Writing a novel

[Yevin]

Who is currently writing one, or has already published one or more?

How's the process going, or how did it went? How long has this book been going for you in terms of creation?

How do you feel today about your novel whether in-progress or already finished?

I'm currently writing one, and sorta got curious if others are doing so here. Mine's been taking about four-five years in creating the characters, beginning plot and the world. I've only just really started sitting and writing the first draft at the beginning of this last weekend. I'm hoping to get the first draft completed this year. I've got the intro "done", and am working on the real first chapter. For me, after a year of taking a break of stopping and starting over again and again, it's been going a lot more smoother than when it was. And I'm sorta writing faster. Yesterday, I managed to fill a page in ten minutes (handwritten). It may not be a record for others, but it's quite the personal record for me and it was done in a crowded cafeteria. I still feel a bit proud of the accomplishment. I guess that brings in more questions...

What are your personal accomplishments in your writing process?

What is your writing process?

I have a mechanical pencil with a soft pink eraser that seems to have been with me since middle school. I use a notepad of softer colors like blue and purple than yellow or white with some post-its to remind me of certain things like odd word meanings or nicknames throughout the story. I find that my laptop is too heavy lug around, and I'm faster at jotting my thoughts down on paper by hand. I have a cheap leather case for my things too so I can bring it every where, like school.

Speaking of school, how has life affected your novel?

So far, I don't really have big goals other than "a page a day at least". I guess my life doesn't really interrupt that goal, but my timing is severely terrible. I usually want to write when everyone else is busy and someone is needed to look after the little toddler (that someone being me) rather than writing when the house is actually quiet.

[mdk]

I've 'completed' a draft once. But 'completed' is kinda a rough term... it was roughly novel-length and had all the story arcs written out that I wanted to include, but left lots of blank spots in-between. The next closest I ever came was a NaNoWriMo victory which -- though big in length -- fell woefully short on content. They were both long affairs.... continuing affairs, for that matter. 'Tumbleweed,' the 'completed' book, has pretty much been my sole focus in writing for several years. It started very spontaneously, but the idea took, and it's holding strong. I mean to revisit it, tidy it up, rewrite probably the entire thing, and really truly finish it. 'Clouds' isn't so much a story as it is a setting, and a feeling.... the parts I wrote weren't really cohesive enough to be anything more than a hobby, but I want to wrap it all together someday soon, because it's *awesome*.



My process is all computerized. I've got a program called "Liquid Story Binder" that makes organization and display of text files super-cooperative. I have an outline, a chapter, character profiles, pictures, notes, and more, all on screen at the same time. My brain likes to hop around from 'loose ideas' to specific scenes to character traits, all really fast.... so I needed a program that could keep up. LSB does pretty well.... there are better programs out there, I'm sure, but this is the one I wound up with.


Life is always getting in my way.... of course I write best when I'm constantly being interrupted. Medical problems have reaaaaaally gotten in my way lately, and that's kinda stopping up the dam. On the bright side, one of the benefits of getting crippled in military training is, they pay for you to go back to school.... so it looks like I might be able to swing a second degree, and focus on writing this time. Fingers crossed.

[Christiefries]

I have some writings published, but nothing super large. Like this novel I'm working on right now. It's taking forever. Mostly because I prefer to write outside by hand, but it's been too cold, so I've had nothing but the computer to write on. It seems so impersonal... Once the weather is nice, it'll really kick up. ^_^

I have all of my stuff organized, like what mdk was saying about the program that did it for him. Only I do it by myself. If the program is free, I might check that out. Is it? That would save me a lot of time!

I don't give myself goals. I just write when I get the feeling, which is off and on, but often enough. It's always been natural for me. I have a plethora of short stories from my childhood up 'til now.

[Jannah]

I have one in progress actually. However, I only have a few paragraphs written since I had to start over, yet again. I'm so stuck on plot and how to start. Ugh...this is frustrating.

Anyway, I tend to keep separate documents for my planning notes and then ones for the story writing itself. I'm thinking I should make a third for character notes as well.

[Yevin]

mdk - I've thought about entering a NaNo. But every time I remembered about it, it would usually be smack in the middle of November. :\ I gotta plan things out.
I have a program too. It's called Dramatica. Not sure if anyone's heard it. But it sorta builds the foundations of your book through a little query system that has quite a few layers to it - "storyforming" for your characters, plot, themes, "illustrating" for fleshing out themes and elements, and "story weaving" to bring everything together. It also has character profiles, character relationships with others and their "role" in the story, and other cool little tidbits. But more importantly, it's made me realize gaps, even though I've only used about a third of it. I think it's pretty cool.

