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bogfrog

Advice needed: thinking of writing a novel

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I know there are a couple members here who have written books and I was wondering if anyone could give me a few snippets of advice on how to get started.

I have a brain so full of ideas it sometimes feels like it will explode, and after having a three hour long vent to my mum last night about technological entrancement, global conquest by psychopaths, thinly masked dystopian nightmares, collective manipulation, technology that (supposedly) doesn't exist yet, precognitive dreams and the power of myth, I decided I would best put all this data to use in a science fiction/fantasy novel rather than continue to terrify my loved ones with my concerns.

I know this is not an easy undertaking, and I'm still not certain I have the required talent to be a decent writer, but I have always loved writing and spent a fair amount of my teens building and perpetuating literary worlds with one of my closest friends.

I gave up on the idea of being a writer about 16, when my interests diverged into less wholesome avenues, but my love of language remains, and old dreams which you left down the pipeline sometimes have opportunities to spring up again ...this is one of those.

Basically I have no idea where to start or how to even get the ridiculous quantity of ideas out of my head. I was hoping someone might take pity on me and point me in a certain direction. Otherwise my approach will likely be to just start creating multitudes of mind-maps on different aspects I wanna cover and then identify common themes, parallels, polarities and central pillars of importance and weave these together in new mind-maps ...and continue repeating and refining this process over and over until I can see exactly what I'm dealing with.

Obviously I'm not expecting to do this overnight, if I'm gonna do it, I want to do it properly. I'm thinking this would be most likely to occur gradually over the next ten years.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers

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maybe you can start by writing short stories of your ideas, flesh out the ones which have the most promise?

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Most novels revolve around one main character - the protagonist. There are other less important auxiliary characters needed possibly as friends or enemies. In some respects the auxiliary characters are as important as the protagonist because they are a handy way to add narration to the plot and convenient literary devices to help the plot flow without getting into too much "said Billy" or asked Kim" a bit like Robin was for Batman or Watson was to Sherlock. Rather than the protagonist having to think out loud for the narrative parts of the plot an auxiliary character can meet the protagonist somewhere or pick something up to examine it etc for narration. Little things like phone calls or text messages from an auxiliary character are excellent devices to add narration to a story.

So I'd suggest to start thinking of a perspective that can be portrayed through the eyes of whoever you chose as your protagonist and develop that pesona to some degree of finality, that way you can write a cohesive flowing novel that holds peoples interest and just having that personality pre conceived will give inspiration in itself.

Write down all your ideas for the plot and put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist and the plot will start to develop of its own accord.

If you can conceive and end game for the novel at an early stage it will also give the plot some direction which will allow you to draw inspiration from your real life (or other stories) and develop a gripping plot that can keep your audience captivated.

Good luck with it Ceres, if you need any proof reading let me know.

Edited by Sally
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You could also carry a notebook/ipad ect with you whenever you can, you never know when you're going to get a flash of inspiration.

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If you look at most novels / movies / myths etc the common theme and most powerful theme is that of a hero, look at neverending story, star wars, the matrix, jason and the argonauts etc the hero is what everyone buys into . Usually the hero is called upon by some challenge, which he can accept or deny but if denied the consequences are displayed to him/her as dire, catastrophic to the world /universe / imagination??? And so starts his/her journey with what is the first step. Why have these stories been so popular / why has the storyline persistedthroughout time ( look at the bible, or the sumerian tablets) because corruption is rife in mankind and the majority of mankind is looking for a hero, someone to make what is wrong - right..

The backbone to a lot of modern stories even teen love /young adult are overlayed on this storyline, twilight / the host etcetc it is a seller because it strikes a person at there weakest point, somewhere inside everyone has a weakness/fear and they need a hero to overcome that fear / weakness.

Maybe i am wrong?? :)

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It's also good to kill off one the extras at some stage too. If they die under mysterious circumstances it gives you a lot scope for creativity. I'm not suggesting to kill someone every five minutes like a hollywood movie where the deaths are non personal and just part of the plot. If the death is portrayed as a tragedy it really adds an emotional connection to the story for anyone reading it.

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Cheers team, good stuff to get the cogs turning.. Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts, esp. Sally!

I am lucky to have had much of the plot, characters and themes revealed to me already through dreams and study of the archetypal and mythical symbolism within my own experiences and the inclinations of my imagination.

It's a big world and a big story. It has been sitting there waiting for me to acknowledge it for a very long time.

New ideas are morphing into existence to flesh out the framework at lighting speed, I just hope I can begin this and still continue having a normal human life...I already live in my imagination more than it is commonly accepted to do so.

In-spirit, yep man you got it, I'm basically taking this on to grapple with the nature of my own fears, hopes and dreams surrounding the ever increasing depravity and corruption of human society, entangled with our obsessive complusion towards technological progress, which seemingly leads us to inevitable annihilation. The co-evolution of creation and destruction. The old ways eating the new. I won't say much more, other than yes there will be some heroics, and a regretfully large serving of tragedy.

Wish me luck, and on-going sanity :P

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I reckon write the kind of book you want to read. Fuck all of that staid plot and character structure that has been done to death, particularly anything related to Hollywood. :BANGHEAD2: Or not, if that's your thing.....

I suppose I should've prefaced my comment with a question; namely

"Why are you writing it? To make money, or for yourself?"

These questions, when answered, will certainly have an effect on the style and direction your writing takes.

