Writing Blog

20221018 Me And My Writing

October 18, 2022, 8:30pm

I have been asked these questions on scroll, and answered there, but thought it might make for an interesting blog post.

How do I write a novel?
I'm a pantser. I get an idea for a character, an antagonist/complication, and I write. I have a lot of unfinished novels because if I don't think of ending in the first 20 pages, then I have no end-goal to write for. I like to have the ending in mind before I start writing, but sometimes it appears once I get the character into a setting.

How long does it take me to write a novel?
I average about 4 weeks for an 80k work. It can be shorter, or as long as 8 weeks, but 4 weeks is about average. Interestingly, a novella, which is shorter, takes about the same amount of time.
         I write a first draft, do a quick edit, put it away for 6 months (or more), then do a thorough edit/rewrite (I've only completely rewritten maybe 8 stories). That's my process. I do know that it is said you need to write 5-plus drafts. That doesn't work for me. I actually edit as I write, going back and rewriting things as I need to change details, rewriting a lot of chapters when I hit walls, etc.
          I write 3 works of 20k-plus words a year on average.
         When it comes to non-fiction, I've written 2 books. One (220k words plus) took 10 years, one (36k words, a sort of memoir as well as a history) took 6 years. That's because I am overly thorough in research. I want to get things right.

How many have you written?
I got this wrong on scroll. Sorry. I have written 54 works of more than 40k words, and 28 of 20k to 40k words. Of those 82, 42 I think are publishable. I have had 5 published, number 6 is hopefully coming out November, number 7 in April 2023. Hopefully. The company is going through a weird time right now.

Would you self-publish?
No.

When did you write your first novel?
When I was 11, in year 7, last year of primary school, we had to show the class something we did well. People did things like bring in art work, sporting trophies, some even cooked food for the class to share. I had nothing. Unbeknownst to me, the teacher asked my mum. Mum asked me how that long story I was working on was going. She told me I should finish it so she could type it and give a copy to my friends, as they were the main characters. So I did. She gave a copy to the teacher, and the teacher read it out to the class over a period of weeks. It was around 20k words; I have lost every copy. But now I had the bug.
         In high school, I got a reputation as a writer quickly after writing a play in 2 hours for the year 8 (1st year high school) camp, and I wrote a 25k word novella featuring characters based on my friends in year 10. But then came the final year of high school. English was split into two parts – creative writing and set texts. One week, I didn’t hand up a creative writing piece for homework. The teacher saw me after class and asked what was wrong. I told her I got distracted working on a long work. After some discussion, we made a deal. I did not have to do any class-based work, so long as I handed up at the start of the last term a work of at least 40k words. If I did that, I would have an automatic B grade, and how good it was would dictate if I got better than that. If I didn’t succeed, automatic F, and a fail in English completely. Well, I handed up 52k words, got an A+ grade and that started me on this life of poverty.

I think that covers my novel writing method and history. An example of a novella can be found here:

BOOK

Lines Of Communication  (GC) An epistolary novella with each chapter happening a year after the last. #2276899 by s

However, that is not the way I normally write; it as an experiment piece and has been rejected a number of times now.

Still, sorry for the length, and I hope it sets a bit more of a scene about “me”.