I know several authors who've started novels, wrote 10,000 or more words, and gave up on them. I've heard a range of reasons for this, including becoming bored with the work, being better suited to writing short stories, or not having planned enough. Having written over half a dozen (ten, if you include rewrites) novels myself, all of which were over 100,000 words, I thought I might share my insight on this subject.
Let's start by stating the obvious: Writing a novel is not easy. Everyone has one in them, but getting it on paper is an entirely different matter. If you have any misconceptions about the amount of work which goes into a novel, let them be dispelled right here and now. Most take between months and years to finish. Whereas you can pen a short story in one day, a novel is something which at times requires the patience of Job. There are no shortcuts. No self-help guides. No rules, except the obvious ones of grammar and syntax. What writing, in all forms but especially novels, requires is self-discipline. That voice in your head which nags at you to write another 500 words today, even though everything you write seems like one huge mind fart. I think this is where a lot of people fall down. When you start something new, it's always exciting. Those first few days of a new job; the first dates of a new relationship; the first time your parents allow you to go out on your own. After awhile, tedium starts to creep in. That initial surge of excitement parts to frustration and boredom. This is the juncture which separates the weed from the chaff. If you want to write a novel, it is at this point which you must decide to persevere, even when it seems pointless to continue.
All novels contain three things: A beginning, middle, and end. Sounds simple when it's put like that. Between those three points, however, is the bulk of your story. If you have an idea for two of those three (preferably beginning and end) it's a matter of connecting the dots. What happens in between to take the MC from that point at the start to where s/he eventually ends up? If planning helps you to figure that out, go for it. Some people find it more exciting (I'm one of them) to wing it. I never become bored with a novel because I never know what will happen in the next sentence, never mind chapter. It is that sense of the unknown which creates excitement within me. There's also the 'Eureka!' moment in which an earlier idea comes fully to fruition. For instance, in my most recent novel I had a group of terrorists in possession of several canisters of a lethal bio-agent. They were travelling towards a town in Utah, driving a uniquely coloured van whose purpose I had no idea until 60-odd chapters later when it became clear. That, for me, is the joy of writing with no shackles. If you're having problems getting past the dreaded onset of boredom, consider throwing off the chains and writing with complete freedom.
I finish novels because of two things: One, I love to start new stories (but I never leave one unfinished). And two, I feel a sense of pride at having finished another one. There is no better feeling than writing the words 'THE END' after a long write and edit. If you can discipline yourself to look past the low points of boredom, and imagine the sense of accomplishment you will achieve if you persevere, writing novels will become second nature. Consider setting yourself a deadline, too, if you're the kind of person who needs a kick in the backside to urge them on.
Last but not least, enjoy it. I've read so many people's reasons for wanting to write a novel. Most of them are something along the lines of wanting to become rich; become a bestseller; see the book become a movie like Harry Potter and Twilight. Reality check: It is next-to-near impossible to get published, never mind become a millionaire from writing. I don't write for that. I write because I love it. If I become published and make money, that's a bonus. Stop trying to write the perfect novel, because such a thing doesn't (and never will) exist. Write for you first. If you're writing for someone else, you aren't being true to yourself as a writer.
Friday 29 July 2011
Tuesday 19 July 2011
The First Chapter: An Author's Raison D'etre.
Following on from my philosophy of never boring a reader, my first chapter of a new novel is both exciting and terrifying. Exciting because I'm starting a fresh project, with limitless possibilities, and terrifying because most readers gauge a novel on two things: one, the blurb on the back; and two, the first chapter. In any bookstore you will see the serious readers not only reading the blurb but also the first page(s). For an author, this is your bread and butter. It can be the difference between the reader parting with his/her money, or putting your book back on the shelf. So what can you do to make sure they keep reading long enough to get to the counter to pay?
If there's one place I want/need to snag a reader's attention, it's the first sentence. If I can bring them straight into my story, give them enough information to paint the scene in their head, and engage their intrigue levels enough to at least make them finger the notes and loose change in their pockets, I'm more than halfway to a sale. That's easier said than done. While it ultimately depends on your genre, most first chapters still contain what's known as a 'hook'. A good example of this is the first line of John Grisham's bestseller The Chamber: "The decision to bomb the office of the radical Jew lawyer was reached with relative ease". If you can put that book down before learning why his office is being bombed, why the decision was reached with relative ease, and what happened to the Jew, you are hard to entertain. With one sentence Grisham has painted a scene, introduced a character, and set in motion conflict (the single most important feature of any novel). He's got your attention. Now he can build on that.
Contrast that with this fictitious opening: "John Doe woke up, got dressed, and headed downstairs for breakfast". If that doesn't induce a yawn, maybe you've already fallen asleep. The reality is, first sentence, first paragraph, and first chapter are vital to your chances of both publication and sales. A reader is likely to assume that if you can't hook them at the start, chances are you won't be able to do so before the end either.
