It took me six years to finish the first draft. I’d set myself a target of completing it in time for my father’s 80th birthday. I made it, but only by dint of writing non-stop during a family holiday.
It is finished ... not
It took me six years to finish the first draft. I’d set myself a target of completing it in time for my father’s 80th birthday. I made it, but only by dint of writing non-stop during a family holiday.
Among the early questions posted was one about Writer’s Block. Well, I never had it as such, although there was a massive obstacle I had to confront. The heart of the book was the events leading up to, during and immediately after the Holocaust. I was, perhaps understandably, nervous about doing this. There would be many opportunities to go badly wrong.
But I had always assumed that the book had to be written chronologically. I was wrong in this, and got some inspiration from a pretty obscure source. One of my favourite books is a Proust-length novel by the French Nobel Laureate, Romain Rolland. Jean-Christophe is the life of a fictitious composer. Rolland’s own biographer, the wonderful Stefan Zweig explained that he wrote this 10-volume novel (if memory serves) episodically, rather than linearly.
This was a real breakthrough. It meant I could write around the central section and then come back to it, rather than await inspiration before progressing. This liberated me to write episodes from his later life while they were fresh in my mind without waiting for ‘their time’, so to speak. So the last – most challenging – part, the epicentre of the storm that befell my hero, was actually written during a blazing Mediterranean summer.
But of course it wasn’t finished. Yes, I got a printed draft wrapped up in ribbon for my dad but that was, in many ways, a mirage, a cruel deception, of completion
Because the haunting then began. I’d lie there thinking about the book generally. Sometimes, gaping holes appeared in the narrative. On other occasions, new avenues of possibility opened up that made sense psychologically or chronologically.
In short, what I found was that that Churchill’s famous quote about El Alamein (“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”) rang with great carillons of truth.
And then began the biggest question of all. What the hell do I do now?
Ian Phillips is a freelance writer for businesses whose first novel, Grosse Fugue, will be published by Alliance Publishing Press on April 3rd. He’s tweeting developments @Ian_at_theWord.
First of all, apologies for not responding more promptly to posts made over the last couple of days. I've been embroiled in heavy editing (the inevitable subject of a later blog) and needed to focus.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has posted. Here are my various thoughts.
Adrian, I think what I'm learning from everyone's feedback to my blog series thus far is that the way each of us writes is entirely personal. The only rule is that we do what makes us most productive, both quantitatively and qualitatively. I would never characterise what I had as Writer's Block; rather, it was an intellectual and creative obstacle that needed to be circumvented. By leaving that section until the end, I was able to make real progress. But I was never prevented from writing by that obstacle. As to my question at the end, it was poorly phrased, I now realise. I meant 'what the hell do I do with the novel now?', rather than with newly-available 'writing time'.
Louise, that may be a little harsh about Block! Like many similar challenges, if one's never been there, it's hard to know what it's like. In my first blog, I quoted Paul Auster about the only thing worse than writing is not writing. But now, I'm thinking that perhaps wanting to write and not being able to must be worse. I suspect (with no evidence, anecdotal or otherwise) that it mostly afflicts prolific, established writers, for whom regular productivity at a particular level of quality is a core structural part of their day. In that scenario, it is difficult to put oneself in that position. In fact, I imagine that it is possible that many readers of this blog and visitors to this site aspire to that condition as validation of our arrival as ‘writers’! I think you’re rather too generous about my planning skills. Grosse Fugue is constructed essentially around three ascending emotional peaks which mirror in the broadest sense the Beethoven movement from which my title is taken. The central section is the second. The third was in my brain from the earliest conceptualisation of the novel, so it was actually pretty easy to skip #2 and start on the ascent, crescendo and descent of #3. In the end, it very much worked for me – at least in the writing. And, finally, editing – coming soon to a blog near you, Nightmare on Edit Street.
Christina, I’m so glad that sharing this breakthrough resonates with you. As I said in my reply to Louise, I had a broad structure in my head so, for me, it was not too taxing to avoid the second section and move to the third. It clearly wouldn’t suit everyone or, indeed, every book, but it worked for me in the writing sense. I guess I will soon know whether it works for my readers!
