that I've found is that sometimes the reason I'm not excited about a scene is because something else is wrong. I had a scene and I kept getting to it and blocking. I finally realized that it was because I'd made a mistake two chapters earlier. Once I fixed that, the problem scene flowed.
Edited to add: The first draft is not always crap. But if you don't know where you are going with the story then it is much more likely to be. I think saying "the first draft is always crap" is a crutch that people use to keep writing. Personally, I find, "This isn't my only chance to get it right" to be more useful.
[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited June 30, 2006).]
posted
"First draft is crap" can be taken a little too far, of course. Like that bit of dialogue I didn't bother putting quotemarks or tags on because, hey, it was just the first draft that no one would ever see. Unfortunately when it came time to submit an excerpt to a workshop my printer was broken and in a panic I xeroxed off a section that included that part. To make matters worse, it was in a section where the MC is going psychotic so it appeared that I was doing that on purpose as a stylistic choice.
I guess on some subconscious level it was unpleasant to write which is why I was cutting corners. Dunno.
P.S. I was writing during Nanowrimo. I had an outline for 30 chapters and I could pick a different chapter to work on each day if I didn't necessarily want to write the next one. I suppose I should do that again now that I really, really have figured out where I want my novel to begin. It's been a funny process. I guess I should bump that thread.
[This message has been edited by pooka (edited June 30, 2006).]
posted
I have been known to rush the sections that I'm not as intrested in -- leaving out sensory details and the like. Very often my first drafts are skeletal and need some meat on them.
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posted
Well, with the modern word processor, I write and revise as I go along---so, unless I retype it from the beginning (right now, my normal procedure), or type on a typewriter and then word process, where does the first draft end and the next draft begin?
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