That's why I like to start right in the crux of things. Back-story, while important, can be saved for later when your reader needs a breath to calm down from all the rip-roaring action and suspense you've thrown at them. Putting your MC in the thick of things from the start also reveals their character and allows it to grow. We all react differently in crises, and it's that fight or flight mentality which brings out the best and worst traits of your characters. It establishs heroism and cowardice; good and evil. Those are the fundamental personality profiles of the so-called 'protagonist' and 'antagonist'.
When you have a reader's attention, it becomes a matter of holding it. The most action-packed novel in the world can become frustrating if a reader isn't given time to react to the situations evolving before him/her. There is a delicate balance between outright, high-octane action, and slow, catch-your-breath exposition. The trick is finding a way to make the exposition as riveting as the action. Mastering that is the key to becoming a great storyteller. What I like to do, more often than not, is end a chapter with a cliffhanger. It's the tried and tested approach to hooking a reader. Think of a television show you love. Imagine it without any conflict. Imagine if at the end of each show, everyone was happy and got exactly what they wanted. How long would you watch it? The human psyche is designed to leech off conflict. We may abhor it, we may find it frustrating, but ultimately every one of us craves it in one way or another. Without conflict in a novel, you might as well go back to that earlier place of sleep. It is essential, and what better way to keep people reading than by putting your characters in unrelenting situations at the end of each chapter?
The truth is, your first chapter may be the most important one. If well-written and riveting enough, your reader parts with their money and you have another tenner in your pocket. Here's the rub, though. That doesn't mean chapter two shouldn't be as well-written and riveting as its predecessor. Just because you have the reader's money, doesn't mean you now have a licence to bore them to tears. After all, this is a platform you want to build. You want this reader to be so impressed with your work that they'll read your next book without giving chapter one as much as a glance. That is the true essence of great storytelling.
If there's one place I want/need to snag a reader's attention, it's the first sentence. If I can bring them straight into my story, give them enough information to paint the scene in their head, and engage their intrigue levels enough to at least make them finger the notes and loose change in their pockets, I'm more than halfway to a sale. That's easier said than done. While it ultimately depends on your genre, most first chapters still contain what's known as a 'hook'. A good example of this is the first line of John Grisham's bestseller The Chamber: "The decision to bomb the office of the radical Jew lawyer was reached with relative ease". If you can put that book down before learning why his office is being bombed, why the decision was reached with relative ease, and what happened to the Jew, you are hard to entertain. With one sentence Grisham has painted a scene, introduced a character, and set in motion conflict (the single most important feature of any novel). He's got your attention. Now he can build on that.
Contrast that with this fictitious opening: "John Doe woke up, got dressed, and headed downstairs for breakfast". If that doesn't induce a yawn, maybe you've already fallen asleep. The reality is, first sentence, first paragraph, and first chapter are vital to your chances of both publication and sales. A reader is likely to assume that if you can't hook them at the start, chances are you won't be able to do so before the end either.
That's why I like to start right in the crux of things. Back-story, while important, can be saved for later when your reader needs a breath to calm down from all the rip-roaring action and suspense you've thrown at them. Putting your MC in the thick of things from the start also reveals their character and allows it to grow. We all react differently in crises, and it's that fight or flight mentality which brings out the best and worst traits of your characters. It establishs heroism and cowardice; good and evil. Those are the fundamental personality profiles of the so-called 'protagonist' and 'antagonist'.
When you have a reader's attention, it becomes a matter of holding it. The most action-packed novel in the world can become frustrating if a reader isn't given time to react to the situations evolving before him/her. There is a delicate balance between outright, high-octane action, and slow, catch-your-breath exposition. The trick is finding a way to make the exposition as riveting as the action. Mastering that is the key to becoming a great storyteller. What I like to do, more often than not, is end a chapter with a cliffhanger. It's the tried and tested approach to hooking a reader. Think of a television show you love. Imagine it without any conflict. Imagine if at the end of each show, everyone was happy and got exactly what they wanted. How long would you watch it? The human psyche is designed to leech off conflict. We may abhor it, we may find it frustrating, but ultimately every one of us craves it in one way or another. Without conflict in a novel, you might as well go back to that earlier place of sleep. It is essential, and what better way to keep people reading than by putting your characters in unrelenting situations at the end of each chapter?
The truth is, your first chapter may be the most important one. If well-written and riveting enough, your reader parts with their money and you have another tenner in your pocket. Here's the rub, though. That doesn't mean chapter two shouldn't be as well-written and riveting as its predecessor. Just because you have the reader's money, doesn't mean you now have a licence to bore them to tears. After all, this is a platform you want to build. You want this reader to be so impressed with your work that they'll read your next book without giving chapter one as much as a glance. That is the true essence of great storytelling.
