The Build-a-Book Workshop
By Ann Aguirre | October 12, 2011 |
I’ve been asked, more than once, how I go about writing a book. Certain factors don’t change from project to project. Some writers do extensive outlining before they start writing. I read. For instance, before I wrote Endgame, the last Jax novel, I read a couple of nonfiction titles about guerrilla warfare. So that’s the first step–my research reading. Once that’s done, I decide how long I want it to take to write a book, and then I calculate how many words a day I must put down in order to stay on schedule. For instance, if I want a draft of 90K in six weeks, I must write 3K, five days a week, in order to make that happen. If I want to finish the draft faster, I must write more words in a day. That’s simple math.
I used to fall passionately in love with a new idea. I’d brush the new idea’s hair and make it breakfast. We’d take long walks together. I tinkered with the new idea for eight months, stroking it lovingly, rewriting obsessively, until a year passed, and I had only 40,000 words. Not a book. By then, the new idea wasn’t pretty anymore. It was misshapen, awful, monstrous, stupid, dreadful. I had no choice but to kill the thing and hide it beneath my bed. And then I’d start the vicious cycle over.
Clearly that wasn’t working.
So the one thing I don’t do anymore is tinker. I never edit my WIPs as I go. That permits me to shut off my internal editor until I need the bitch. I press on to the finish, even when I pass through the Swampy Middle of Doom, where I am always convinced the book I’m writing is the worst thing that anyone has ever conceived. My brain still tries to seduce me sometimes with a sexy new idea, but I don’t abandon the WIP. Instead, I write the concept in my idea notebook along with whatever brilliant specifics my mind is teasing me with and promise myself I’ll get to it in due time. Since I instituted this policy, my “finish the book” ratio has skyrocketed.
Since I work a lot, people imagine that I’ve perfected a cookie cutter process and that each one is produced exactly the same. In fact, that’s not true. Each book is different. Some books I write, chapter by chapter, until the end. With others, I jump around because the scenes come to me out of order. I’ll write the beginning, then the end, and then the middle parts. I’ve found it keeps me moving if I write whatever I can that day. Some books can only be written in daylight; with others, the words only come in the dark. I’ve been asked how I can keep writing; don’t I ever get writer’s block? Well, no. Because if I can’t figure out how to do a scene, then I picture the book as a whole until a scene comes to me that I can write right then.
My first drafts are mostly dialogue and simple blocking with sporadic narrative. I’m laying the foundation of the story at this point. When I make my first pass, I add more explanation of motivations, descriptions, internal narrative. I don’t try to make the first draft perfect. I just try to get the general shape of the book in place. It’s not unusual for me to revise a book four times before I’m satisfied with it. Generally, there’s not a lot of cutting, however, because my drafts start lean. Instead, I’m layering the necessary bits throughout, improving, refining, tinkering with language and word choice. I don’t even think about making my writing pretty when I’m drafting. I am going for serviceable, so I may well use the same word twenty-four times. I sort that out in revisions and edits. And while I do sometimes stumble upon poetic or memorable turns of phrase, I am never striving for the sort of ornate language that prevents one from getting lost in the story. I want my words to feel seamless, so that people fall into my world; I don’t want them pausing to marvel at the fact that I can use ‘panomphean’ in a sentence.
I look on it as decorating for a party. You don’t have people over when your house is a mess, but it is, sometimes. But by the time you’ve got the place all tidied up, it doesn’t matter what it looked like when you started the process. Only the final result signifies.
My way isn’t the only way, of course. You should write however feels best to you. Either way, there’s nothing quite so satisfying as reaching THE END. What was the name of your first completed manuscript? Tell us about it in comments; I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.
Photo courtesy Flickr’s gilles chiroleu
Ann Aguirre is a bestselling, multi-published author with a degree in English Literature. She is a prolific writer, with nine releases planned for 2011 alone. She writes romantic science fiction and urban fantasy under her own name. As Ava Gray, she writes high-octane romances. She also writes “hot paranormal apocalyptic action” with fellow author Carrie Lofty under the pseudonymn Ellen Connor. Follow her on Twitter.
I love hearing the “how I do it” posts :) And your method is similar to mine – lots of reading/research, a NaNoWriMo style of drafting. (Do you do NaNo, by the way?)
Not easy work.
Thanks for this…I need to just keep plowing through. I’ve spent too much time patting myself on the back for my first 7 chapters! Must…keep..WRITING!
My very first attempt was called Second Chances, about a woman who goes to her ancestral home to mend a broken heart *snort*. I’ve tried a few times to revise, but there are sooooo many things wrong that I’ve determined it would make more sense to start over (head hopping, anyone? no conflict?).
