Where To Even Start
This week on a free coaching call, I talked with a young writer who was approaching writing a novel for the first time.* He simply wanted to know how to start his project. If you’re a writer who has been at it for a while, you might be surprised by this question. After all, you have your time-tested methods at the ready. I’ll admit I was surprised. It’s a question fundamental enough to overlook, but it’s a good one.
How do you start a novel?
“What does your character walk into the novel wanting more than anything in the world and what’s keeping him from getting it?” I asked my writer. He didn’t know. I recommended that, at the very least, he sketch this out before starting in. Without coordinates locked on the main character’s desire, a novel doesn’t have focus. It can make the writing even harder to return to day after day.
“Do you know what the major plot points are?” I asked the writer, then phrased it another way: “Do you know what happens in your novel?” My writer made non-committal noises over the phone line, perhaps out of embarrassment. (But there’s really no reason to be embarrassed! These are questions we all have to figure out with our novels.) As with the main character’s desire, not having a good idea where your novel is headed means you don’t have anything to write towards. It’s worth noting down the conflicts ahead, the peaks and valleys, and especially the ending.
Our call was a short one, so I didn’t have time to go into great depth but I did leave my writer with one assignment that may help him pull this all together: write the back jacket copy for your novel. Writing your jacket copy brings into sharp relief those key elements of a novel: the main character’s desire, the setting, what or who stands in the character’s way, and what is won (or lost or learned) through the novel journey, that is the ultimate point of the book. This assignment energized my writer and I believe it will help shape the start of his project.
There’s so much more that can be uncovered in the early stages of preparing to write a novel. Right now I am working on certification through Author Accelerator, and one of the services I’m really looking forward to offering is novel blueprint development. Created by Author Accelerator’s founder, Jennie Nash, this process is incredibly in depth and a powerful way to intimately know the ins and outs of your novel even before you start to write it. (And, to be honest, the blueprint process can even help someone who has drafted their novel but feels stuck on how to approach revision.) I’m really looking forward to offering this service! Stay tuned.
*Details have been changed or obscured to protect this writer’s identity.
