I may or may not have mentioned before that my current work in progress is a novel.

Are you scared for me?

While I’ve been kicking ideas around for awhile now, I just got a few other projects out of the way and now I’m going to be focusing on this. Some of you might be wondering, “How do I even start a novel?”

Here’s what I’ve done.

I had the big idea while I was driving. I don’t know why, but that’s where all my ideas come to me. It was nothing really, just a shred of a thought. A “Hey, I could write a novel about this…” type of idea.

It sat for a little bit, and then I was out driving again. An idea for a character came to me. As I swerved around the road endangering small orphans and puppies with lung cancer, I scribbled down basic ideas for all my characters.

Then, I sat down and fleshed out those characters. (Don’t worry, I wasn’t behind the wheel.) When I create characters, I try to think of people that are ripe for change. For example, a couple that just had a baby, or a woman who is on probation at her job. These kinds of characters are good fodder for having an arc (starting somewhere and growing into something else.)

I can also throw these characters into an environment and let them interact. If all my main characters are ripe for change, it’s very easy to think of interesting plot points and journeys for them to take. I always try to create interesting characters and let the plot grow naturally.

Lastly, I made a rough outline of the plot with my characters. I applied my “Layer cake” theory to the outline and now I think I’m in a fairly good place. I’m going to go back through, add one more layer and then start writing, hopefully about mid-week.

I’m very excited to get started on this one.

Tags: novel, writing, story

Posted by Classic Jef on Sunday, March 18th, 2007 at 5:17 pm.