The Glamour of Writing : Non Sequitur, Jan 12, 2006

Non Sequitur comic strip, Jan 12, 2006
Well, at least he's had an adaptation...
and been published...
and GOT THE DANG THING WRITTEN!

The best way

The Best Way not to write a novel is not to write at all. There are so many exciting ways to accomplish this! Go shopping, read email, watch TV, talk on the phone, or even just stay in bed!

If all of those are too commonplace for you, then consider another alternative - editing! It's looks sort of like writing - you're sitting at keyboard, and your fingers are moving - but if you do it right, your storytelling progress is completely stopped! The key is not to just fix things and move on. No, no, no! To do it right, first get your mind right - seek perfection! Seize upon every defect, and use it as an oppotunity to re-examine all of your work so far: your characters, your setting, your point-of-view - everything! Don't stop until you are thinking about both the very largest possible picture, and the very smallest possible detail at the same time. I find Overall Concept and Word Choice to be my favorites.

Done correctly, this is a very rewarding process. The appeal of Failure is highly underrated, in my opinion. It offers so many benefits: self-pity, ennui, and the enormous comfort of At Least I Tried.

For maximum results, try Tantric failure: come as close to possible to giving up, then back off at the last possible moment. Each time you managed to complete this sequence without actually quiting will only deepen the satisfaction when you finally do Fail.

Of course, if you find that you can't hold back, and simply give up the first time, please don't blame yourself, or feel too bad. At Least You Tried.

The Story So Far...

Hi. I'm an unemployed software engineer. I've always said that I wanted to write, so I decided to use this little career setback as an excuse to write a novel.

I worry a lot. Sometimes I feel guilty and foolish for wasting time on this. Sometimes I think (probably rightly) that the whole idea behind this novel is stupid. Sometimes I think I'm putting too many ideas together. Sometimes I think the structures wrong.

All of this is a waste of time, because I'm going to write it anyway. But when I get stuck, or bored, or want to distract myself, I need to keep writing something. Well, this blog is going to be that something. It's also a waste of time, I imagine, but at least I'll have some history about what happened along the way.

Now for status. Since this is the first post in the blog, let's start with the big picture. I think this novel has three layers. The first layer is a detective story. I think I have the plot for that, more or less. I've drafted the first chapter, summarized the plot of the intermediate chapters, and drafted the final chapters.

The third layer is a character-based story which occurs within the detective story. The detective story is set in a dystopian future, and the character-based story, told in the first person, is an exploration of that dystopia. I have a sense for how that story should go... but it's got to service the plot.

The interaction between these two layers alone is enough to drive one insane. It would be a lot easier (I think) to write a purely character based story... but I'm doing it this way, in the hope that the detective story will create suspense, making the character-based story more interesting to read.

The third layer is the mushiest. It's basically just a matter of language, style and tone, but I have some contraints I need to meet. I won't explain that now, because I'm still working on the second layer, and I don't need any more negative thoughts interfering with that than I already have!

As for today: I went back to right after the first chapter, just a few minutes later, and started writing. The first chapter, as I've already indicated, is mostly detective story. This second chapter is mostly character-based. I need to establish relationships. The truth is, I'm finding that fairly easy. The hard part is handling exposition - how much to tell, and when.

Of course, I already know that answer - don't tell anything. Wait for the characters to discuss things naturally. When the draft is finished, if more exposition is necessary, add it in then. Unfortunately, easier said that done. I do love to explain things...