Hi everyone, I'm new to this site and very new to fiction writing! Looking for some advice from talented people, such as yourselves. I currently have a job which involves constant writing. It's mostly factual writing and I've had a few things published this way. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to write fiction - except I've never actually sat down and just gone for it. There are various reasons for this, motivation, time limitations etc. but now, due to a semi-existential crisis, I really want to make an effort to try it properly. I have an idea for a novel, which I've had hanging around back of my mind for over a year or so and I have now written an outline. It feels a big jump to go from factual writing to fiction. Don't know if anyone has had this experience? Do you think I should just go for it or do you think I should start by writing some shorter stories first, getting some feedback and then pursuing? Would also be great to know if you've been doing this your whole lives or if any of you woke up one day and thought, "today" (like me!).
My day job revolves around report writing, building surveys mainly. Since I started writing fiction I have found that this style of writing seeps into my work: - "Pinky opened the gate and scuffed his feet down the side of the building. Here it was, the source of the cracking through the flat arch lintels. Someone had cut down a tree. That tree would have once drawn the moisture from the ground, but now the ground heaved beneath the influx of water and lifted many tonnes of brick that had laid dormant for decades. What fool had done this? What cretinous buffoon had taken their axe to a tree with such wanton disregard for the house next to which it grew? Pinky threw down his Dictaphone in disgust, such idiocy did not deserve his time."
I'd 'planning' to write for about 20 years, but have only just started seriously doing it. My advice, based on my own experience, is to get a pretty rigid plan in place, and just write it. Don't write the novel you want to write for your first one, though. You'll never be happy with it, and you'll never be able to get your head around writing it again later on. Bang out a couple of rough novels to start with, to get the fears and the insecurities out of the way. Graft them out, and you'll gain the experience you need to write the novel you really want to produce.
You can certainly do that. Writing a secondary novel to gain experience for your Magnum Opus has merit. However, you can also write the novel you always wanted to write, first time. I know I did. However, be aware that the first few drafts will be imperfect—maybe even ...baaad. That doesn't mean you abandon it, though. Instead, you figure out what's wrong with it. (Often with the help of beta readers' feedback.) You keep working on it, rewriting bits over and over again, changing emphasis, smoothing transitions, improving story flow, tightening the plot, sharpening focus, making characters come alive... until it finally does become the novel you always wanted to write. If your time is limited, why waste it on producing something you don't really care about? You CAN write your dream book first time. It just won't emerge fully formed in the first draft. Or second. Or third. Be ready to edit, learn, edit, re-envision, edit, revise, revise....
I can see how this can be a problem but could also be great? It seems to me, that if your story relates to something you *know* from work, then it could be beneficial? As long as you don't go into too much technical and unnecessary detail. Write what you know eh...
I think this is exactly what I'm worried about - that I'll ruin a story that I've been thinking about for a while, just because I haven't had that much experience. Glad to know I'm not the only one who has just started Thanks so much.
That's really good advice. I suppose I should let go of the idea that *anything* I write is going to be good first time. Wouldn't that be the dream!
