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Writing a Novel is Like Making a Jigsaw Puzzle
I've often said writing a novel is like running a marathon, but I'm beginning to think it's more like making a jigsaw puzzle: The charge of the first draft is to get the pieces all laid out on the table, face-up, so you can see what's there. The trick of 
subsequent drafts is to get them all fitted together into a picture everyone can see -- trying a piece in this place and that, and fashioning new little pieces for the ones that turn out to be missing from the box.
Then you smooth the edges so no one can see them--which admittedly you don't do for a jigsaw puzzle.
In any event do not--do not--break your novel up into little pieces and stick it back in the box for someone else to make again, either. (Or maybe you do? Is that what editing is?)
Some other "writing a novel is like" analogies:
Stephen King: “Writing a novel is like paddling from Boston to London in a bathtub. Sometimes the damn tub sinks. It’s a wonder that most of them don’t.”
E.L. Doctorow: "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way."
Dean Koontz: "Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled."
Chang-rae Lee: "Writing a novel is like spelunking. You kind of create the right path for yourself. But, boy, are there so many points at which you think, absolutely, I'm going down the wrong hole here."
What is writing a novel really like? I fear the correct answer is (g) All of the above. What do you think? I'm working on a piece on this, so please let me know if you post below if it's ok to use in the piece! - Meg
Meg is the author of the national bestseller The Wednesday Sisters (about a writing group), The Four Ms. Bradwells, and The Language of Light (a finalist for Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize)
For more on writing by a host of authors, including National Book Award winner Julia Glass and bestseller Jamie Ford, visit 1st Books: Stories of How Writers Get Started.
Comment
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Comment by Patricia Gligor on August 23, 2011 at 6:03am -
To me, writing a novel is like sluicing for gems. You sit at the sluice line, sifting through dirt, sand and gravel, searching for rubies, sapphires or emeralds, which can be cut, polished and made into beautiful gems. When you write a novel, you sit at your desk, choosing from oh so many words to find just the right ones to best tell your story. Then you cut and polish those words (usually many times) to create your own gem: a completed novel.
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Comment by Gail Shepherd on August 23, 2011 at 6:02am -
It's funny, instead of a kind of chipping away to get to the core, for me the process of writing a novel is more like a gradual surfacing in very thin layers. I start out with a featureless surface and keep gradually adding semi-transparent glaze, building up to something that is finally polished and (I hope) handsome and lasting.
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Comment by Meg Waite Clayton on August 22, 2011 at 3:02pm -
Granddad -- now that is nice. :-)
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Comment by Katherine E. Hinkson on August 5, 2011 at 5:23pm
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radom pieces of fabric....like my Granddad's crazy quilts.
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Comment by Meg Waite Clayton on August 5, 2011 at 4:52pm
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Very funny, Bonnie! And lovely, Katherine.
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Comment by Bonnie Trachtenberg on August 5, 2011 at 7:07am -
Writing a novel is like creating an alternate universe--only you don't get to rest on Sundays.
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I grew up learning to piece together time and moments for reading and writing. I spent likened my writing to climbing to the tippy top of the Mulberry tree. Each limb and branch that I climbed brought me closer to the ulitimate high of conquering the fear of hieghts. Completing a manuscript is the same feeling for me as climbing to the highest heights.
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Comment by Meg Waite Clayton on August 4, 2011 at 3:32pm
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Oh I do like that refinement, Pamela!
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Comment by Pamela Olson on August 3, 2011 at 3:26pm -
Cathy, I love it. I was also just reminded of an analogy I used while working on my memoir: It's like putting a 100,000-piece puzzle together when you have a million pieces!
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Comment by Meg Waite Clayton on August 3, 2011 at 3:05pm
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And stitching them down!
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