Where to begin?

[Narkalui]

About twenty years ago now I began the first draft of the first volume in my multi volume high fantasy saga. I tore into it then hit a wall around 10,000 words. I had no idea why. After numerous attempts to return I eventually gave up in 2005 in the knowledge that I needed to start again but without knowing why, or how.

Since then I have read some far more diverse works and I've got a pretty good idea how to make my series work. But where do I start? I've got about a third of my cast in my head, do I flesh them out first? Do I draw my map? Do I chart the back story (of which I have only the bare bones)? Do dive straight in like I did twenty years ago? How should I organise my notes? Do I do a Len Deighton and plan everything that's going to happen in advance?

 

[The Judge]

Different people work different ways, and you won't know what's best for you until you start. For instance, for my last completed WIP I just started writing a scene, characters appeared and did things, and I ran with it. Only after I'd written a few thousand words did I begin to work out who these people were and what the world was, and I made some notes, carried on writing more scenes, more things happened, and I made more notes. Even at half-way through I had no real idea of who the chief antagonist was nor what was going on behind the scenes. That kind of pantsing, though, would make a lot of writers break out in a sweat, as they have to have full bios and a detailed outline before they write the first word. It may be that you are a plotter, and this is one reason you couldn't complete the first draft you started in the same kind of rush.

My advice, for what it's worth, is just write a scene you've already thought about and can envisage easily. It doesn't matter where in the book it occurs, or even if it isn't part of the novel at all but something that happens long before the story opens. Just get used to putting pen to paper/finger to keyboard again. Then perhaps sit and make some notes as to the plot, then write another scene, then write up the bios, then write another scene and so on. Writing out of order is again something that might confuse some writers, but I think in the circumstances it's important for you to get that writing practice in before tackling the opening chapter.

Meanwhile, start reading through the threads in Critiques and note what members have said by way of feedback, and think about the points raised. In time, when you feel confident, try putting some work of your own up there -- perhaps from the original draft if you're uneasy about putting the new work up -- and see how other members react to it. And on top of that, start participating in the various Writing Challenges and threads in Workshop all of which will get you back into writing.

Hope that helps. And good luck!

 

[Brian G Turner]

I eventually gave up in 2005 in the knowledge that I needed to start again but without knowing why

Similar happened to me, and in my instance it turned out it's because I didn't understand even the basic technicalities of writing. It took a long time to try and understand them, let alone try to put them into practice. Then I had great help from an editor who called out all my mistakes to the point of forcing me to think really hard about everything I was trying to do, and how I was doing it - but even then it took a few run-throughs before anything really began to click.

My suggestion would therefore be to ensure you're up on them - I always recommend reading Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer for this, and probably a good idea to watch Brandon Sanderson's lectures as well: Brandon Sanderson - 318R - YouTube.

You will know some or a lot of this, but not all of it. Simply immerse yourself in everything being written or presented.

Additionally, simply going through it should inspire you to think about familiar parts of your story in new ways - though that's the start of the process, not the end of it.

I'd also recommend reading Save the Cat by Blake Snyder if you haven't already - I used to think I knew everything about my characters, but reading that book made me realize I didn't even understand the basic motivations that drive them. I've found that book the greatest help in thinking about that depth.

In the meantime, I figure you'll come up with your own insights, images, moments you want to write - in which case, just write them. The really important thing to understand is that you are never going to write a good story in your first draft - you are merely setting out a detailed outline of your story. Most of what you'll do is actually rewriting rather than writing, but you can't rewrite if you don't have the writing there. So forget about being perfect and allow yourself to be as messy as possible - don't even think about editing until you've finished a first draft, as you are going to have to rewrite much of it in the first place.

Don't worry about the rewriting part - it sounds like hard work, and it is hard work. But every time you do it, you make your story smarter, stronger, more concise. That's why you shouldn't even copy/paste stuff from your first draft into scenes - that practice will really hold you back.

Ultimately, it's going to be difficult and a challenge, and you'll need to dedicate a lot of time and patience to it. You'll also need to ensure you have the passion to drive you through the inevitable doldrums and blocks you will encounter.

But make it through all that, and you might just produce the story you really want.

Then get a good editor and go through it all again...

By which time you should be sick to the back teeth of touching it, but struggle through doing so until every change and edit and rewrite you can imagine has all been done.

And that's when you have your story.

Hope that helps, and best of luck with it.

PS: Your experience may be a lot smoother than mine, especially if you use chrons a lot.

PPS: DON'T put anything up for Critique here until you have completed that first draft, otherwise you will end up getting into edit mode with an incomplete piece, and that's liable to freeze you up.

 

[Narkalui]

Tar. My gut tells me to decide on the canonicity of the back story first, with enough gaps to add more as I need to.

Oh, and just in case the thought crossed your mind, Narkalui Kyriakin is still in the cast. Unsure about Niklas Carakov though...

 

[CTRandall]

As The Judge said, everyone works in different ways, so pick and choose as you will from the suggestions here.

I would say to make sure you know your story first. How does it start? Where does it go in the middle? How does it end? Write a brief outline of the story arc and start from there. Your backstories and world-building will shape the story and your characters will send it on all sorts of detours and diversions (possibly even changing the final destination) but the story is what you're telling and the story is what the readers are following.

If you don't know what the story is, none of the other bells and whistles will save you.

