Is your aim to write one novel, or several, or dozens? Whichever you choose, it can be exhausting. Not the writing, perhaps, but reactions. Consider the one-novel option:
Some single novels seem to last forever, and the author sees no need to write another. Margaret Mitchell took 11 years (1926-1937) and a ton of A4 to produce Gone with the Wind. The heroine is remarkable, partly for her 17-inch waist, that today we might call size 0. Responding to fans and journalists kept Mitchell from her bed. Apparently 30 million sold, and counting.
Kathleen Winsor took five years, swotting roughly one history on Restoration London a week, to write 13,000 pages of 'Forever Amber' (1939-44). Equal to five books a year, cut by US publishers to 972 pages of imminent sexual action. Gollancz spurned British rights, calling it trash, despite 'knowing it would sell a million'. Actually, it sold five million. Plus film, naturally. The power point is when normally gorgeous Amber nurses hero back from the plague.
Now Winsor was naturally a single novelist. Ultimately she published five more novels, and they all failed. Likewise four marriages to celebrities. Should have followed Mitchell’s example, receiving fans and hacks full time.
Harper Lee wrote only 'To Kill a Mocking Bird (1960) (made into a film with Gregory Peck in 1962) and was shy of fans and hacks. The book’s said to have passed 30 million, its author covered in honours. She twice tried another novel, but gave up half way, dissatisfied, evidently accepting herself as a one-novel accident.
The sale of J. D. Salinger’s only novel, 'The Catcher in the Rye (1951) hovers around 70 million. Straight off, young girls were persuading philistine lads to read it. Salinger was soured by wartime experience, harassed by church and state, kept film - makers and biographers at bay, withdrew into his own ivory tower.
Saddest one-novel story is John Kennedy Toole’s. Shattered by rejections of his satirical Confederacy of Dunces, he took his own life at 32 in 1969. His mother got it published in 1980, helped by (several-novel author) Walker Percy. It won the Pulitzer, sold in seven figures. Was Toole a fated one-novel writer? Well, his other fiction The Neon Bible failed as novel (1989) and film — perhaps hardly surprising, given he was 16 when he wrote it.
Best wishes, Alex
About Alex: Guest blogger Alex Hamilton is an award-winning travel writer. He contributes articles ‘The growth of travel guidebooks’ and ‘One hundred years of fiction bestsellers’ for the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook. Click here to buy the 2011 edition at a discount »
So many would be authors go about their writing in the wrong way.
I use Tips from other authors.
Henry James : Dramatize, Dramatize, Dramatize.
Ruth Padell : Show Don’t Tell.
Walter Allen : Settings, Centrally Important and Motivated Generally.
Raleigh : Good Novelists are Great Novel Readers.
James Patterson : Outline, Outline, Outline.
FR and QD Leavis : The Function of Characters.
Alain : ( French Philosopher ) An Abstract Style is Always Bad. Your Sentences Should Be Full of Stones, Metals, Chairs, Tables, Animals, Men and Women.
One main character.
Keep your vocabulary simple.
Use Your Imagination, Picture the Scene.
Critically Important. What Did You See, Hear or Feel. Have Your Characters Talk to One Another.
One thought one sentence.
Sign-Posting is Very Important.
Use Your Imagination, Picture the Scene.
Vivid Descriptions. Use Real Life Experiences.
What is the Chapter About?
Where is the Setting?
Each Chapter Should Be a Water-Tight, Self-Contained Episode.
Each Sentence : What is My Basic Point Subject? What Am I Saying About It?
Short Sentences, Simple Vocabulary, Visual, Speakable.
One Thought One Sentence.
Build Sentence Round Person or Solid Object.
Buried References May Be Useful Later in Your Storyline.
Keep the Storyline as Straight and Clear as You can Make It.
Be Careful That There are Not to Many Geographical Settings.
Your Opening Should be Dramatic, Straight Into the Action.
Unless your a genius it's impossible to think of everything.
It's imperative to have an excellent editor you can work with, but he or she has to do more than listen. They have to be brutally honest. Correct your grammar. Suggest word or sentence changes or additions. Give you direction. Tell you what's missing.
Cheers and Good Luck, Gonlor.
My first novel took (is taking) a very long time, mostly because I keep re-writing it. The prequel was quicker and an entirely different story only took ten years...
This was very interesting. I didn't realise that some of the best ever novels were written by authors who never published again.
Now I don't feel so bad that I haven't been inspired enough to write a send novel, my second book, a poetry and inspiration gift book, sold out.
Thanks for sharing.
Love, Chrissy