A New Adventure
What is My New Adventure?
At first glance, this doesn't sound crazy. I mean, anyone with sufficient time and stickability can bang out sufficient words to write a novel, surely?
Alas! That's not quite how it works. Because I have Definitions:
What makes a novel? How will you know if its good? And I have a deadline. Which, for some mad reason, is totally self-imposed.
What is a Novel?
A novel is characters, reacting to transformational conflict.
I know there are definitions, more elegantly phrased and possibly more accurate. But this is mine. And It doesn't just apply to novels - it applies to plays, movies, tv shows. Anything that involves fictionalised encounters, really.
You can structure it anyway you like, set it in outer space or in a gold-rush town or in a big city. It can be partly true. You can have love and loss and longing or you can have the entire action in one character's head, and he never even gets out the door. You can have, for that matter, characters that are animals, or extra-terrestrial, or dead. But the crux of a novel (TV show, movie, play, whatever) is three things. Character. Conflict. Change.So simple!
Haha. If it were only so simple, there would be no need for writing classes or blogs about writing or books that teach the craft. It is the hardest thing in the world.
How long is a Novel?
My definition is around 70,000 words, but it can be shorter (Hemingway famously did it in six), it can be as long as you like. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is over 500,000 words. (If you want a list of long novels, click here)
from The Girl and Her BooksHow do you define 'Good'?Ah, now, that's the killer, isn't it? The answer is. I have to like it. I have to be happy with it. I have to think, Sir or Madam Agent, I am willing to submit this to you. Realistically, it means I have to have done at least three drafts.
It doesn't mean Great, by the way. A great novel takes a lifetime.
And now, a confession.This is not Day Zero. I began this project in November, so I am part way through already. But my documentation will begin - where?
At the beginning. Because that is a very good place to start.
Watch this space. I'll update every two to three days. As time allows, really.
At first glance, this doesn't sound crazy. I mean, anyone with sufficient time and stickability can bang out sufficient words to write a novel, surely?
Alas! That's not quite how it works. Because I have Definitions:
What makes a novel? How will you know if its good? And I have a deadline. Which, for some mad reason, is totally self-imposed.
What is a Novel?
A novel is characters, reacting to transformational conflict.
I know there are definitions, more elegantly phrased and possibly more accurate. But this is mine. And It doesn't just apply to novels - it applies to plays, movies, tv shows. Anything that involves fictionalised encounters, really.
You can structure it anyway you like, set it in outer space or in a gold-rush town or in a big city. It can be partly true. You can have love and loss and longing or you can have the entire action in one character's head, and he never even gets out the door. You can have, for that matter, characters that are animals, or extra-terrestrial, or dead. But the crux of a novel (TV show, movie, play, whatever) is three things. Character. Conflict. Change.So simple!
Haha. If it were only so simple, there would be no need for writing classes or blogs about writing or books that teach the craft. It is the hardest thing in the world.
How long is a Novel?
My definition is around 70,000 words, but it can be shorter (Hemingway famously did it in six), it can be as long as you like. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is over 500,000 words. (If you want a list of long novels, click here)
from The Girl and Her BooksHow do you define 'Good'?Ah, now, that's the killer, isn't it? The answer is. I have to like it. I have to be happy with it. I have to think, Sir or Madam Agent, I am willing to submit this to you. Realistically, it means I have to have done at least three drafts.It doesn't mean Great, by the way. A great novel takes a lifetime.
And now, a confession.This is not Day Zero. I began this project in November, so I am part way through already. But my documentation will begin - where?
At the beginning. Because that is a very good place to start.
Watch this space. I'll update every two to three days. As time allows, really.
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