Christie - How many have you published, if I can stick my nose there. I'm not sure if there are free programs like that. My mom got me Dramatica to support my passion/hobby/thing.

Jannah - You should keep notes of just about everything. I usually think "I'll remember that bit about this or that." And end up forgetting it a month later when I need it. Heck, I even forgot the name of my main antagonist, and nearly flipped out when I couldn't find it scribbled somewhere on a paper. But I did....in someone else's back story. :\

[Shelteredidentity]

I started writing a book back when I was in high school. I didn't get too far with it. I actually roleplayed it out with someone a long while back, I think my hardest part was doing the "in-between" pages...going from one idea to the next. My computer crashed and I lost everything, so I never had the heart to restart it, sadly. I have all these ideas, it's just hard putting them out.

[drybone]

I've tried twice to start a novel length story, both failed. I find it hard for me to actually write something at length because of how new I am to actually writing stories. It's only been a year since I've started, and my skills keep improving. Makes my writing style change but I do save all my novel ideas for later.

Still, as much as I love writing short stories if I actually want to do this seriously I'm going to have to learn how to do novels sooner or later.

[Gowi]

Who is currently writing one, or has already published one or more?

How's the process going, or how did it went? How long has this book been going for you in terms of creation?

I've been writing Dawn of Fear for three years now and of one of those year I took a hiatus from it to focus on other creative outlets. I like writing it but I can fall into pitfalls and blocks I don't exactly like myself. However, I do work better under pressure and in a calm, quiet environment. With that said, I have not published anything and the only thing I've finished is a poor short story called Phoenix's Dawn.

How do you feel today about your novel whether in-progress or already finished?

I hate how little (10% at best, imo) it's actually done and I feel like I need to improve as a writer before I tap it again.

Speaking of school, how has life affected your novel?

I'm not currently in college, so I cannot answer this one. However, life does effect me in several ways between social connections and obligations. I have to balance tabletops, cinema, roleplay, music, and reading with writing my own serious endeavors. At times it can be counterproductive but like I said before it can lead me to progress if I have to find myself busy with life or other things.

[Kagamine]

I've had the idea for a novel in the back of my head for, what, a year now? Two? I have pretty much all the characters, concepts and themes planned out, mainly in my head but partially on paper, but I haven't gotten myself to actually write a single word of it yet. I guess part of the reason why is because I don't know how I want it to end, or really what I want the plot to look like at all. I've got a bunch of events thought out, but I don't know how I'm going to string them together, which ones will even be included, or what the overall conclusion to the story will be. That, and I haven't been able to invest enough time towards figuring it all out or even just writing the story, since I think I juggle too much already.

[Brovo]

I've penned several short stories. In high school I wrote a couple by request and got paid by commission. (Informal, under the table. Got twenty bucks for each of them though, so, neato for me.) I still occasionally write short stories and poetry, but most of it is too dark to put on RPG despite the fact that I have a writings thread of my own in the gallery.

I've tried to pen a novel before. My first few attempts failed. The last one though? I got about four chapters done and stopped. I wanted it to be perfect, and could never make it perfect. Heh. I then lost it due to data corruption. Bah.

Life has affected my story writing in numerous ways, both in content and frequency. If you need a plain example of that subtle but dominating effect in practice, read my first couple of posts in Legend of Renalta, then my last couple. They read nothing at all like they used to, and for the better.

The most dangerous part of writing a novel, especially if you're a new novelist, is that will you find new practices and tricks all the time that either help remove the fluff or better explain certain concepts. It's a balancing act between self-improvement and novel stability.

As it stands? The best thing you can do is find a general theme and adjust your writing style to that theme. If it's a dark mystery novel, write long and detailed paragraphs that leave several unanswered questions and dark, morally gray characters. If you're writing a fantasy adventure novel, make the paragraphs quick and the conversations wit filled, the characters colourful and answer most questions as they arrive.

Example (role plays used because they're public information): Legend of Renalta is a dark fantasy. Its characters are generally a mix of gritty and comedic relief, and the environments tend to look good on the surface but are malevolent and deeply violent underneath. This contrasts heavily against the IEF Venture, a light science fiction role play that is written perfectly for television. The plot is even episodic--right down to each story being its own "episode", and a lot of elements that appear early on are one-off cameos and references.

tl;dr: Your writing style should match the theme of the story at hand. Do this, or your story is going to start becoming very schizophrenic based on very subtle, very hard to control elements of your humanity such as your emotional state at the time of writing.