It begins with words and then you move up through the pyramid of skills it takes to write a novel. Now it’s time to focus on the meat of it all: the writing of your novel.
If there’s one piece of advice from Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel that you must remember, it is this:
"The ultimate fact about novel-writing is that you can never control whether your writing efforts will be successful, but you can control whether they will be enjoyable or satisfying."
They may be at the core of it all, but the stringing of words alone won’t get your novel written. You alone bring so much more to your work than that.
“When you begin your novel, you know enough about your material to begin it, but not enough to finish it. As you write, you learn about what you are writing. Everything, in fact, that carries you out into the world, teaches you to observe, and rewards your observation with some worthy nugget is good.”
“A novel comes alive, even to its author, as it precipitates onto the page.”
It seems that the bulk of what gets us through the writing of a novel seems to me made up of a combination of these four things: inspiration, contemplation, admiration and overcoming boredom.
“Every author attests to the two states of writing – inspiration and waiting for inspiration. So, write toward inspiration.”
“Contemplation of the material creates forward energy-one word, line, thought, image, idea, sentence or paragraph elicits another.”
But don’t get stuck in awe of other writers. This happened to me one day while reading John Irving’s A Widow for One Year. I’d never read Irving before and found myself amazed by his writing and the way he’d constructed this story. I put the book down and thought, “I can’t do this.” Of course I was right: I can’t be John Irving or write the stories he writes, but I can write my own.
“Admiration for the work of other novelists should remind you of the goal, but not make the goal seem unattainable, should open up your desire to write, not shut it down.”
Smiley has a firm belief in the forward motion of writing a novel and doesn’t use the term “writer’s block” in these chapters, however, she does write about boredom as what keeps us from writing.
“Boredom is only a symptom if you lose interest in your writing. The remedy is to find out more – read more, travel, ask questions, engage your senses. If you are bored with your subject it is fatal to try to think your way out of it.”
And at this stage it is all about getting something written. Your destination is the completed rough draft.
“Once you get to the end of the rough draft, you can go back and reshape, rewrite, remake it as many times as you want to. It is, after all, only the rough draft, and in rough drafts, all is forgiven.”
So don’t get discouraged. Just write.
“Writing a novel isn’t a test –you can cheat any way you want (except copying word for word from another text).”
All quotes are from Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel.
lara
My Story Writer
www.mywritingsoftware.com
Miss a post from the 13 Ways series? Find it here:
Kickoff: The 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel | The 13 Ways | I Hate Introductions | What is the Novel? |Who is the Novelist? | Origins: Where did the Novel Come From? | The Psychology of the Novel | Morality of the Novel | The Art of the Novel | The Novel and History | The Circle of the Novel | The Novel's Greatest Tradition: Obscure Beginnings | The Novel-Writing Pyramid of Skills