Starting a Novel

March Novel Madness inspired me to start my first novel, having already written four nonfiction titles and a picture book called Sail Away, Little Boat.

I have had several novel ideas filling my noggin for the last three decades. The most compelling characters have shouldered their way into my life, and have reached the head of the queue. It was time to pick one and write it. I chose a funnier, lighter story. My goal in getting the story down on the page was to write fast and loose – not sweating any details.

And, so, I began. I wrote what I already knew about my main character and the others who populate her life. It was pretty easy, since I had already given myself permission to be imperfect. I had also given myself permission to not write an actual novel from beginning to end. My March Novel Madness experience would be character sketches, dialog, scenes, notes to self, explorations.

As the writing came, so did things I didn't expect. The first surprise was a character who all of a sudden showed up at my doorstep (figuratively speaking here . . .). Wow. She appeared so suddenly, it made me absolutely giddy. She introduced herself as newcomers often do. I didn't find out everything about her right away, which is pretty much the way you get to know any new friend. The slowly unraveling details created a tension that was kind of . . . um . . . delicious.

There were more surprises along the way. An adult character named Lorraine turned out to be funny, but not in the traditional sense of funny – Paula Poundstone funny. Her extreme conservatism in manner had me laughing out loud.

My zero draft – the dumping of everything I'd known about this story – had turned into a discovery draft.

Getting to Terse II


Getting the words on page is the trickiest thing for me when I start a project. When it's in my head the writing presents itself in beautiful 3D (with surround sound) – full color, textured, touchable.

So, that's good, right? I have ideas that get me out of bed in the morning. But here's the part that most always has me reaching for the snooze button. I like my writing clean, tight, and terse.

How can I translate that beautiful, touchable, believable image into something as linear as a sentence?

I start by whining -- no matter how small the project is (like a blog entry). I don't do this out loud to any human being, but occasionally I will whine to my brainy dog, Cooper. (That's okay. He does his share of whining, too). I can't do this! Please, don't make me do this!!!!!

But my boss – my inner boss -- is relentless. You have to write this, she says. No one else will tell this story. Who will give birth to these characters anyway? And tell me honestly, Janet, do you really think you can not write?

No, I can't. I've tried. And so, since I must meet my own deadlines (yes, I do set them for myself) and other deadlines, I write.

In the last couple of years I've come upon a technique that really helps folks like me who find it hard to start. It's called the Zero Draft, and it really works.

A zero draft is basically a brain dump. Before I begin any project, I start by putting everything I'm thinking on the page. For this small blog entry, I typed several paragraphs, including the following:


Kids in school – don graves. They start out trying to write. perfect
paragraph. heavens, they don't want to have to rewrite anything.
This was back when kids didn't compose on computers. It was by hand.

found the idea of a zero draft online made so much sense to me. Brain
dump. Wordy. Time to be verbose. The really fun part revising of
the piece. I'm the finish carpenter. I love to come in and cut,
rearrange, sculpt, fiddle, play

Of course, I haven't used any of this in the blog entry, but the point is that I got something on paper. I wrote fast (it helps to be a fast typist) and wrote every word that came into my head. I've started most zero drafts by just talking to myself on the page: so janet what are you going to write today? you know you have to write something. get going girl. The bird feeder needs refilling call sheree don't worry about not being able to write just go.

Before I know it, I've suddenly launched into the day's work.

More tomorrow on how I've started a novel (my first) using this technique.