ALEX J. CAVANAUGH'S awesome co-hosts for the August 6 posting of the IWSG will be Sarah Foster, Joylene Nowell Butler, Lily Eva, and Rhonda Albom!
Genre? Check: Mystery
Length? Check: Novel/75K
Setting? Check: Wisconsin
Protagonist? Check: Pepper Bibeau
Plot? Antagonist? Main Characters? Story Structure? Subplots?
First Sentence? Motive? Method? Open with action or build to it? Prologue?
Climax? Denouement? Epilogue?
So many questions and decisions make the idea of writing a
novel daunting. If every question had to be answered and every decision made
before the writing began, there probably wouldn’t be any libraries or book
stores.
I reminded myself often that it wasn’t necessary to know
exactly where I was going, and who did what at every turn, before I could write
the next scene or chapter. Some days I wrote two thousand words, other days barely
two hundred. On three days of the five weeks I spent writing the first draft, I
wrote over five thousand words. Those prolific days produced accomplishments and
memories that encouraged me to write another day.
That’s all it takes, some encouragement to write for one more
day, because you cannot write for two days at one time.
Another trick that kept me moving forward was doing only
small stretches of research. If I needed information to advance the plot, I
would do a quick check on the Internet for details to assure that what I wanted
to do wouldn’t paint me into a corner. Next month, I will learn the weight of a
rifle loaded and unloaded, the exact distance from one county to another, and
the correct bait needed to catch sunfish in June. Knowing a rifle fits into the
story, the driving distance is feasible, and catching sunfish in June is legal,
I could keep writing.
What encourages you to keep writing?
