| GETTING STARTED
Someone once told me that one of the differences between a published writer and an unpublished writer, is that the first one never gave up. I’d add something to that. The published writer will have been disciplined enough to have carried on writing from beginning to end.
I do know of some writers who have taken years to write a novel. This is usually because they have busy lives or that something big happened to them while they were writing it, that made it difficult for them to carry on for a bit. (Death and divorce come to mind.)
But speaking personally, when I am writing a novel, I need to write it every day (even if it’s only a few words) in order to keep the momentum going. Otherwise, the story would just slip out of my head and I would lose interest in my characters. I have managed to carry on writing even when I have been dealing with disasters in my life. In fact, I have used my writing as a bolthole and I know of other writers who have done the same. So my first piece of advice is to tell yourself that you WILL write your novel regularly, come what may.
This might mean making sacrifices such as getting up earlier; going to bed later; or cutting down on hobbies. Finding the time to write may also involve negotiating with friends and family so they allow you that extra hour or so a day. But if you want to write your novel, it’s the only way to do it. If you’re a real writer, writing isn’t another ‘hobby’. It’s a vocation, whether you’re published or not.
HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT IDEA
I believe that this section is one of the most important when it comes to writing your first novel. Your idea has got to be different! It has to stand out from the crowd in that pile of unsolicited manuscripts in the agent’s office. It has to have that ‘Why hasn’t anyone else thought of this brilliant idea before?’ feel to it. And it should be an idea which will appeal to as wide a readership as possible because books are a market, like any other commodity. An agent will only take you on if you sell and a publisher will only give you a contract if they think they can make money out of you. So if you appeal to a wide readership (and a readership which has the budget to spend on books), you are improving your success rate.
But how do you find this great idea? Whenever I start a new creative writing course, I go round the group and ask everyone to tell me about their backgrounds. I want to know what they do with their time ; what they are passionate about; and what their skills are. This is not because I am curious (although, like most writers, I AM). It’s because people often write best about what they know. And, just as important, they might have a skill which gives them an edge on other writers.
Let me take an example. Two people in one of my groups at the moment, are full-carers. One looks after her mother and the other looks after his wife who is still quite young. Now although we might be able to imagine what it’s like to care for someone in a wheelchair, there’s only going to be a limited number of people who really know what it’s like to heave them out of the bath when they are bigger than you or feed them with a spoon when not long ago, they were cooking for YOU. And it’s these details which can make an idea really come alive.
Taking this a step further, what is it like for a so-called loved-one to be fed and sponged down ? Do they resent it? Are they grateful? Did they have a difficult relationship before this happened ? I’m beginning to feel a novel idea here. Supposing we told a story from the point of view of a woman in a wheelchair who was about to leave her husband for her lover. Then she has an accident which means she has to be looked after by someone. Supposing it’s the husband who didn’t know she was going to leave him in the first place. And what about the lover?
I’m not going to go on any further at the moment because I’d like to deal with this in the third instalment on plotting. But I do think that a novel like this is best written by someone with experience of caring. If you can only imagine it and then get it wrong, you will destroy your credibility with experts who DO know what it’s like.
MAKE SURE YOUR IDEA IS DIFFERENT!
I’m often asked to appraise manuscripts and sometimes I read novels which are very well written but deal with ideas that have been done to death such as lottery winners, school reunions; and inheriting a castle from an unknown great aunt. Avoid these at all costs – unless you can think of a way to write it that is different from anything else.
If your idea is going to have that ‘Wow!’ factor, it has to stand out. So try to think outside the box. Recently, I watched a film which charted a couple’s marriage breakdown. Nothing unusual about that. Except that it did so from the time they broke up and then went backwards to the day they met. Now if you did that in print, it would be different.
Most ideas, when you think about it, have been done before. But it’s how you treat them that can make them unique. One way of doing this is to ask yourself the question ‘What if something else happened instead’..
A woman tries to find her long-lost father. This idea has been done before! But the concept still appeals to readers because it’s a ‘quest’ novel that hopefully makes you want to turn the pages to discover if she finds him. Ask yourself what would happen if she didn’t find him. Supposing it takes her on a trail down her past where she discovers that he’s been part of her life all along but she didn’t know he was her father. What if you told the story from different points of view with one chapter from the mother; another from the daughter; a third from the father; and a fourth from someone else. What if the woman trying to find her long-lost father is actually a ghost but we don’t know that until the end of the story? What if she really knew where he was all along but was pretending to her husband that she was going off to look for him, so she could do something else instead? We could go on and on – and that’s exactly the scope that a novel needs.
THINK OF YOUR IDEA LIKE A TREE
A novel has to have lots of branches like the above idea which could take the reader through different situations and even different countries. In other words, it needs enough sideshoots for you to be able to develop it over 100,000 plus words.
One way of checking that your story has branches, is to see it like a play or film. Can you imagine lots of scenes and several acts? Will your characters find themselves in a variety of situations and dilemmas? A story needs a problem in order to work and a novel needs a problem that, even when it’s solved, leads to another. If your idea has all of these, it might work.
SUMMARY
* Set yourself a challenge! Tell yourself you’re going to write for a certain amount of time every day or so many days a week. Stick to it like a proper job.
* Ask yourself what you’re good at. What do you know about that others might not? What is your specialist area (even if it’s ‘just’ being a mum). We write best about what we know!
* Learn to look at ideas outside the box. See them a different way, from different angles. Ask the ‘What if?’ question .
* Make sure your idea has lots of directions in which it could go. If it doesn’t, it might be more of a short story idea.
* Next time, I’ll be covering characterisation. In the meantime, try making a list of possible ideas for your first novel. Good luck!
GO TO "CHARACTERISATON"
I received a lovely email recently from a reader of my book "How To Write Your First Novel". Here's a brief extract:
"...yours is the most informative and exciting book I have read about writing in many years (and there have been quite a few…) ...thank you for writing such a wonderful, innovative and helpful book in no-nonsense layman’s language, without being patronising – it is my Writing Bible and I shall not hesitate to recommend it to anyone."
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