The
first book I wrote started with just a simple image.
In
reality I was in the UK studying my Masters, it was freezing cold
and I was in a room that could have passed for the Griffindor Common
Room, except swap the fireplace for a bar. All my life I had written
stories set in England. Finally I was there, and the first image that
got suck in my head? A summer scene down at a river just outside of
an Australian country town. It was so warm, with heat shimmering off
the long grass fields leading up to the picnic grounds. I could smell
the eucalyptus in the air, and anticipated the water on my skin.
But
where to go after that?
For
a few weeks I struggled on writing bits and pieces. I got a main
character, Sally, a bit of a tom-boy, from a dysfunctional family. I
wanted a motorbike. She got a dirt bike.
I
dedicated myself to writing 1,000 words a day. Hand written, in my
notebook. After
a fortnight, maybe more, I found that I was slipping. It went
downhill very quickly. The point when I slipped? When I told people
my project.
At
first I had refused to tell anyone, in case they laughed: Buffy
trying to be a writer, again. Finish your thesis, girl. (That last
one was my mother, you can tell, right?) But
after faithfully writing 1,000 words every day for almost two weeks,
I had 10,000 words. Not bad. Better than my thesis at the time. So I
typed up my first chapter and sent it to just a few people I trusted.
Two of them were blandly supportive, and the third, my little sister,
came back with, ‘well, it’s like the books we were made to read
at school. But on the bright side, those were published books.’ It
was not all that inspiring. It didn’t dishearten me, but I found
other things getting in the way of my writing pretty soon after that.
I
kept just writing bits and pieces on and off for the next year. Finally
I sat down and wrote out all that I had into one draft. 20,000 words.
Well, it wasn’t bad, but it was no book.
What
happened next is the result of my Muse, who happens to occasionally
be a bit bossy. Lent
2012 was coming around and usually I work on some spiritual element
during Lent. This year my directions were clear: No TV, write every
day. I felt sort of bad, because while sitting down to write was a
struggle, once I started it was self indulgent joy, which I was
pretty sure was not what Lent was about. But God was firm, that’s
what he wanted.
I
broke it three times: watched TV once with my sister, and didn’t
write twice.
By
the end of the 40 days I had lots of words but it wasn't yet a
book. After
starting with an image and developing the characters, the next bits
to come were important chunks of dialogue, but didn't fit together
into a story. Then,
in the space of about two weeks, I found myself starting at the
beginning of the book, and just writing through to the end,
connecting in the dialogue to actual action and all those bits you
need to make it seem real.
As
it happened, I had intended to finish it around June, as there was a
Christian writing competition I wanted to enter it into which last
year I thought closed in July. Luckily, I decided to just double
check the closing date. It was actually the 18th of
May. I had 10 days to finish the book, edit it, edit it some more,
and then send it in. That was when the being able to just sit down
and write from one end to the other connecting all the dots really
came in handy. Also, having great support network who were happy to
drop everything and proof read an entire draft was super handy too.
The
important things I learned from this:
An
idea, an image, can be enough to make a book.
Working
out the nature of the main characters is more important than the
action, as the action depends on the nature of the characters.
Books
don't need to be written from one end to the other.
For
me it works well to write up an image, find suitable characters for
that image and then write any important dialogue/scenes, trusting
that when all the major bits are in place, I'll be able to just flow
through and fill in all the rest.
So,
will see how that all goes for my next 12 novels!
Day
3 of Prep Week has seen me:
Go
out for brunch and say 'farewell for a bit' to a friend.
Listen
to some sermons and also to some podcasts on writing (my favourite which I highly recommend to anyone interested in writing
fiction is
Writing Excuses, now in Season 7.)
Start
reading a new fantasy book.
Cook
enough Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Risotto to last me through a minor
blizzard.
Do
my tax return (which will hopefully allow me enough money not to
starve when I drop my work hours).
Finally,
take one of the 12 novels I've scheduled for the next six months,
one of the ones I know the least about, and write out the image that
suggested it could be a novel, then develop descriptions for the
major characters.
Until Later Today!
Buffy.
