Starting a Novel

[Pectabyte]

I was always told that it was better to write from the heart and make sure that shined through on the first few pages. Like if you're writing a sci-fi opera you wouldn't bog the first 10 pages down in technical jargain about how your space adventures travel faster than light. I was told that first 10 pages basically need to be a main character pitch since character driven fiction is what sells.

[moderntimes]

I normally begin my novels in medias res for chapter 1, then fill in the details with ch 2-4 or whatever, then return to the spot just after the end of chapter 1.

This way I jump start the story line. And since I write modern private eye novels, setting up the scene with a gristly crime or whatever is just part of the way it's done.

Seems to work well, too. At least my editor / publisher thinks so.

What is however necessary is to not do this with too much artificiality or obvious pushy action, like a TV cop show starting with a car chase and shootout. That's trite.

I wouldn't say that I always write from the heart. I tend to use the mind mostly, and the heart provides the color and background.

[aparsons]

Hey moderntimes. I was reading through the first page of this thread and wanted to comment on your use of vocabulary. When I was younger, I was reading at a higher grade level, which meant I knew more vocabulary then my classmates. I remember taking vocabulary tests in high school and having words like maelstrom, and breezing through them, because the authors I was reading didn't hold back. Granted, I am fluent in Spanish, so Latin based words are easy and besides, multiple choice tests are easy anyway. I'm glad to see new vocabulary, because it means I have nice shiny new words to use.

[moderntimes]

Thanks. I was always a voracious reader and my vocab was always far advanced from my little pals. I was reading Hemingway and later Faulkner when I was quite young, in grade school. So it comes naturally to me.

And it's helped in my writing -- for my mystery novels, my private detective protagonist is highly educated and smart, and so his narrative -- my novels are 1st person -- is upscale but not stuffy. He just "naturally" uses more elevated language, words like inauspicious or fervent or prevalent or furtive or disparate.

This separation from my other pals started when I was about 10 when I'd read all the juvenile books at the local library and my parents signed for me permission to have an "adult" library card, and I could go to the grown-up stacks and check out ANY book I wanted! When I proudly showed my special card to my friends, their comeback was "So what?" and the distancing began.

[aparsons]

I feel like people are only allowed a certain amount of eccentricities in certain circles before they begin to "shun the nonbeliever". Did you find better people to associate with when you got a little older?

[moderntimes]

High school for me was 4 years of horror. When I attended school **, they didn't have advanced classes and so everyone was lumped together. It was when I went to college that things bloomed. It was a big school and had all the advanced stuff and I was finally at home.

** I'm so old, when I went to school, history class only lasted 15 minutes.

[aparsons]

That's great to hear! I know you went into journalism, is that what you studied?

[moderntimes]

I'm one of those weird "dual brain" people. My major was chemistry, minor in math and biology. But I also had a deep love for literature so I took many lit courses, and a couple of journalism courses.

After graduation -- 5 years because I took lit and science both -- I went to work as a researcher in polymer physics, and did writing on the side. So I was never "officially" a journalist and only "strung" (piecework where you're paid per piece and not a formal employee of the newspaper, even though you get a very nice ID to prove you're not a fake) for the newspaper.

But my whole "day job" career was in science and technology, chemistry research, till I found I had a knack for programming, then I wrote lots of scientific / math programs in Fortran, took a job for a structural engineering firm, wrote programs that designed high rise buildings and arenas, big hotels, etc. Then went to Silicon Valley and was support manager for a firm which designed printed circuit boards, back to Houston for another structural engineering firm, this one offshore rig design, then segued into documentation and engineering specifications (tech writing) for "Big Oil" -- Shell, etc -- till retirement a couple years ago.

But all this time, I kept writing, short stories, articles, essays, and then turned my work toward my series of modern American private detective novels.

Whew.

What I do find is that my extensive experience in high tech documentation and specs helps me in my fiction, as I can revise and rewrite with a very objective "scientific" look into the sentence structures, rhythm of the prose, etc.

