The Single Largest Problem of Most First Time Novels
Original image courtesy of flowcomm, via Flickr Commons
All righty. So we have spent a couple of posts talking about getting our head right when it comes to doing this writing thing. Once we get our heads in the game, then the practical How To advice gets a heck of a lot more mileage. Today we are going to talk about the writing of the actual novel.
When I started out wanting to become a writer years ago, I was so clueless I didn’t even realize I was clueless. I had an overinflated ego from all those years making As in high school then college English. I believed I could write so when it came to reading craft books? I thumbed through them and decided I didn’t want my writing to be “formulaic” *flips hair*.
Trying to take a short cut cost me a lot of time and wasted words because I failed to appreciate that writing a work spanning 60K-100K words might just be a tad more difficult than that five page essay.
Once I realized how much I really didn’t know, I set about reading every craft book I could find, seeking out mentors, reading blogs and articles and taking classes until finally I actually became an expert.
In being an expert though, I run into a lot of writers who say the same things that I as a fledgling newbie said. I remember being utterly perplexed and most of the instructors I came in contact with had no good answer to my questions. Now in the position of teacher? I hope to give you what I had to find on my own.
You need to start in the action.
I did! How much more action do you need than blowing up a building with cyborg ninjas?
You don’t have any conflict.
Sure I do!
What is your book about?
Well, it isn’t about any one thing. Oh, but a lot of stuff happens to my character. She has a lot of issues.
What is your plot problem?
Oh, mine is a character-driven story.
Yeah.
This said, the single largest problem of most first time novels is there is simply no story. It really isn’t a novel, rather a collection of clever vignettes.
What is a STORY?
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Pirate Code=Writing Rules. Clearer now? 
