How I Start Writing a Novel

I have been told for as long I can can remember, by teachers, co-workers, friends and family that my writing style is backwards. I cannot wait until I publish a book, so that I can prove to my elementary teachers, that my style for creating stories actually works.

I am not outlining my creative process as an instructive tool, this style will likely only work for me, and a select few others whos' brains are wired differently than the rest of society's, instead I am illustrating my creative process as an insight to how I work, to illustrate the differences and similarities between everyone's individual road to creating a piece of art.

Whenever I sit down to write, the first thing I do is not to come up with a moral, or challenge, or even a character. Instead I turn to my music, and hit shuffle.
My music is purely instrumental, primarily comprised of movies scores, and I close my eyes and wait for a title to reveal itself to me.

Most people find the title the hardest part of writing a story and save it for last. I need it to be the first stepping stone. After I have an attention grabbing title, everything else starts to fit into place.

 Generic characters come next. First I decide if my main character will be female, or male, then I decide how many secondary characters I want. Creating characters is tedious work, so I start with the basics; name, age, height, defining characteristics (physical and mental). Every one of my characters, even minor ones, are unique. From there I will go on to sketch each character.

I have two characters that I have recently noticed have a few similarities in their character designs; both exotic females in their own worlds, both with black hair, who wield a bow and arrow, but that's as far as the similarities go. Their body type, their apparel, unique abilities, religious beliefs, up bringing, allies, enemies, negative attributes, to name a few are completely different, as are the journeys they are on.
 After creating so many characters, I realise I am bound to repeat a few physical attributes, like hair colour. 

After the characters are roughed out, and sometimes during the process, I create the world they come from. Creating a world demands races, religions, counties, provinces, continents, a governing structure, jobs, some sort of struggling force; whether it is a race, a class, two provinces, or a group. The map of the world must be completed with forests, bodies of water, mountain ranges and other types of terrain.
    During this part of my process I have usually come up with a general idea of the sort of story I want my characters to tell, whether it is an adventure and all I need to do is connect the dots across my map, or if I will have a certain plot point that will ask the reader to consider a certain question or moral standing.

Then it's off to the Library for Research!
I look into the clothing, housing, ornamentation, architecture, and geography that I want to portray in the story. I take notes, redraw items, and copy pages to keep for reference.


**Please note: Everything I draw, write, research, or reference stays both as a hard copy and a soft copy, for easy reference. **
My "Novel Binder" has all of the information that pertains to the story;
Character sketches
Life Models
Actors and look-a-likes
Maps
Geographic drawings
Architectural references
Races
Jobs
Names
Places
Costume renderings
Creatures

and the story itself


One of my current novels, TToA has an entire section dedicated to the various steeds and mounts each of the characters ride, complete with breeds, colour guide and accessories.


After the research I simply put a pen to paper and see where it takes me.


I prefer to write on paper for a few very simple reasons:
1- I have horrible hand writing and I want it to improve
2- I like the feel of a ballpoint pen as it rolls across a piece of paper
3- I like the smell of paper

Eventually when I have a significant chunk of story to input into the computer, I tend to gravitate to writing on the computer simply for the convenience of not having to write it twice. I find it important to start off writing on paper, as it gets me invested in the work. Pen and paper seems to hold my attention far better than my computer with it's distracting windows and easy access to Internet distractions. I am very sorry to say that I have lost many a good writing hour to the simple distractions of websites like YouTube and Texts From Last Night.

Once I have started writing the story and know a very general idea of where the story is going I will revisit my characters and develop them by writing short stories about their history. Generally these short stories are never referenced but they help me understand the characters' complexities and decisions making process.

Many of my characters are based on people I know, or at least have some of the characteristics of real people, whether the characters are good or bad is not defined by the person from whom I have borrowed likeness'. Rarely is anyone ever able to identify the character I have based on them, with the exception of the character I named after my sister.

The story outline often reveals certain challenges and moral outcomes that the novel will present and surround. These I try to highlight and refer to often. These must be re-occurring themes, and will resurface periodically. <-- This is really the only part I need to remind myself to write about.

From there I just follow my fingers. I let my brain take control, zone out for a bit, and read what I have produced afterwards.

It's difficult to explain but my stories just flow from me, like the river being fed by the ocean. On occasion I have sat down and asked for logistical assistance with an issue or particularily difficult manuever performed in the story that I need help visualizing, but otherwise, my fingers seem to know what I am trying to say before my brain realizes it. I think that is why I have a hard time focussign on one novel, because once you open the floodgates to the ocean, you cannot control what water gets in.

This is not the style I reccomend for anyone. I rarely use an outline, something most writers highly suggest (maybe one day I will too) but for now I will literally go with the flow.


-Brandolyn


G-7,278
TToA-64,492
TDotRQ-37,276