My process is similar to yours. I get the story written, to the end, before I start tinkering. If I get an idea for something that would be perfect in an earlier chapter and I go back right then to add it in, I’ll get stuck messing about, and won’t make forward progress. So I just make a note to fix it later. I do prefer revising to fresh writing, sometimes too much, hehe.
Like the approach of stages!
Sounds like we have very similar approaches — mathematical, writing first draft mainly in dialogue… Loved this in particular though:
“I press on to the finish, even when I pass through the Swampy Middle of Doom, where I am always convinced the book I’m writing is the worst thing that anyone has ever conceived.”
That darn middle is the part where I’ve been tempted to crawl into a ball and hide, but from now on I’ll just strap on the waders and muck on through.
I like revising, too. There’s something magical about refining what’s already there. It feels like the heavy lifting is done.
And yes, the SMoD used to defeat me. Now I know I just have to ignore that feeling and get on with the book.
I’m like you in that I forge forward, even through that swampy middle of doom, where I feel exactly the way you described. I am not great at setting daily word count targets, though I am pretty good about setting certain hours to work, without the internet on in the background.
My first monstrous draft was for a novel called The Acheson Affair. It got a fifty per cent word count haircut (not exaggerating, even a little, wish I was), before being shoved in the drawer for three years plus.
The bones of the story continued to work for me though, and I’m in the midst of a big rewrite. I’ve given it a working title of The K Street Affair. I’ll know by year end if it’s a go or not.
OMG, I think we’re writing soul mates! I also write out of order, or sometimes chapter by chapter, and I have a trusty notebook that I can jot my ideas in. This might include dialogue or a scene, or even a phrase or two that strikes me.
Unlike you, though, I do edit as I go along. I can’t help it. I clean up phraseso reword as I’m going along. I find it easier for when I go through to do the final edit.
Thanks for sharing your writing process.
Oooh. The first draft I ever completed. There were so many in the early years that didn’t make it to the last page…or even close.
I’d actually forgotten which one was my first until just now. I think it was ‘A Study in Time’ (when I was 15) about three girls who mistakenly travel back in time to the Babylonian era. I know for sure, without even looking at it, that it was peppered with historical inaccuracies that somehow didn’t seem to matter to me at the time. Ah, those were the days.
I was really pleased to read that your first drafts start out mostly as dialogue with some blocking. I’m always working my way through a scene using what my characters are saying rather than description. I add that in later. So glad I’m not the only one! :)
Thank you so much for this post.(at the risk of sounding drivvely) I have worked in script development for years but have just begun my first novel and have all alone been determined just to get it down. i feel like i am down loading every day. i type too fast, my spelling gets forgotten but i just write flat out trying to get the words in there, They are so noisy, I jump from chapter to chapter writing the scene that i have most visually connected with today. Sewing it together.
Then i read other posts from other writers who did all this research and watch for the opening scene and this and that and where is my primary plot point and who is driving the action.. etc. And i screeched to a halt in horror.What? Too much thinking! But I have decided to Choose your advice instead and i am off again.. see ya! (hope you don’t mind no caps and no punct and stuff i am in a hurry to get back).. c
My first novel was a YA called I LOVE YOU BEARY MUCH. It was about a teenage girl who lived in a Chicago suburb, who fell in love with a boy whose face she’d never seen because he was playing the Winnie Pooh Mascot at Sears. The reason for this odd job was the boy was on the run from the mafia, and he’d come to stay with his sister. The girl saved him, naturally, through a combination of luck and misadventure. I was 15 at the time. I can’t imagine why it didn’t sell.
My first attempt at a novel never made it far enough for a title. I was 14, had just finished reading The Firm, and I dove right into my own murder mystery. My second attempt was called The Other Side of the Fence. I got somewhere around fifty pages. I’m currently in year 3 of a superhero novel titled Hidden and slowly discovering the process that works best for me is one similar to yours. I was stuck in the muck of “the Swamp” with tempting ideas flying at me, but they are tucked away in my idea folder until I finish my wip. Thanks for sharing your own process!
Love love love this post. I have to admit, I’ve often wondered “How does she do it?” when I read about your prolific output. This post not only offers insight, but also reality: you do it, by DOING IT. Lol. Sounds simple enough, but sometimes I think simplicity is easy to overlook.
Thank you for revealing your magic formula (or really, lack thereof). It makes the process feel so much more achievable.
