Has anyone ever written a novel?
Has anyone ever written a novel?
Author
Discussion

erdnase

Original Poster:

1,963 posts

219 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all

Hi guys!

I've decided to take a crack at writing a novel. I work from home by the computer, and have loads of free time that I've decided to put to good use.

Here's the thing. I've not written anything creative since school, although I always enjoyed it at the time. I have lots of rough ideas and images that I think I could weave into a story. The way I'm visualizing it is that I have a load of jigsaw pieces that I'm needing to sort and hopefully piece together in some meaningful and interesting way.

Having never done anything like this before, I've taken the first step and created a txt file on my desktop - that's all. The longest jourey begins with a single step, and all that. So in a sense I've taken the first step and now am looking to get some images and thoughts down. Has anyone here written a novel? What advice would you give? I expect lots of wasted time and frustration whilst learning, but I'm keen and enthusiastic, and if it never makes the NY Times bestseller list, I'll have learned something and at least had a bash.

So - PH novelists - what advice, words of wisdom, or tips would you give an aspiring writer?




HOGEPH

5,249 posts

204 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Try for this contest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulwer-Lytton_Fiction...


Winning examples include.

She wasn't really my type, a hard-looking but untalented reporter from the local cat box liner, but the first second that the third-rate representative of the fourth estate cracked open a new fifth of old Scotch, my sixth sense said seventh heaven was as close as an eighth note from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, so, nervous as a tenth grader drowning in eleventh-hour cramming for a physics exam, I swept her into my longing arms, and, humming "The Twelfth of Never," I got lucky on Friday the thirteenth


Edited by HOGEPH on Wednesday 29th April 21:55

erdnase

Original Poster:

1,963 posts

219 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
HOGEPH said:
Hah, brilliant.

"Like an expensive sports car, fine-tuned and well-built, Portia was sleek, shapely, and gorgeous, her red jumpsuit molding her body, which was as warm as the seatcovers in July, her hair as dark as new tires, her eyes flashing like bright hubcaps, and her lips as dewy as the beads of fresh rain on the hood; she was a woman driven—fueled by a single accelerant—and she needed a man, a man who wouldn't shift from his views, a man to steer her along the right road, a man like Alf Romeo"

Tunku

7,703 posts

246 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
erdnase said:
Hi guys!

I've decided to take a crack at writing a novel. I work from home by the computer, and have loads of free time that I've decided to put to good use.

Here's the thing. I've not written anything creative since school, although I always enjoyed it at the time. I have lots of rough ideas and images that I think I could weave into a story. The way I'm visualizing it is that I have a load of jigsaw pieces that I'm needing to sort and hopefully piece together in some meaningful and interesting way.

Having never done anything like this before, I've taken the first step and created a txt file on my desktop - that's all. The longest jourey begins with a single step, and all that. So in a sense I've taken the first step and now am looking to get some images and thoughts down. Has anyone here written a novel? What advice would you give? I expect lots of wasted time and frustration whilst learning, but I'm keen and enthusiastic, and if it never makes the NY Times bestseller list, I'll have learned something and at least had a bash.

So - PH novelists - what advice, words of wisdom, or tips would you give an aspiring writer?
Backups.

MentalSarcasm

6,083 posts

229 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
Don't do NaNoWriMo, unless you want your brain to melt before Christmas XD Or, do do NaNoWriMo if you don't mind brain melting and enjoy a challenge.

I'm chipping away at mine slowly but surely. This is the first one that I have actually continued with (all my other attempts have fizzled out after several months and been relegated to just something to re-read when I'm bored).

I think the difference with this one is that I have written out the plot, and what I want to happen in each chapter. But it's still taking a while as it needs more filler and a flow to connect it all together, neither of which I have at the moment.

When I needed inspiration I went and looked up photos of actors that were similar to how my characters looked in my head, it made it easier to visualise them and what they were doing.

Oh, and start carrying a notebook and pen with you EVERYWHERE, I once started to write several paragraphs in my head on the drive to work and had to run in to work, get a notebook and sit in the canteen for 10 minutes frantically writing it all down before my shift was due to start.

Edited by MentalSarcasm on Wednesday 29th April 23:12

Ayahuasca

27,511 posts

297 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
Best advice I heard was -

Don't think about writing. Just write.

Write two thousand words per day.

Every day.





Simple, brilliant, but very hard to follow. Says me with my novel half-finished gathering dust on my hard drive.






Colonial

13,553 posts

223 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
I once thought I had a novel in me.

Then i realised it was just a bad case of indigestion.

Good luck.

drivin_me_nuts

17,949 posts

229 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
Tunku said:
erdnase said:
Hi guys!

I've decided to take a crack at writing a novel. I work from home by the computer, and have loads of free time that I've decided to put to good use.

Here's the thing. I've not written anything creative since school, although I always enjoyed it at the time. I have lots of rough ideas and images that I think I could weave into a story. The way I'm visualizing it is that I have a load of jigsaw pieces that I'm needing to sort and hopefully piece together in some meaningful and interesting way.

Having never done anything like this before, I've taken the first step and created a txt file on my desktop - that's all. The longest jourey begins with a single step, and all that. So in a sense I've taken the first step and now am looking to get some images and thoughts down. Has anyone here written a novel? What advice would you give? I expect lots of wasted time and frustration whilst learning, but I'm keen and enthusiastic, and if it never makes the NY Times bestseller list, I'll have learned something and at least had a bash.

So - PH novelists - what advice, words of wisdom, or tips would you give an aspiring writer?
Backups.
lots. In different places.

And NEVER EVER share or tell your plot/characters to anyone else until it is done..

</suspiciousthatallauthorsareschemingbastidstheiragentsareworseanddontevengetmestartedon thepublishinghouses>

becksW

14,690 posts

229 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
A vet I used to work with recently had his first novel put to print, I have read it and really enjoyed it, can't wait for his next one (due out in June). He was working on the novel whilst I was working with him, he always had his lap top with him and was often seen typing on it during breaks etc.

His interest is history, specifically surrounding Rome, his book is part fiction part fact, he story is based on different characters and how their lives eventually intertwine and whilst his charaters aren't real they are set amongst historical fact (as much as possible). I thought it was well written and extremely well researched. I know he did a lot of research for his own interest and he put this to good use. I learned a lot from the book as well as enjoying it.

It took a few years for him to do and a lot of patience but he also knew what he wanted to write about, so I think that is really important. He developed the type of characters he wanted first.

The Moose

23,440 posts

227 months

Thursday 30th April 2009
quotequote all
drivin_me_nuts said:
</suspiciousthatallauthorsareschemingbastidstheiragentsareworseanddontevengetmestartedon thepublishinghouses>
so close to not having a space...!!!