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On Writing My First Novel: When To Let Go
In these posts, which will run every other Friday until I finish the darn thing (months? years?), I plan to share questions that come up for me as I write my first novel. Please take a minute to share your experiences and your answers, since I can use all the help I can get!
As all of you know, I am emerging (a little bit) from the sabbatical I took to work on my first novel in order to blog on She Writes about...working on my first novel! I plan to publish it on the newly minted She Writes Press (a unique new publishing option I hope you all will consider as well), but right now I am less than a third of the way through my first draft. I have a lot of learning to do, and pages to write, ahead of me.
In light of that, my plan is to keep these posts short. In each of them, I will ask a question that will serve more as a jumping-off point for discussion and knowledge-sharing than as a platform for my musings on the craft. Who wants to hear from a beginner? So this will be an advice column in reverse. I am going to ask for your advice. I hope you won't mind giving it.
So here goes!
The first question comes from the years I spent trying to get going on a novel, but failing:
How do you know when it's time to let go of an idea and (try at least) to come up with another one?
I've wanted to write fiction since I was a girl. But in college I wrote several absolutely painful short stories, and in my twenties I wrote a screenplay that, while it had fresh characters and a strong voice, showed a distinct lack of talent for plot. So when I applied to MFA programs after a short career in documentary television, I decided Creative Nonfiction was the genre for me. When it came to fiction, I thought, I just wasn't that good. Best to accept it and move on.
From my MFA thesis came my first book, "I Do But I Don't" (nonfiction/memoir), which was published in 2006. After it was finished, however, I realized I didn't want to write something so explicitly personal again. (It didn't help that the book was about my wedding, and I have since gotten divorced. And no, I am not going to write "I Didn't.") Again I began to dream of fiction. Couldn't I try again?
During this time I attended my Stanford reunion. It was fascinating to go back to the campus, and I became especially interested in the years just before I arrived, when battles were raging about what to teach, and the "politically correct" movement (if it can be called that) was at its height. What a juicy setting for a novel, I thought. This is it!
I worked on the idea on and off for years, mostly doing research, conducting interviews, and taking lots of detailed notes. I struggled, however, to get past the research stage. Last fall I joined a writing group to try to force my own hand. But when it came time for me to submit, I had to admit defeat. I had a subject. I had a setting. But I didn't have a story.
Head hung, and realizing, again, that fiction wasn't my thing, I prepared to call my workshop leader and tell her: I got nothin.
And that's when the idea for the novel I'm working on now came to me. I had to let go, it seemed, before I could move on.
Has this happened to you? Is there an idea you worked on, and were sure was "the one", but had to let go? And how did you know it was time? Please share your stories. I would love to learn from you, since I am sure that if I ever write another novel, this will happen to me again...
Suggested past SW posts on that might illuminate the subject, ha ha:
Become An Instigator, from TAYARI JONES' "Surviving the Draft"
1st Books: Stories of How Writers Get Started, edited by the novelist MEG WAITE CLAYTON
Comment
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Comment by Julie Golden on July 10, 2012 at 10:59am -
Ah yes, Kamy. Thanks for posting about letting go.
Doesn't it feel good when that space you have been holding with an old idea opens up and allows something new to enter?
I found this happened several times, in a major way, while writing Vagilantes.
The struggle is painful when the direction intended just doesn't read well on the screen. Letting go allows us to 'kill our darlings', throw out entire chapters, write different endings/beginnings, and to surprise ourselves with twists in the story.
Letting go doesn't mean you must delete – just set aside. Sometimes the material reforms and fits in a better place. Sometimes, it is just trash and the planner is trumped by the pantser. A part of your original intention, Kamy, may wiggle back into your pages and make you laugh. Enjoy the process.
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Comment by Jo Michaels on July 10, 2012 at 10:42am -
I find that it's rarely the idea that doesn't work, rather the way you go about putting it into action. If you do your legwork when crafting the idea, you'll be able to change a lot of the story and keep with your original character(s). Just remember that every protagonist must change at some point from the beginning of the book to the end. After all, that's what a story is: a journey. Your journey can take on a billion different forms and you're allowed to reject one for another. Things change, let them. Don't ever give up.
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Comment by Kimberly Gray on July 10, 2012 at 9:28am -
Congratulations on this series you are bringing to us. It's odd that I come here today as I am struggling on my third book. However my ideas are across the map, I feel useless and I can't let go. I suppose I will take the approach of keeping these ideas all with about a chapter written, put them aside and keep on moving. I do not know though, how to let go. Basically this comment must make no sense, just as my ideas. Thanks for making me feel less alone - go girl!
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Comment by Kamy Wicoff on July 9, 2012 at 8:19am -
@RYCJ thank you so much for those three tips -- they are fantastic! I think that so far, with the idea I'm currently working on, I am going on all fronts. And Edith I will definitely check out your blog. Daphne!, what is the URL for yours?
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Comment by Edith O Nuallain on July 9, 2012 at 4:45am -
This is brilliant! I am so happy that you are writing this series and I absolutely love that you are writing about the process in reverse to the usual format. Count me in as a regular and perchance I shall respond through my own blog which is not entirely dissimilar from yours! Catch me here: www.inaroomofmyown.wordpress.com
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Comment by Daphne Q on July 8, 2012 at 11:52am -
Hi, Kamy:
I'm so glad you're writing this column on a weekly basis. I'm going to find it quite useful.
I've by writing a blog about my experiences while I write my first novel while I try to pay my bills at my little place in Berkeley. The blog is at daphneq.com, if you're interested.
My response to your question in this column is... This is the first idea I've ever had for a book, so I haven't had to let go of any overall ideas. I have had to give up on certain ideas in the story line of this first book. That hasn't been easy. You can get attached to your ideas because you've created them.
Even though I'm aware of that, it can be difficult, so I usually will bounce things off someone like my sister or a college professor. Sometimes that gives me enough perspective to reject or stick to an idea.
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Comment by Brooke Warner on July 6, 2012 at 1:55pm -
Thanks so much for sharing these insights, Kamy. I know from my work with writers that it's something a lot of people can relate to!
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Comment by RYCJ on July 6, 2012 at 1:46pm -
I use '3' primary gages to know when a story, either will or won't work.
A strong premise is a must. (Not Plot! Premise.) This isn't an indication as to whether or not the story will pull through, but it is my motivation to stick with writing the story...
...which brings me to my number two. I just recently wrote a novel, MINDLESS (dry laugh, as this title should have clued me in), where I ended up tossing (had to be) over a dozen versions... and I'm speaking in the numbers of 70,000 words tossed... gone. What helped was working on other ideas, one of the reasons I write many stories at once. (Of course you don't have to do as I do and try having each of them published at once... the idea is to keep writing, psyching yourself to believe you will eventually get back to the one you wanted to write. This actually can work both ways. Often that second or third idea is the one most will clamor over anyway...
...bringing me to the third trial for success. When I'm having fun with the characters, psyched about getting back to the story each day, adding on more, laughing, really enjoying the story myself, then I know it's working.
Summarizing my answer;
Strong premise (#1); Keep writing (#2); Really 'involve' yourself in the story and characters (#3).
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