Its 11:23 pm and I have just completed Chapter 16.
I stated that one of my original reasons for creating this blog was to chronicle my progress as I wrote my first novel. Ever word written, every paragraph punctuated, every chapter completed brings me just a bit closer to that end goal. Now since it would be very unproductive of me to write a post for every word and paragraph I put on paper, I've decided to post updates at the completion of every chapter. And so... here we are.
I have been working on chapter 16 for what seems like forever, and to be honest with you, I am very glad to be done. About half way through the chapter, the darn thing begin giving me a lot of trouble, and at a particular point I began to even doubt if this particular chapter was even relevant to the story in any wholly relevant way. I mean, yeah it offered considerably more insight into some of the personal aspects to a number of the stories characters, but I wasn't absolutely sure that the chapter itself served any proper function. Still I decided to keep at it, I figured I could at least finish the chapter see where it goes and if it wasn't doing anything special, I'd drop it in the revisions.
Well to my surprise it did turn out something special. As I continued to write and simply allow the story and characters to lead me through this particular portion of their adventure, an amazing development occurred. In the end, the chapter turned out longer than I originally planned, but I think the additions lend to a much stronger experience for the novel, not to mention some nice action that I didn't even see coming, plus some amazing secondary characters that 'stepped up' to even earn themselves some additional screen time (or page time rather) later in the book, no matter how short lived or painful that may be (for the character I mean).
Anyway, it just goes to show, when you keep the pen on the paper the story will unravel itself.
Writer's block, smiter's block!
Till next time.
Sincerely yours,
Lefty
I stated that one of my original reasons for creating this blog was to chronicle my progress as I wrote my first novel. Ever word written, every paragraph punctuated, every chapter completed brings me just a bit closer to that end goal. Now since it would be very unproductive of me to write a post for every word and paragraph I put on paper, I've decided to post updates at the completion of every chapter. And so... here we are.
I have been working on chapter 16 for what seems like forever, and to be honest with you, I am very glad to be done. About half way through the chapter, the darn thing begin giving me a lot of trouble, and at a particular point I began to even doubt if this particular chapter was even relevant to the story in any wholly relevant way. I mean, yeah it offered considerably more insight into some of the personal aspects to a number of the stories characters, but I wasn't absolutely sure that the chapter itself served any proper function. Still I decided to keep at it, I figured I could at least finish the chapter see where it goes and if it wasn't doing anything special, I'd drop it in the revisions.
Well to my surprise it did turn out something special. As I continued to write and simply allow the story and characters to lead me through this particular portion of their adventure, an amazing development occurred. In the end, the chapter turned out longer than I originally planned, but I think the additions lend to a much stronger experience for the novel, not to mention some nice action that I didn't even see coming, plus some amazing secondary characters that 'stepped up' to even earn themselves some additional screen time (or page time rather) later in the book, no matter how short lived or painful that may be (for the character I mean).
Anyway, it just goes to show, when you keep the pen on the paper the story will unravel itself.
Writer's block, smiter's block!
Till next time.
Sincerely yours,
Lefty
hello i am currently having writers block for chapter one of my first novel. does anyone have any suggestions???
ReplyDeleteI'd be glad to help any way I can what's your specific problem?
ReplyDeletei have 12 chapters and have an outline for each of the chapters . however , i feel the problem will be making each chapter follow the intended story line.
ReplyDeleteiNspired_1
Ok, great question, i actually know inspired_1 and we've discussed this issue before but never in great detail. What you're facing is here is a problem of plot. You've got characters, you've got setting but your characters need a clear cut goal that they are trying to achieve. What you need is to develop what's called the Major Dramatic Question, which is a straightforward yes/no question that is answered by the end of the story. This will give your character(s) a clear goal to shoot for, you then throw obstacles in their path that try and stop them from attaining this goal. For example; a MDQ may be
ReplyDeleteDoes prince charming save the princess from the tower? An obstacle the prince may come agianst is that there's a dragon guarding the tower, maybe the prince has to go get a special sword to slay the dragon, but at the end of they day everything that happens in the story is to answer the MDQ. So that way as you work through your 12 chapters as long as you are on task of answering that question your story will flow in one clear direction.
I hope that makes sense.
Let us know how it goes.
yes it does thanks. im looking foward to seeing how well the writing flows tonight
ReplyDeleteiNspried_1