I'm curious about this, because I'm just satrting a new novel at the moment. How do you all begin?

I don't mean the vexed question of what makes a good opening chapter, or opening paraghraph, because if the way you actually begin writing doesn't end up being the opening of the finsished novel, well, that's no surprise and not really a problem. My opening chapters often get changed when I've written more of the book. What I am interested in is the process of getting going.

Now, obviously, the answer is going to vary a lot according to whether you are a planner and plotter-in-advance or not. Presumably for some people, a novel begins with six months of painstaking research and the gathering of notes on setting, factual background, etc. - and/or the elaborate construction in notebooks or on pinboards of timelines, plot events, story arcs....? But presumably, even you need at some poiunt to pivk up a pen and begin to write? And for those of us who don't pre-plan but simply let the story and characters develop as we write, it's even more of an issue: how do we find the spark, the impetus, the toehold, that enables us to make a start?

The one I'm currently in the process of starting is number ten - so I suppose that iover the past four and a bit yaers I have evolved a pattern of how I go about it. It starts, for me, with a character (usually one central charcater but occcasionally two of them at once), and their central 'issue' or conflict. I have to have a feel for that character and the situation in which they find themselves at the start of the book, as a minumum to enable me to kick off. What I then do is open a file headed 'initial ideas' and just begin to type. What usually goes in first is a description - as much already in character voice as I can manage - of the character's backstory, present feelings and cirucmstances. then there is usually a bit of setting description -m again, in charcater POV/voice if I can manage it. All of this I write in prose as polished as I can make it, just as if i were already writing the book - and indeed, sometimes lines or phrases or whole paragraphs of the text do end up in the finished novel - though a lot of it never does. I usually write about 2,000 words of this stuff, and this is my starting point. it's as much an exercsie of limbering up, like an actor trying to get into charcater, as it is any kind of blueprint or ropad map for the book. It's a way of giving myself a feel for my character(s) and setting before I begin to write in earnest.

Then I try to lay out some possible plot ideas, and thumbnails of minor characters, but all of this tends to be sketchy and provisional open-ended (especially the plot part!), and will often be changed as I begin to write the book. This second section usually runs to another 500-1,000 words. Often I try to write about the other characters still in the POV/voice of my MC - or of the book is to be written in multiple third person viewpoints, then I may experiment with decsribing the characters from one another's viewpoints - sticking in little snippets about what they think of one another. That gets the interaction sparking, ready for the off.

Finally, I jot down at the end of the file two or three of what I think might be the themes I want to bring out over the course of the book. This may be literally just a handful of bullet points, or a list of ideas/phrases.

Then I usually mail this document to my agent, and we mull it over, by phone or e-mail - he talks about his response to it and I talk about it him. Then after a few days of fermentation I start to write - not worrying whether this will end up being the first chapter but starting with what at least could be - what seems like a logical place to start.

And, um, that's it. Probably a bit weird, but that's the method which I have evolved by trial and error over nine books.

Anyway, so... long, tedious account of how I go about it. What do other people do?

Rosy x

Well, having just started a new one I guess the process for that was throwing a couple of chapters together that had been written as CW exercises and introduced the two main characters, which inspired a main plot thread, which led to two pages of chapter outlines and backstory, and, most importantly, an ending.
It's a bit of a departure from my usual stuff as it's got two alternating first person narratives, rather than one 3rd person one, but in other ways it's similar to an adult-fic one I wrote a couple of years ago, but didn't finish.
I don't know if it's got legs - as I was saying on another thread, I feel like Bones in the Star Trek episode where he's putting Spock's brain back in and it all seemed so easy at the start, but now it's getting harder, and if the MCs don't start helping me out soon it'll be a dead duck and I'll have to find something new.


- NaomiM

Just seen LadyBlackbird's thread about exactly the same thing on 'Inspiration and Ideas', so am posting this on that thread - as well as reading all the great ideas posted there already!

R x

Ah, I was wondering why I was seeing double.

Good topic, Rosy - I'm kind of struggling with this one now. Because it's all coming out differently to last time, when I just 'got' the idea overnight, scribbled down an outline and just wrote it in a linear way from beginning to end. This time I began, I guess, with an idea after watching a TV documentary and have spent about a year just gathering ideas, thinking about the outline, writing odd scenes etc. - but I don't feel like I've really got 'into' the story yet and am wondering if I ever will...
Susiex

Yes, good topic.

I nearly always start with a situation. It's mid scene, something happening and then I need to find out who it's happening to. As the characters develop, which they seem to do unaided but slowly, I usually spend ages thinking about structure because I can't write until i know what shape the story or book is, which sounds very precious but it's the only way I know of organising and selecting material which would otherwise run on and on.

Then comes all the lovely research most of which never sees the light of day. The actual writing begins surreptitiously. I usually start making notes along the lines: In this scene I want X to discover Y doing...and about two lines in, dialogue sneaks in and the scene becomes alive. With short fiction it's a truncated version of all this as often it 'arrives' whole. All the work takes place in the head without my being aware I have a story in mind, and then suddenly I realise that a vague idea has coalesced and is ready to be written.

I started with a concept.

I then wrote a few key moments/scenes in the book and then gradually started to work on a chapter structure. In fact I tend to think up key moments write them down and then work the book around them.

I've got about 18 chapters at the moment and a prologue as a possibility. That could well change as I go along but helps me with the story going from Start to finish via all the different points.

At the moment I'm trying to get the whole story written down. Then I'm going to go back add in the details and flesh it out a bit and improve the narrative.

I've started doing small character Bios for all of the characters in the book to help me keep track of most of them.

I'm hoping that gradually it'll all gel together.

My latest effort started when I read 3 newspaper articles in the same paper, (different pages) and linked them all together and asked - what if?

Then I sat and mapped out the bones of the chapters - sign posts of where I want to go - then fell into a pit of research!

Phew! I've just emerged from this - megabytes later - and am slowly starting to fill out the chapter target topics regurgitating bites of the research as I go.

I keep track of the chapter word count, against a target on a spreadsheet. Childish? Well it gives me satisfaction to see "Progress" against a target. It motivates me.

Oh and I try to check out the character names to see if too much pops up on The Net about them. Getting the names gives me the faces I see in my head when writing.

Then I sit down and let rip!

And I back up a lot!!

Avis