[sonipat]

Hello guys
tips for starting a Novel....
1. When planning your story’s structure, start with this no-fail method: Create a Doorway of No Return for your protagonist before the 1/5 mark of your book.
2. At the beginning of your story, include minimal backstory.
3. To deepen your descriptions, add character-defining sensory details.
4. Make secondary characters significant.
5. Instead of “write what you know,” try writing what you feel.

[moderntimes]

This is a good set of suggestions, soni.

I'm especially intrigued at the no-escape concept for your protagonist.

I thought about this from the retrospective of my 3 novels and realized that although I didn't consciously set this up, my protagonist private detective sets into a "no going back" zone early in the story, and then the reader is carried along in the rushing waters of the story.

You're also correct on the backstory. It should be kept to a minimum so as to further the story line and hold the reader's interest.

For me, writing what I know is concomitant with writing what I feel anyway. After completing 3 novels and working on 4 and 5, it comes natural to me.

[sonipat]

This is a good set of suggestions, soni.

I'm especially intrigued at the no-escape concept for your protagonist.

I thought about this from the retrospective of my 3 novels and realized that although I didn't consciously set this up, my protagonist private detective sets into a "no going back" zone early in the story, and then the reader is carried along in the rushing waters of the story.

You're also correct on the backstory. It should be kept to a minimum so as to further the story line and hold the reader's interest.

For me, writing what I know is concomitant with writing what I feel anyway. After completing 3 novels and working on 4 and 5, it comes natural to me.

Hi,
Thanks dear

[Skoraeus]

Writing a novel was never easy. It does depend on the creativity of the person. You've got to set ur frame of mind in the right 'setting'. The genre and setting in which the book takes place at. Fantasy? Modern day? Or simply the future? For example, our brain are filled with many doubts and anticipation of the future, it is up to the authors, to truly expand their own base of knowledge, their horizon in which they could truly display their full potential, bringing out the inner 'talent' in them.

[margaretmbrooks1]

Novel writing is propagating through the curiosity and impression. The starting of novel must be have this. I like to read and write but I always facing the staring trouble and i left many projects in my life.

[Booky_BettyC]

Your make a good point, "Moderntimes" (I wish people would use their real names. I dislike monikers.) but I find using unfamiliar words on the first page stops the reader causing a pause that could end up them putting the book down. I'm referring to the word, "abattoir" (slaughterhouse) that very few people know what it means. NOTHING should stop the reader from turning the first page.

I definitely agree with your point of using unfamiliar words on the first page, or even first chapter. I have a career in the medical field and have had years of schooling which I would consider myself to be very educated in more areas than one. When I read I like to relax and really get into a book, not feel like I'm having to carry a dictionary around to enjoy a book or feel like I am reading a textbook. For relaxation, simplicity is definitely better. Can't go wrong with the writing style of regular, everyday adult conversation style☺

[moderntimes]

Well, as I see it, I'm not gonna write down to my readers. Zlotnik's comment that "very few" people know the word abattoir is simply not true. Unless of course you group these people into the 5th grade level of literacy we see on TV these days. But my books are not pitched to simpletons. They're written for a literate, intelligent readership. And from the good reviews I've received, I think I'm doing just fine.

Other authors -- Booky? -- your novels may be written for another audience. If you're for example writing juvenile fiction, you must limit your vocabulary. Are your novels YA or otherwise meant for a slightly less educated readership? If so, that's fine with me.

From what I hear when I speak to "everyday" people is "ain't" and "I got no idear" or "ax me the question" -- but I'm not writing my novels for a Family Feud audience and I refuse to tamp down my own creativity to pitch to a 5th grade educational level. The word "abattoir" was precisely the correct word for my narrative.

My new novel also has words in chapters 1-3 like pristine, luddite, mantra, archetypal, fleurs-de-lis, indiscriminate, contiguous, impromptu, disavowed, copious, coif, and chapter 3 ending with "...we passed the uniform cop guarding the door, our own private Cerberus, and descended into hell."

But I write for a literate readership and thus far, my 3 novels have been well received.