Christopher, it’s interesting to hear how people get their ideas, though remind me never to accept a lift from you! Your post reinforces the key structures of writing – imagining, planning, capturing. Of course, this is almost entirely subjective. Your approach, which strikes me as being deterministic, in that you have your big ‘event’ and then seem to work back from that, is not something that I would recognise for myself. I started with a broad philosophical approach that had embedded in it a couple of key objectives or, perhaps, outcomes (which I will refrain from identifying just now). In the end, the only thing that really matters is whether we meet whatever we have set as our personal success criterion. Perhaps, that is merely to finish it, to share it with loved ones (and receive their praise), see it in print or for it to be a commercial success. Only be this measure can we, in the end, measure our work. My next blog will look at how my thinking evolved. As to ‘keyboard vs pen’, I understand there is a tactile element to the physics of capturing our words. For some, typing is just too slow. I’m a bit like that, but my handwriting is so bad that I had no option but to try and synchronise my tapping and my brain, often using post-it notes to capture fleeting ideas. In the end, it’s whatever works, isn’t it?
AS, first of all, many congratulations on completing the first draft! I hope it was very satisfying when you replaced the top on your pen or clicked ‘Shit down’. I hope you’ll be interested in next week’s posting when I deal with this whole ‘ambition and sharing’ thing, which can be most problematic. For now, all I can do is say ‘Enjoy the glow’ and keep taking notes!
Hi Ian,
Having just 'finished' my first draft. I completely get what you are saying about thinking about the manuscript even more.
Now I find myself repeating the dialogue back in my mind and want to edit parts - this is without even looking at the words on the page - I think I'm obsessed!
I know though that it is all part of the process and that the first draft needed to be written with all of the mistakes/plot holes/info dumps in order for my story to become a book.
Im enjoying it though. And once my wife has finished reading my first draft. I will be going back over it all over again.
Looking forward to you next post!
Hey Ian,
My first MS is a story that developed over a 3 year period of my young adult life (about 3 years to put down the whole story from start to finish NOT actually write the story). The way I developed it is something that I seem to apply to all the stories I worked on after the first one. I don’t use pen and paper. Some find it weird that a writer (trying to be one actually) doesn’t use pen and paper, but I don’t. In fact I hate using pen and paper. I love using technology, and so I use my laptop a lot. I even take all my notes on small documents using my phone if I have to and then forward them to my laptop.
Because I don’t use pen and paper, I believe I have developed good memory skills (for things that matter to me that is. I always seem to forget to take the garbage out or clean the sink, but I never forget a good twist for one of my stories :P ). I always come up with an idea in my head, and it always happens at the weirdest moments possible. During lunch with family, while having a drink with friends at the local pub or even in a dream, and most of them start formulating, taking shapes and substance while I am driving. I don’t know what it is, but when I drive my mind just seems to clear from all other thoughts and work’s things out.
The thing is I’ve never formed a story in a linear way. I always start with the “big” event in the story, the most important point (most often than not it’s a scene near the end of the story) and then work my way from there moving backwards or forwards, depending on what works best for me. I start by writing random scenes as they come, the beginning, the end, a shocking death, an important battle, a discovery of a secret, a twist in the story I never saw coming. I write all these in small independent chapters and random notes until the story becomes clear in my head, from start to finish. But when that finally happens and I start writing the story down, I always write it in a linear way and use the notes and small chapters I have written so far as reference, so I can remember of all the ideas I have noted down.
I have worked on 2 major stories so far, and only once I had to go back and add a chapter. I didn’t like it at all, even though the chapter was needed, I struggled to write the chapter and throughout the entire process I kept thinking how wrong it felt and I was constantly worried the chapter would not flow with the rest of the book. I kept thinking this chapter will stick out, it will be different!
Needless to say, when I finally finished writing it the story was a lot better and no one
could tell a thing :D so from my experience, I prefer writing in a linear way, but only after I have managed to put the story together in my head. While at the stage of creating the story, I prefer the randomness, to write as they come :)