How do you write a novel ?
I’ve often wondered if there is a novel in each of us. Perhaps there is and most of us are not dedicated enough to expose it. Unfortunately, there are also those who are not talented enough (we’ve all read a book that might better have never been published). At some point, I may give it a try but I probably will not attempt to publish … you can now breath a collective sigh of relief <grin>.
I read an early interview with J.K. Rowling who explained how she had boxes of bits of paper with various facts, characteristics, plot elements, narratives, props, and scenery details. She had the overall storyline in her head and used all of these “bits” to create a fully formed novel.
I have used TheBrain for developing research papers, patent ideas, and competitive analysis. My use of TheBrain is an electronic box of bits of papers. TheBrain allows me to ”wire” the bits together to identify relationships. And, unlike organizing bits of paper, I can reuse the bits as often as I like.
In a novel I might wire together a character a prop and a scene. I can wire the same character and prop to another scene. In the first I might add a note about how the character finds the object and in the second instance I elaborate on how it might be used or when it makes a pivotal play. I wire together these collections to plot elements and I connect the plot elements in a series to form chapters and eventually the whole story.
The interesting point of all these bits and wires is that when I add another wire, I can see both the bits that I meant to wire together as well as the related bits that are connected by other wires. For example, when I wired the second instance of the character and prop for that pivotal moment, I can see what was going on at the time I first connected the character and the prop. I might realize that a second character was in the first scene. If that same character is in the second scene, I could take advantage of the relationship. I would also know *not* to imply the prop is a surprise to the second character <oops>.
My problem is two-fold. First, would I have enough material to make a novel? Second, would it be very interesting? I don’t have the answer to either.
So, do you have a novel in you ? Do you think you will ever write it, even just for yourself ? How would you go about starting ?