 

[Jay Greenstein]

I tore into it then hit a wall around 10,000 words. I had no idea why.

The most common reason for that, in my experience, is that the story set you on fire when you began, but later, when you went back to read the beginning, for unknown reasons it didn't have the kick it did when you originally write it. And that happens because time has placed you more in the position of reader, unable too "fill in the blanks" as you read.

If that's what happened, and a look back at the text doesn't excite, you might do a bit of digging into the nuts-and bolts issues of creating a scene that sings to a reader. Our schooldays writing doesn't prepare us for that, because there, we're learning the kind of writing our future employers want: fact-based, author-centric, and designed to inform clearly and concisely. But fiction, with a goal of entertaining the reader by providing an emotional experience, requires an emotion-based and character-centric approach. After all, if we want our readers to see our writing as exciting as the pros doesn't it make sense that we need to know what the pro knows? A scene on the page, for example, is unlike one on the screen because our medium mandates a very different approach. And if we don't know what the differences are, and why, can we write a scene that will please an acquiring editor?

Not having seen the writing I can't say if that's part of your problem, but if the reason I suggested for your losing interest in the story, it might be worth while digging into the tricks of the trade.

Hang in there, and keep on writing.

 

[sknox]

Not a recommendation but a suggestion. You might try writing something you care less about.

For me, at least, there were some significant aspects to getting a single story completely done, as in published and I can't touch it any more. I did this while I was working on the Big First Novel. I wrote a short story and got it published in an online magazine. Then I wrote a novelette and self-published that.

Along the way I got experience with editing what I thought was a completed work, got a sense of what "finished" feels like, and experienced the post-finished aspects such as telling others about it. All that and more helped me bring the novel to completion.

Now, I had already started the novel, so my experience doesn't map directly to yours, so take it for whatever worth you may find. Also, the stories I wrote took place in the same world (though not the same time period), so I wasn't having to do much world-building to get them done.

 

[janeoreilly]

It really depends on exactly why you got stuck at 10k, but I'm assuming it's because you didn't know what happened next - that's the most common problem. Writing a complex series is very, very difficult so you've definitely jumped in at the deep end . It often takes multiple drafts to pull in all the sub plots and secondary characters so it's fine if you can't figure this out in the first draft.

I would suggest looking at your main character to start with and trying to work out their character arc and plot. So who are they at the beginning v who are they at the end and what is their goal, and why. At this point if you also know how you want the story to end, that also really helps. Ask yourself what the book is about (not in a theme type way, but simply 'this is a book about a boy who discovers that he is a wizard' or 'this is a story about a farm boy who goes to fight for the resistance after his family is killed and discovers that he is a magic space wizard' etc).

Once you've got these things in place you can then start to think about plot. A story is more than a sequence of consecutive events and there are some really good books on plotting - Vogler Writer's Journey is a tome but worth reading for his exploration of traditional plot structure. Pixar films work to a very tight 3 act plot structure and are honestly one of the best ways to learn about plot - toy story and cars are absolutely brilliant in this respect. Watching them with a piece of paper and a pen and noting down the turning points: ordinary world, call to adventure, the high point, dark moment etc can be really helpful. Once you've got this, you can then start to look at your own story and see what each turning point would need to be which gives you a route through the book which should hopefully help you to keep going through a first draft.

 

[RJM Corbet]

My two cents worth is that perhaps the writer's block originates in the scale of the project. I would think it better to try to get the whole series you are visualising into just one book and that should narrow the focus? Put it ALL in there. Keep nothing back. Not going to be easy. It will consume all your time; it'll be all your heart and soul and all your energy? When that's complete and you see it in bookstores with your name on the cover, only then will be the time to start thinking about the next book of the series? Perhaps?

So ... good luck!

 

[The Big Peat]

Everyone's different and therefore it's about finding what works for you in the variety of options out there rather than following a set of instructions flawlessly to victory. I know that's obvious but it bears repeating.


My technique, for what it's worth, has been about doing the various parts of the project as inspiration comes. I pantsed the first 10k words or so, sat down and wrote a plan, got to about the 33% mark, made a better plan, got to about 66% of the way, rewrote the first couple of chapters, made some notes for revision, made an even better plan, finished it, did the world building, redrafted the first three chapters with the world building baked in, discovered I hadn't baked in enough, slowly redrafting again.

I'm working on a few projects at the moment where I just add scenes and notes as they come, hoping that at some point there's a big enough critical mass to make it happen.


I agree with The Judge on seeking crits - I've found that to be great for refining voice before diving into a project. I think Skip is really wise to recommend doing a short story or two to calm the nerves and practice, but as I'm not all that interested in short stories, find it impractical for myself. It may not work for you either.


The only real strong recommendation I have is to try something, go as far forwards as possible, be wise in discerning between what is hard work that pays off and what is too hard for the pay off, and then try new ideas for writing it when you find the first ideas don't work. And some of them won't - I can all but guarantee that. But that's not a big issue, not as long as you keep trying to make it work and learning. Better a good plan today than a perfect plan next week.

 

[Narkalui]

Thanks for all of your insights, definately food for thought. The problem with the first draft was that the story was effectively just a war diary and also that the political themes I put in were rediculously unsubtle and extremely preachy.

The only solution was to completely turn the story upside-down, which I've done only in my head...