To all the writers out there, at what point do you think you have enough information to start writing a book? Can you write just off the one idea? Or do you have note books full of plot developments, characters, settings and creatures, before you start writing?
Personally, I have to have quite a bit of story line and ‘nagging’ before I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). I normally start with a single idea. Most of the time it’s relatively small and made up of only a short scene or plot. About four days ago I had an idea about a group of kids who find an abandoned train hidden somewhere and they try to get it working. I thought, ‘hmm, that isn’t much of an idea, but… what else happens?’ Then I thought, ‘Why would they get this old train working?’ Could it be they all come from awful backgrounds – abuse, neglect, bullying and to escape their tormentors they meet at this train and get it working so they can leave their lives behind. I was so excited, because I could explore each kid’s background and really dig in deep and write some nasty stuff, exercising my writing skills and pushing my boundaries a little further than I’m used to. I sat down and wrote about two pages… and that was it.
I should have learnt from the past that that wasn’t enough information and I didn’t let it grow in my mind before starting to write. I don’t really have rules when it comes to starting books, just a few basic guidelines, and I’d like to go over a few here.
First off, the Idea. If I get an idea for a book, and I like it, or whatever powers that be think I should write it, it will stick. It will be like a thorn in my brain and I’ll find that I’m thinking about it a lot, at work, in the car, shopping. I’ll think of that one idea, then I’ll let it grow. For example, Heather Cassidy and the Magnificent Mr. Harlow – the idea was in my head, a girl whose father owns a circus and their magician has lost his magic. Fine, the idea is there, so what? Over the course of a few weeks the idea grew.
I call this stage the Incubation stage. It’s an egg, not much to it, pretty basic. I’ll keep a warm light on it and see what happens. Suddenly one day while sitting on the toilet or in the shower I think, ‘The magician’s daughter doesn’t believe in him anymore because he hurt her during a magic trick’. I think, ‘yeah, that’s good. He can’t do magic because his daughter doesn’t believe in him.’ Another piece of the puzzle is added. But still, not enough to write an entire book. Fast forward a week and while driving or at work, I’ll think, ‘maybe the daughter found another realm, another world where magic is bought and sold and she sold her father’s magic to stop him from doing it.’ Now I have some sort of plot and a few characters. I could start to write now, but more than likely I will stop because I don’t really have anywhere to go. When writing a book I need to have a vague idea of the ending, so I know where to write to. Or else it’s like aiming an arrow at nothing, you need a target. Sometimes I will brain storm, just to see what I come up with. Heather could find the ‘way’ to this other ‘world’ and become stranded. This gives me more characters, an entire world to imagine and make up, and it can take me away from the first part of the story. Heather could be trapped in this world and find people who know about selling magic and help her, at a price. She could join a battle with the ‘rebels’ and break into the ‘evil magicians’ tower to retrieve the magic and get back to her home world, but will she make it? What about the ending? She confronts the Evil magician, and he tells her Mr. Harlow’s daughter sold the magic to him, there’s a fight, she gets back to her home world, just in time and confronts the daughter. She ‘believes’ in him again, his magic is restored and she joins him on stage for a magic show. Her father is almost in tears that he has his daughter ‘back’ and they perform a grand magic trick. The end. Seems simple and basic, and that’s what an outline should be. All I have to do now is join the dots.
I’ve been writing non-stop for about five years, so I’ve always got at least two things on the go. If it’s Everdark stuff, or my adult books, or comic scripts or whatnot, I find that I don’t really have the time to start new books unless I can finish old ones. At the point that Mr. Harlow came about, I didn’t have too much writing stuff that was drawing me to my desk to write. I was rewriting an old book and had lost interest. And here in lies the ‘nagging’ part. Mr. Harlow nagged me. It wanted to get written. I would think about it, think of the world I had to invent, what would it be like? What would the circus be like? What happen to Heather’s mother? How does she get back? Then one day I decided I would sit down and start it. I had the plot, some characters and the time. I thought, ‘Ok, I’ll start writing this, but I’ll write it quickly,’ as I figure Heather Cassidy and the Magnificent Mr. Harlow would never get published. I had no plan on sending it to any publishers until one day, in the future, if someone asked to publish something from me, then, maybe, I would show it to them. I was writing it because I love to write, and if I didn’t put it down, the nagging would continue until I did.