Monday 11 July 2011
Knowing What to Write (Or How I Chose my Novels)
It all started for me with a series of books which I discovered throughout primary and secondary school. I'm sure most young boys read The Hardy Boys. I didn't. I devoured them. My mother used to take me, my brother, and sister (God rest her soul) to the library every Friday. I would come away with at least a dozen new Hardy Boys books, and without exaggeration the majority of them would be read by the time school started again on Monday. I couldn't get enough of them. What hooked me was the fast-paced plots, cliffhanger chapter-ends, and danger and intrigue on virtually every page. The prose was simple but effective; the chapters long enough to hook but short enough to keep you reading. In retrospect, reading The Hardy Boys put me on the path to writing thriller novels.
When I started writing my first novel, just before the start of the new millennium, I had a vision. Fresh off reading the likes of Clancy, Ludlum, and Forsyth, I wanted to create a homage to their style. Everything I had read of theirs, while full of action and suspense, had parts where the story began to bore me somewhat. What I wanted to write was a thriller where on every page something happened to ensure the reader could not take their eyes or mind away from the story. What I got was a thrill-a-minute novel of bombs, bullets, and two ordinary men who became heroes because life threw them a curve-ball. I could have opted for the unflappable macho male who stops everything thrown his way, while mouthing off a few cliched lines, then saves the day and goes home with the pretty woman. That's not my style. In true homage to the late Robert Ludlum, my characters are oftentimes ordinary people who when faced with extraordinary situations become heroes. I find those types of characters far more intriguing than a stiff-upper-lipped British spy or a hard-ass ex-Special Forces soldier.
I got the idea for Dereliction of Duty early in 1999. I had always been fascinated with cover-ups by governments and the conspiracies surrounding them. I wanted to play on that a little. Area 51 was an idea which had been through the wringer, so to speak, and I didn't want to venture down the road of a top secret desert base again. Twenty-Four was still two years away, but my idea shared some similarities. Instead of a counter-terrorist unit in Los Angeles, tasked with curbing the threat of terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11, I asked myself what if it was instead a computer soft- and hardware manufacturing firm underneath which was a top secret weapons development base? Only the top brass in the ostensible 'computer firm' would know the truth, and the workers would play their roles like a game of chess. That made for an almost-endless supply of ideas. What would happen if a worker found out? What would happen if the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found out? Most intriguing and chilling of all, what would happen if terrorists found out?
Bingo! There was my idea. Terrorists plot to break into the top secret base, in New York City, in an attempt to steal the advanced weaponry for themselves. They don't mind going through fifty innocent workers to do it, either. I had my idea; I had my plot; but how could I ratchet up the excitement and tension throughout when my terrorists weren't supposed to make it to the complex until near the end of the novel? Who was to say all three of my ideas couldn't be worked into the storyline? What if both workers for the 'computer firm' and a member of the U.S. government became privy to the real identity around the same time the terrorists were readying their assault? Further, what if that government official was a high-ranking member of the Cabinet; maybe even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs?
I wanted something else, though. I had an imminent Russian terrorist cell on its way to the United States. I had two computer programmers starting to put the pieces together but unaware of the danger facing them. And I had a top-level government official becoming aware of the entire thing. I wanted more. What, you scream. Why on earth would you want more? I had always envisioned creating a team of soldiers from the best anti-terrorist squadrons in existence. This novel provided me with that opportunity. Now I had two soldiers pulled from duty in Afghanistan and shipped home to a jungle facility in the U.S.. Here, they begin what they think is SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). It's this base and the clandestine actions taking place at it which draw the attention of the Chairman. From there, the story begins to unfold.
If all else fails (and this is the advice I give to most people who are afflicted with 'writer's block') start a new storyline. It can become boring and stale to stick to the one point-of-view and character throughout a novel. I freshen it up with at least a dozen (sometimes more) different perspectives throughout.
Knowing what to write, however, is something which comes when you sit down and write. A close friend of mine and a terrific writer in his own right, Dean Sault, sometimes has dreams which point him in the right direction. He keeps a notepad by his bed (actually, this is a discipline all writers should follow) so that he can write down the ideas the moment he wakes up, before they leave his head for good.
Stick to what you love, also. I'm a self-proclaimed action junkie. If I'm not reading thrillers, I'm watching them. This is what I love writing. Your genre may be science fiction. Horror. Romance. It doesn't really matter, so long as you write what you know best.
Dan.
When I started writing my first novel, just before the start of the new millennium, I had a vision. Fresh off reading the likes of Clancy, Ludlum, and Forsyth, I wanted to create a homage to their style. Everything I had read of theirs, while full of action and suspense, had parts where the story began to bore me somewhat. What I wanted to write was a thriller where on every page something happened to ensure the reader could not take their eyes or mind away from the story. What I got was a thrill-a-minute novel of bombs, bullets, and two ordinary men who became heroes because life threw them a curve-ball. I could have opted for the unflappable macho male who stops everything thrown his way, while mouthing off a few cliched lines, then saves the day and goes home with the pretty woman. That's not my style. In true homage to the late Robert Ludlum, my characters are oftentimes ordinary people who when faced with extraordinary situations become heroes. I find those types of characters far more intriguing than a stiff-upper-lipped British spy or a hard-ass ex-Special Forces soldier.