Good luck :wink:

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Of course :) you got it

I am absolutely intending to write the book I would most like to read. It took me a while to realise no one else will.

I'm definitely not gonna write a book just for the sake of it, and money is not the impetus at all.

I have a career to support me, so i dont even care if it doesn't ever get published.

Giving my imagination licence to run free is all that matters really.

..and I get to create 'hypothetical' mind-altering substances. It'll be set in the future, where almost all naturally occuring plants and animals have been intentionally wiped out, replaced by easily manipulatable biotech, largely engineered to monitor and moderate human internal-mental-emotional experience. The story probably begins with the gift of some extremely rare seeds from a long extinct psychotropic plant, which if taken regularly over a long enough period begin to break down the hypnosis programming running in the protagonists brain, allowing them to recognise the depravity of the pseudoutopia in which they live, and question if there might be something more meaningful awaiting.

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You have the ideas, imagination, along with the most important thing in my book, please excuse the pun lol, "life experience" and that deeper understanding of the human mind. You clearly have the eloquence to get those thoughts of yours out of your head and onto paper which for me is the most difficult thing to do.

Some one I think here mentioned carrying a note book around with you for the times when inspiration hits you. Great idea. I would be inclined to just write down what comes into your head whether it makes sense or not. When you think you could have enough material to play with then put it all together and see what happens.

A botanical theme has got to be a good way to go, One book that I will always remember is "Hothouse" by Brian Aldiss. A book about highly evolved sentient ethno plants could be one way? We may be closer to that reality more than is obvious...

You make the rules Ceres. I look forward to reading them... :wink:

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*bump*

Noticed this thread come up and wondered if you've made any progress Bog. I've been considering the same thing recently. I used to think I was quite the creative writer when I was in school. Lately I've made contact with one of my old school friends who has written a few books and is, in fact, a publisher these days. (Handy). Then my wife's cousin released a book last year...

These things have kind of inspired me in addition to my dissatisfaction with work. Sadly, I don't really have any ideas but feel I might just need to 'start' and see where it takes me. Somehow I always seem to find a way to avoid doing so...

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Hey man, thanks for the bump.. Well yes and no. Actually yes in a way.

There has been some progress :) some big life changes tho too so it has been a sporadic start.

What I did was got a big A4 blank art book and began making mind maps and flow charts.. Just set about getting the beginning ideas onto paper and from there used free-association to expand upon the core themes. The framework of the story began to naturally assert itself as I approached it with a open mind as well as continually referring to my feelings and instincts about where it could go.

I explored a few different models of the archetypal heroic myths and then set about creating my own uhhmmm..Plot Diagram thingy.. Of how the story is due to unfold. I connected each phase of the story with an element and built a secondary layer of brainstormed ideas from the intuited thoughts on the nature of each process of transformation.

Then I just kept hoarding ideas in my big book and gradually started building a couple of main characters. I am still very much in the beginning stages of actual writing, I have set out a few draft chapters but really I'm just practicing and not worrying too much about getting everything perfect as I'm more just focusing on developing the skill to accurately convey a scene which arises as a mental picture.

I think the most effective approach for me has been just practicing effectively describing random scenarios in writing, they need'nt be profound or connected to your intended story, just the act of learning how to do it by doing it has been good fun and shows you where you're at. Good luck :) I'm by no means established but im having a try atleast, seems like a worthwhile thing to do!

Another thing I found useful was reading lots of quality writing, and really digesting the way the words flow, how a scene is established. Experiencing it as completely as possible, merging with the story but also stepping back and scrutinising 'how' the author did something, assessing what worked so well about that.

I guess it's developing an art of observation and keen descriptive and emotive ability. Such things are amazing to just have a play around with, engages your mind in a very unique way.

Edited by bogfrog
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This isn't so much about what to write, but how to write.

Good work habits are really, really important. (By 'good', I mean it works for you.) To even get rejected, a book has to get written first. I'm not sure how it works for fiction. But for non-fiction/research, I've been told that, if you know what you are talking about, if you just sit down and write without thinking too hard, you'll produce material that is about 80% right - that's certainly my experience. The last 20%, where you polish details, grammar, punctuation etc - you don't need to be inspired to do that - be creative while your brain is fresh and save the super detailed obsessive drudge for later.

If you are a morning person, write first thing after breakfast for a couple of hours - no email/facebook/twitter/SAB - then take a break before you burn out. While you are writing, don't stop if you make a spelling mistake etc., just keep going with the flow. If you are recovered enough to go back to it after an hour break, then do. If not, then spend a couple of hours editing what you wrote in the morning, then another hour or two of reading or research for the next day (if necessary). I guess if you are afternoon/night person, you would reverse that.

If you don't feel like writing whatever it is that you are working on, don't spend hours staring at the screen to write one sentence. This will do your head in, and is a counter-productive habit to get into. If you find yourself stuck or blocked, take a quick break and write something else - anything else - it doesn't matter. You might find your creativity comes back once you are warmed up. Even if you don't get back to your main project that day, you've written something - which will help get you into the habit of writing. You want your body and brain to be habituated to writing at a certain time every day.

This might not work for everyone, but it worked for me - on a good day I could churn out 2-3 thousand words in a couple of hours, tidy it up and then do some reading/pondering in the afternoon to get ready to go again the next day.

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Very interesting thread.

Ive also been toying with the idea for many years.

I want to write my own version of something along the lines of 'Candy' and Im re-reading it for inspiration.

(the movie was such a let down).

I look forward to reading more about your progress.

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