Writing a novel

David took the words out of my mouth (aarrgh...cliché alert!!) ref Adrian's lists, but I'm a planner too.

When I had no plan I found I got so far and didn't know where to go next, so I couldn't write. With a plan at least I had an idea. Beginnings and endings are often quite easy, it's the middle bit that's the problem - it has to have enough 'conflict' to keep readers interested. From my pint of view a plan is almost essential because I write historical fiction and have to keep tabs on both the dates of factual events and characters, real and imaginary, moving between them in a realistic way and at a speed compatible with the time period.

I can't do it David's way, but a lot of authors write that way. You just have to work out some method which allows you to get your required length of story down on paper as quickly and accurately as you can.

It's that easy! *Joking*

I'm sure that Adrian will be along soon to suggest a whole list of ways to plan a novel :-) (It would be interesting Adrian if you could suggest a comparative (or comparable) list for short stories - I am guessing that there may be both similarities and differences).

So - as one who doesn't plan - I have a different perspective.

I would ask "how do you go about writing your short stories, articles etc?" Do you think that this can be expanded, stretched or even just amended for writing a longer piece?

Next question - "what difference(s) are you thinking that you will find with the change to a longer format?" - followed by "do you think that this will cause any particular issues?"

I have just re-read your question...

Where to start?

Anywhere.

If you look at various posts on this site you will often see that people started out from one place and ended up somewhere completely different - that is - they started with what they thought was the beginning of a story (or a first chapter) and later found that it was anything but the start and/or the chapters moved around. It doesn't seem to make a lot of difference for most people whether they plan or don't plan - this type of change happens anyway (the planners have to change their plan - which is no great problem). There are of course a few planners that stick rigidly to the plan...

One thing that a longer story can be made a lot easier with is to start your continuity control as soon as you start - or at least as soon as you have anything (peoples' heights. hair colour, type of car, date of birth...) to keep track of.

I set up a standard table - using a blank "Master" that I just copy and paste for each new character - Then I make each document specific to the individual. I keep all of the "Personnel Files" in one folder - so that I have some hope of retrieving them fairly readily.

If there are complications of place or places it can be worth doing the same thing for these - sometimes the easier thing to do is to just sketch rough maps or plans and scan them into files - the reason I scan them is so that they don't get lost and I don't have to keep carrying the hard copy around.

Thinking of which - an essential thing from the start - BACK EVERYTHING UP REGULARLY :-) You do not want to lose several months work...

Similarly - it is useful to set up an "Archive" file/folder - then when any part of the work is about to be very altered it is useful to start it again as a new document copy and paste the old one to the new document and make the changes there - but don't forget to archive the original - just in case you want to go back to it later... If you do this you will probably never go back to it - but if you don't - you will almost certainly need to...

So - there are a few pointers - no clear plan or regime...

You can plan and scheme all you want if you wish to - that is your choice...

When it comes to it though there is only one way to start writing a novel - start writing...