> Here’s my dilemma: I start a new novel every two years. I get 50-75
> pages into it and I start to lose interest or get a new job or start
> exercising again or get a new flat-screen or …. Ok. You get the
> picture. I’ve started working on a new novel now. I’m determined.
> I even unplugged the television. Any advice??????

First piece of advice, don’t start at Page #1.

Make sure dramatic structure applies to the basic structure of your story…

If Freytag’s Triangle is new to you, click here and start reading.

One of the things I’ve been seeing consistently with novel submissions from many first time novelists is that they’ve put together a story with some interesting scenes and character sketches but has no actual structure to it. Simply put, when that happens the characters don’t know where to go, what to do, or even WHY they’re doing it. Once at that point the writer runs the risk of having everything feel forced or, more commonly, the novel’s momentum completely stalls out and ends up in a proverbial desk drawer.

> Ok. Max. This is some good stuff. I took a look at the Wiki article also. I’ve
> generally approached novel writing as an “attack the head first” approach. But
> perhaps a “soft underbelly” may be the most efficient point of inital attack.
> Max, and others, are you suggesting perhaps writing the climax first?…

Glad the approach is working for you…

Personally, I tend to write stories alot like a film production. Movies are rarely ever filmed in chronological order but schedule their shooting based on a variety of factors. Sometimes major actors have prior contractual agreements (e.g. – also on a TV show) and the shooting schedules partially overlap so they shoot scenes that particular actor isn’t in. Sometimes if a movie takes place across several remote locations the production team will spend up to a few months in each location, shooting all the applicable scenes, then shoot the remainder on sets in a soundstage.

When it comes to your question about writing the climax first I’d say that’s more of a judgment call on your part. If your main climax is built up from a complex chain of events that cause all the characters and events to converge, then yes, writing the main climax first might be the best move. By writing that climax first you can define all the contributing factors then work backwards with each element.

Let’s take that movie “Castaway” (starring Tom Hanks) for example. Because this was about him being stranded on a deserted island, the first major climax in that story is when the flight he was on crashed into the Pacific ocean. By writing that climax first (or very early on in the writing process) you could define what items he has on him at the time of the crash (like the pocketwatch heirloom his girlfriend gave him with her face inside) and then work backwards to define the girlfriend and their relationship as well as all the events leading up to why he was on that fateful flight. Because a majority of the rest of the movie takes place on that island, this climax also defines some of the pieces of civilization that wash ashore with him, establishing certain themes that carry through the rest of the movie (e.g. – Wilson the volleyball).

At other times I’m prone to map the basic chain events but write the most powerful scenes first. Sometimes it’s because they’re critical lynch-pins to the rest of the story. Other times it’s because the scene required research and all that reading is fresh in my mind. Still, other times I might write that first major climax before anything else because it also affords me the chance to make the story leading up to that climax less predictable and I can better control the pace leading up to that climax. another thing I’ve noticed is that if I’m writing a story in a linear fashion, sometimes I have a bad habit of “telegraphing my punch” as far as the upcoming climax is concerned. Not sure if I do it because I’m anxious to get to the climax or that it’s hard to keep it a secret, but when it comes to working backwards it’s easier to remember “Okay, the reader wouldn’t know _______ at this point.” so it’s easy to conceal things (even verbiage that hints at something coming) and make for a bigger surprise once the reader reads it linearly.

Hope that helps… good luck with it.

> Hi I am not a professional writer; however, I have a class project in
> which I am suppose to interview a professional writer and was wondering
> if some one would be willing to answer the following questions:
>
> * What kind of planning do you do before you write? do you make a list?
> Formal or informal outlines?
>
> *How do you compose your drafts? do you dictate? Draft with a pen and
> paper? Compose on screen?
>
> * when you want advice about style. grammer, and spelling what
> source (s) do you consult?
>
> * Do you ever work with other writers to produce a single document?
> If so describe the process you use
>
> Thanks

Simple answers:

*How do you compose your drafts? do you dictate? Draft with a pen and paper? Compose on screen?

Dictation is for doctors and dentists. Speaking your thoughts into a digital recorder is a different thing entirely. With the professional writers that I associate with, a pen and paper doesn’t play much of a role in the drafting process beyond taking down journalist-style notes when away from a computer. Matter of fact, outside of an occasionally meeting a writer born between the late 30s and early 60s, drafting with a pen and paper is typically reserved to poets/spoken word artists/lyricists.

* when you want advice about style. grammer, and spelling what source (s) do you consult?

(1) The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. (this is a must)
(2) The Copyeditor’s Handbook
(3) Dictionary.com
(4) Webster’s Pocket Style Guide (I keep this in my laptop backpack)

* Do you ever work with other writers to produce a single document? If so describe the process you use

I’ve only participated in one collaborative writing effort and, even then, it was only because I was hired to come in after two other writers had been taking turns writing installments for a piece of serial fiction. I took on the project because I wanted a simple part-time challenge and I believe in what this brotha has put together (I write for the online drama the site is Jamal Washington:CEO, a feature on Blackmoneymatters.com. Admittedly, getting started with it was a huge pain because Paige and Sonja, the two writers that handled it before I took over, had completely different styles. One was pretty consistent, the other was all over the map like she was transcribing conversations from that show “The View”. Neither did that good of a job at maintaining consistency with what the other wrote. What I ended up doing was spending a few weeks actually studying everything that was written beforehand so I could get a fix on what the main character had been through, who was in his life, and where to possibly take it from there. I also had to deal with taking care of all the continuity errors, factual errors and anything with the plot that didn’t drive the story forward — all while building a solid foundation that I could conceivably hand-off to another writer someday and eliminate their need to go through the same process. Collaborative writing efforts seem to only work best for non-fiction; for anything else it’s just a pipe dream.

Hope that helps… good luck.

> Does anyone have experience using voice activated software to write
> your books? I experimented with a program some years ago, but found it
> too slow. I imagine the software has improved since then.
>
> I would like to hear from anyone who has used it, and became more
> prolific using a program that writes down everything you say, instead
> of having to type out all of your work.

A few years ago, as part of a book project I experimented with using Dragon NaturallySpeaking package to transcribe dictation files recorded using my digital recorder. After training the software (I had to read a pre-set page to it a few times so it could learn my speaking patterns), I learned the following:

• Although the software is pretty accurate with it’s transcription (and steadily getting better), it’s not foolproof. Expect to edit your work thoroughly because many of the errors will also slip by the average spell checker (e.g. – read versus red, lead versus led, etc).
• Since it’s trained to your voice, it does a quirky job if you’re trying to transcribe a recorded interview or conversation with one or more people.
• Using this to help write a book would be handiest if you are writing a personal memoir or recording stories being told by an elderly person (or anyone else that has had to tell such tales many times).

Regardless of what you’re writing, the downside is that it will show you that we form spoken sentences and structure stories in a radically different fashion than how we write them. We tend to repeat ourselves, cut our words (depending on regional accent), rely heavily on cliches and colloquialisms, attempt to revise sentences on the fly to see what sounds better, and while we’re formulating sentences we tend to throw in unnecessary words and sounds like “uh”, “and-uhh”, “ummm”, “like”, “so”, “and so on”, and etc. The first time I saw my first transcribed story attempt on the screen I felt like I was reading the ramblings of a babbling idiot.

After all the editing and cleanup, I came to realize that this method sucked as a replacement for just typing everything into a word processor. I found that I was better off using this method for transcribing collections of dictated notes and thoughts, saved to files that I could print as references or cut pieces and insert into a manuscript.

Good luck with it…

Max