As for the confessional portion of this comment… My first completed manuscript was called The Good Daughters. It had merit, but it needs a lot of work before it can be seen by anyone.
I love it that you let the novel tell you how to write it, being flexible to change in accordance with your creative need. I tend to be a “wave” writer – I write, go back and edit what I wrote the previous day or two and write more for the day, on and on. It took me seven months to finish my novel, but at the end I had a polished product. Doesn’t mean I didn’t still have to go in and edit the ms in its entirety (beta readers – gotta love ’em!) but I felt it was the best it could be without feedback at that point.
At what point do you allow your writing to be seen by others?
I understand the reasons in which you go over the process this way. These tips seems very helpful, because I struggle a lot with starting my story. Perhaps I too need a basis and a foundation to begin my story, after all, great things take time.
What a great in-depth look at your process! I struggle with pushing through to the end, and have a stack of unfinished WIPs to show it. I am one of those writers who edits and edits until all the life is gone. (I’m working hard on reforming.)
It’s the opposite of how I work as a copywriter–I know once I’ve nailed the structure I’m good.
You think I’d learn…
I’m determined that NaNoWriMo is going to fix me! I’ve got my “underwear” synopsis and I”m ready to go.
Thanks again for the great post!
I honestly would like to try writing out of order, but something about it is very scary to me. I am currently working on just getting the first draft out and done, warts and all. I think if I would write without worrying about word choices, etc… I certainly would get more words out in a writing session and probably have more fun, too!
I think the importance of giving yourself permission to write the worst-very-bad-no-good book that was ever inflicted on a word processing program is an important part of this. Drafting is getting a framework–the bare bones–of a story. Editing and revising is filling it in so it’s a completed story. How many drafts it takes to do that isn’t what matters!
So, how many of us had to look up “panomphean?” Thanks for the new word, Ann, and for an encouraging post. It sounds like you’re a “pantser,” one who writes by the seat of her pants instead of plotting it all out first? True?
great post and I love your swampy middle. Another blog I read had a chart that cracked me up–it’s along the same vein:
link_words
(If that link won’t work, the blog is sonjejones.com and the post was called “standing on the precipice”) It’s a novel chart and it’s funny as hell.
Anyway…I am a dawdler and although I don’t edit-edit as i draft, I do tend to go back over yesterday’s work (and fiddle) before starting todays. But I think next time I’ll try to set a stiffer pace–that has to help with the terrible middle-swamp a little.
First book, “Weeds in Eden” I still like the title and the overall premise, but I think I made every mistake there is to make in the novel. Ah well…you have to produce some bad work to get to good (or at least better) work, right?
I always have a starting point and an end point, before I begin writing. I can’t begin until I know what I’m writing toward. I need to know what that final outcome is. Everything between those points? I figure it out as I go. I work according to one overarching principle, however–make it worse.
I have had similar experiences with my own writing. Plowing on through usually results in my sticking it out ’til the end. I’ve also noticed what works for me is knowing exactly how it ends. If I know the destination, then I can figure out how to get there. …Oh dear, my first completed manuscript’s title was an address where the entire narrative took place. “168 Barcelona Road” (or something to that effect). I just reread it not too long ago, and it is truly dreadful.
I’ve learned that I just have to put my head down and plow through if I’m going to get anywhere. Thank you, Nanowrimo! If I just let my mind speak directly through my fingers, I write the best.
Now if I can just apply the same kind of work ethic to editing….
My first attempt at a novel was a nanowrimo effort in 2005 called Missouri Compromise. It made 50,000 words and was pronounced a “winner” but the I bogged down in the swampy middle and never found my way back out. Same thing happened in in 2006, 2007, etc. Six muddled manuscripts in various states of revision are cluttering up my office and my hard drive at this moment.
That first one was about a girl named Rose. Her husband left her and it took her two days to notice he was gone. After messing about with it forever, I started another novel about her childhood to try to explain her to myself. Then November came along and I dropped Rose and ran off with a new idea.
This year I’m going back to Rose. My working title is “the end of Rose”. Her story will come to some definite conclusion, even if I have to kill her off on November 30th.
I’m going to take your advice and write a serviceable first draft with mainly blocking, then fill in later. Your rate of production is awesome and inspirational.
This was very helpful to a person like myself who is new to being a newbie.
Thank you!
~M
Thank you for revealing your magic formula. It makes the process feel so much more achievable.
My process is similar to yours.If I get an idea for something that would be perfect in an earlier chapter and I go back right then to add it in, I’ll get stuck messing about, and won’t make forward progress. So I just make a note to fix it later.