I had a set plan, write quickly, and aim for about 120 pages. Don’t edit it, or maybe edit once, fast, and then leave it. I would move onto the next project, as I’ve started to get the nagging for another book. Sometimes to keep the writing beast in the basement, I’ll write a short story. This way I can get that one idea that never comes to fruition, and write it down. I had an idea about a father and son who drive around the long streets near their home town and pick up lost treasure on the high way that people either leave behind, or throw out their window. One day they come across a cardboard box that has a head in it. Not enough for a book, but enough for about four pages of a short story. Another story I had was an elderly woman who is alone and speaks to spirits through her voice recorder. Not much, but in the end you see she has piles and piles of tapes, all recordings of conversations with ghosts in her house. I haven’t written this one yet, but every few weeks I get the photo-like image in my mind of the old woman sitting in the small, damp, kitchen clutching the recorder in her hands, asking if the ghosts are there.
Sometimes a spark can cause a fire, a wildfire. I’ve spent years thinking about a series of books off one idea. Then again, sometimes I’ve written a paragraph off one idea and the fuel tank ran dry. I’m writing Mr. Harlow because I have the time in my writing schedule. I have Everdark Realms to write, but I have a while to do that, I have my adult book Hexagram that I work on every now and again, piecing it together slowly. I had the entire plot for Mr. Harlow, knew it would be fun to write and was motivated. Once I’m in a few chapters, and the ball is rolling so to speak, I don’t usually stop.
Usually, about a third of the way through writing a book I’ll hit a wall. This wall feels like mud, or quick sand, or like trying to run in water. When I was writing Monster Detention I hit the wall badly. That book is 466 pages long, the longest book I’ve ever written. At about page 300 I got the writing blues, badly. I lost all motivation to write it, I knew exactly where to go, what had to be done and it became too predictable. Every time I sat down to write it I felt depressed, every fibre of my being wanted to write something else, anything else but this. Looking back, I think I may have been apprehensive about finishing it. It’s a long book, one that I planned out, wrote notes, researched, was happy with the characters, connected with them and it was coming to an end. Maybe a part of me didn’t want it to end? This three-quarters-of-the-way-through wall happens every time. It’s that bit of the book were there’s a lot of explaining and dialogue and not much action. The calm before the storm. I knew it was coming with Mr. Harlow and I thought if I hit this wall, I may not recover. I may not finish it, and I wanted to. I don’t often get that far into a book and abandon it. So, I saw the wall coming up, I was anticipating it and I had a plan. I would hit the wall full speed, write through the mud and sludge, get all the 
dialogue and explanation out of the way, like they do in movies, and move straight on to the action packed ending. I didn’t want to glance over the important reveal or story, but I didn’t want to get bogged down with explanation. It was hard, but I think I did it. I hope it doesn’t sound too rushed or weakened by restricting it to just one chapter. Now, Mr. Harlow is primed right at the gates of the evil Emperor’s domain and there’s nothing but action and suspense to write. I’m excited now to write it, and when I do find an hour or two to sit and write it, I know it will come out fast and furious and it’ll be fun.
Mitchell Tierney
The classics. It’s a term that gets bandied around quite a lot. Now we’ve spoken of literary snobs before but the literati seem to wax lyrical about the list of books all people should read. I realised that I have not read quite a few books on this list. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a literary heathen. As I’ve mentioned previously I was a Shakespeare geek in high school, I have read some of the period romances from the Pride and Prejudice family, I have adventured through Middle Earth and have gone down the Rabbit hole with Alice. I have gone along with Homer’s Odyssey and have spent time with Anne of Green Gables. But there are many books I have not read.
For some the period romances of Pride and Prejudice etc are classics. Personally I find them dull and have only managed to get through the afore mentioned Pride and Prejudice and Little Women and I began Sense and Sensibility but i was bored to tears. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with these books but they are just not to my taste. I’m much more likely to read Sense Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
Others include Watership Down, Lord of the Flies, War and Peace (this one is going to kill me i fear) and Anna Karenina. But now to pick the others.
