When Does Your Novel Become Real?
May 13, 2010 by Cherie
Filed under Misc. Ramblings
This week I tweeted about working on my new novel, and was excited to be over 35,000 words into it. I started talking with writers about when a novel felt like a new project and when it began to “feel real.” For me, 35,000-40,000 words means it begins to develop a life of its own.
I also asked about how writers do their first draft. Do they stop and edit somewhere along the way? Or just plow through the first draft? Overwhelmingly, writers responded that they plow through the first draft, then make notes, and do edits only after the first draft is complete. I have to say, this is my method as well. I used to try and edit as a I went along. This was in my “write and throw out” days, where I would write a whole novel and then promptly toss it in the garbage. Getting through that first draft was always difficult for me, then when I finally would finish I’d get the “I can’t write!” mantra going on in my head and toss my work in the garbage. One day several (several!) years ago, a writer told me that what I was trying to do was compare my first draft to say, Willa Cather’s final draft. (Willa Cather was a favorite of mine back then.) This was great advice. As I’ve mentioned, when my dad died I decided that throwing away my work (even if other people didn’t like it) was shameful and stupid. So I don’t anymore.
Instead, I keep working. You get a lot of rejections as a writer. I’m not just an author, but a freelance writer as well. That means a lot of rejections. But I don’t care. I don’t let it faze me because I keep my eye on the goal (an agent, book contract, article, staff writing position, etc). I just keep working until I get where I need to be.
The exciting part about novel writing, however, is that at some point the work really begins to stand up and become this living thing before your very eyes. It might seem like an odd thing, but suddenly your characters and story seem to almost dictate to you how they want this thing to go. Anyways, I could go on and on about novel writing (oooh, how exciting for you all to read!) but instead I’ll just invite you to join me with my alter twitter ego and pick up on the discussion.
