Are you a pantser, or did you plan your novel?
Did you outline your novel, or simply proceed with the ideas that inspired you to pick up your pen?
I planned my novel from the beginning to the end, then wrote the first draft. However, I was far from satisfied with the end product. I realised that the ending didn’t have conformity with the beginning. But changing the ending and the beginning, meant doing a complete thematic and structural edit of my first draft. But as I did this, I had ideas for further improvement. After much rewriting and many thorough edits, I am happy with my manuscript, but I still have work to do.
How are you getting on with your novel?
Complete pantser here! When I started writing I had no idea where it was going. When I got stuck I would survey family members and steal their ideas. As I got further through I began to have ideas for a few scenes I would like to include, but the characters made their own ways there. As a result my first draft was very thorough, because I would change and rewrite things as I went, and I didn't have to do a structural edit because I needed it in place as I was going.
Once I finished the book I went back and made an 'after the fact' plan to help me with writing a synopsis and it taught me so much about my characters...but I couldn't have done it the other way round.
Plan plan plan! I do character and plot outlines. Write little back stories of their lives before the book. I'm also an illustrator so I'm constantly doing sketches of characters and scenery to really feel a place before and during writing.
The novel (or novels -it's a trilogy) I am currently working on started out as a two page word exercise to break a bout of writer's block caused by comments on a previous project which was described as "would make a good sitcom, but curiously plotless for a novel."
Not what you want to hear.
From an agent.
So then I started thinking about that and other issues and now I've got so involved in this project, I don't want to write anything else.
The plot - and this has definitely got one - has gone through many changes and adaptations (I have completed all three books) and is still being worked on.
A friend of mine wrote the synopsis for all seven books in a fantasy saga before starting work on the first one.
If we were all the same, we'd probably be more dangerous. But less interesting.