OK... so my first question to the community is the one that, when answered, will mean I have no excuse for not getting on with my novel.

The Dilemma:
I am not a seasoned writer, heck, I'm not even close. I have a series of writing books (Write Great Fiction) from Writers Digest that I have been using to get me going. The Plot book was fantastic, and combining that with some nifty software i found has resulted in a well planned and thought out plot. Of course it is open to change and growth, but essentially, I can sit down and write since I know what I want to get said.

I understand a lot of people don't write like this, but the way my personality works, I have to.

Anyway... I sat down a couple of weeks ago while holidaying in France and started to actually write. I had only given a brief look to the Description and Dialogue books, but felt I should finally actually get some text on the screen.

It worked! In fact worked too fast for my liking.
I have a lot to say, and I just wrote like I talk... non-stop. The result is that i wrote three chapters in as many days and they are even tolerable to read (obviously I will do heavy editing and re-writing after I read the Self Editing book *grin*).

The problem lies exactly there.
The procrastinator in me says 'you should read through the description and dialogue books now, so that you don't have to re-write absolutely everything later'. The forgetful idiot in me counter-argues with 'You should type out all of your story as quick as you can, because you will forget stuff later... or at least you won't understand the thousands of pages of notes you have already made'.

So what should one do?

What are your experiences with writing? Should I write the basic story down now, as it flows out so easily, and then spend a lot of extra time correcting it OR should i first try to hone my skills by reading up more on the details, and then write something cleaner the first time round.

Your advice will be much appreciated, regardless of which way you suggest. I just want to move past this decision and cannot do it on my own.

Declan, there are many more experienced people on here than me but in response to your question my instinct is to say "write write write write write", especially if, as you say, the story is flowing. I don't think you can truly hone your skills by reading how to books rather I believe you can only start improving as a writer by writing.

I do think you can hone your skills by reading other works of fiction, all sorts, all authors. In the past few years it has been other writers' work that has helped me to develop (slowly!) and given me inspiration rather than any number of how to books.

But that's just my opinion.

Good luck and happy writing.

If you want to get it all down first and not have to revise it along the way, maybe the NaNoWriMo, would be helpful?

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Everyone writes by which ever method suits them. Personally, I can't help fidding with it after every few pages and like to get it polished before I move on, while others will write to the end of the first draft without looking back, before they go back over it again. It doesn't mean it'll need completely rewriting if you do it that way - you may have sections which just need proof-reading, while others may be only be sketched out as you skip over a tricky scene with the intention of writing it out fuly at a later point.
Which ever way suits you is fine. It's all grist to the mill and don't be afraid to experiment.


- NaomiM

As everyone says, it depends. I know one or two who don't move on from a page till it's perfect, then never touch it again. Some revise yesterday's work to get themselves into today's, others write scenes from all over the place and stitch it together at the end.

A first novel is a very steep learning curve. At the end, you'll know an awful lot you didn't know before, and I think there's no short-cut to that learning - no way of saving time - any more than you can save time learning to ski by taking a helicopter from the top down to the bottom.

But chiefly I would suggest that, for this one, you follow your instincts, wherever they lead. If you do that, then when you do get stuck and decide to try a different process, or turn to a how-to-write book, or WW, or whatever, for help, you'll have some sense of your own writerly self and process, against which you can measure everything you hear.

Don't forget that polishing as you go can save how many revisions you do, on the other hand it's a waste of time if you get to the end and discover that the beginning needs major surgery, which you may well: as you obviously know, you could well end up with something very different from what you'd planned.

FWIW, my process is mad-first-draft, but alongside it I make notes about what I'll change in the next pass, or what I can't stop and find out about now, or what I'm not sure really works. That way I can keep going and keep my sense of the big architecture and the pace and where everything is, but not be paralysed by the fear that I might forget all those things if I keep going.

But everyone's different. The thing to know - because it's true - is that no word you ever write is ever wasted. If you wrote the whole novel, and then re-wrote it so there wasn't a single original word in it, those original words weren't wrong, or a waste of time, or pointless: they were process writing, placeholders for the right words. In other words, writing to the end of a first draft is largely about discovering what words should, actually, be there.

Emma

Thank-you all for your opinions, all of which are valuable regarding of your level of experience.

I may play along with the writers month and use it as motivation to get the whole lot down fast. I already have hoards of notes and am comfortable with adding to these and then wading through it later during rewrites. It is also clear that I need to actually write to learn to write, and that wasting too much time in the books will not yield remarkable results.

Thanks for your encouraging words EmmaD. I feel like I can tackle the book now without worrying too much about getting bogged down later. Ultimately, if I can get the first draft done during November, it will put me in better stead to do some serious editing through to early March, when a new addition to my family will slow things for a while.