I got the idea for Dereliction of Duty early in 1999. I had always been fascinated with cover-ups by governments and the conspiracies surrounding them. I wanted to play on that a little. Area 51 was an idea which had been through the wringer, so to speak, and I didn't want to venture down the road of a top secret desert base again. Twenty-Four was still two years away, but my idea shared some similarities. Instead of a counter-terrorist unit in Los Angeles, tasked with curbing the threat of terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11, I asked myself what if it was instead a computer soft- and hardware manufacturing firm underneath which was a top secret weapons development base? Only the top brass in the ostensible 'computer firm' would know the truth, and the workers would play their roles like a game of chess. That made for an almost-endless supply of ideas. What would happen if a worker found out? What would happen if the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found out? Most intriguing and chilling of all, what would happen if terrorists found out?
Bingo! There was my idea. Terrorists plot to break into the top secret base, in New York City, in an attempt to steal the advanced weaponry for themselves. They don't mind going through fifty innocent workers to do it, either. I had my idea; I had my plot; but how could I ratchet up the excitement and tension throughout when my terrorists weren't supposed to make it to the complex until near the end of the novel? Who was to say all three of my ideas couldn't be worked into the storyline? What if both workers for the 'computer firm' and a member of the U.S. government became privy to the real identity around the same time the terrorists were readying their assault? Further, what if that government official was a high-ranking member of the Cabinet; maybe even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs?
I wanted something else, though. I had an imminent Russian terrorist cell on its way to the United States. I had two computer programmers starting to put the pieces together but unaware of the danger facing them. And I had a top-level government official becoming aware of the entire thing. I wanted more. What, you scream. Why on earth would you want more? I had always envisioned creating a team of soldiers from the best anti-terrorist squadrons in existence. This novel provided me with that opportunity. Now I had two soldiers pulled from duty in Afghanistan and shipped home to a jungle facility in the U.S.. Here, they begin what they think is SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). It's this base and the clandestine actions taking place at it which draw the attention of the Chairman. From there, the story begins to unfold.
If all else fails (and this is the advice I give to most people who are afflicted with 'writer's block') start a new storyline. It can become boring and stale to stick to the one point-of-view and character throughout a novel. I freshen it up with at least a dozen (sometimes more) different perspectives throughout.
Knowing what to write, however, is something which comes when you sit down and write. A close friend of mine and a terrific writer in his own right, Dean Sault, sometimes has dreams which point him in the right direction. He keeps a notepad by his bed (actually, this is a discipline all writers should follow) so that he can write down the ideas the moment he wakes up, before they leave his head for good.
Stick to what you love, also. I'm a self-proclaimed action junkie. If I'm not reading thrillers, I'm watching them. This is what I love writing. Your genre may be science fiction. Horror. Romance. It doesn't really matter, so long as you write what you know best.
Dan.
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Welcome
I figured I was going to have to create one of these sooner or later. I've written several books over 100,000 words, but the thought of updating a blog on a consistent basis is, for some inexplicable reason, a daunting one. I'm sure I'll get over it. For now, I want to take a moment to welcome you to 'Thriller: Inside the Mind of an Author'. There's a method to the madness of the name choice. While I do write thrillers, mostly of a military format, I'm also acutely aware that Michael Jackson's Thriller is the best-selling album of all time and quite possibly also a much-searched keyword in Google. Now you understand.
This blog represents my on-line presence. It's as much a sharing experience as it is a learning one. Recently one of my novels was accepted for publication. The owner informed me I needed to boost my on-line CV and presence. Much of that involved joining social networking sites and advertising in writing forums. I suppose this is a place where I continue to boost that presence while also imparting knowledge I've learned and upcoming news about the release. You may also want to visit my website at www.danmckeown.net for up-to-date information too.
I'll be updating this blog with stories and news in the coming weeks and months. For now, though, adieu and thank you for stopping by.
Dan.
This blog represents my on-line presence. It's as much a sharing experience as it is a learning one. Recently one of my novels was accepted for publication. The owner informed me I needed to boost my on-line CV and presence. Much of that involved joining social networking sites and advertising in writing forums. I suppose this is a place where I continue to boost that presence while also imparting knowledge I've learned and upcoming news about the release. You may also want to visit my website at www.danmckeown.net for up-to-date information too.
I'll be updating this blog with stories and news in the coming weeks and months. For now, though, adieu and thank you for stopping by.
Dan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)