I actually really enjoy writing. I love the constant thinking about story ideas. “It’s about a guy who…”
Yes it is. Finish the sentence, and you have the germ of a novel.
“It’s about a guy who goes and buys lunch.”
Believe it or not, that’s the genesis of one of my favorite movies. A man goes out to buy lunch for everyone in his office. He specifically tells everyone that it’s going to rain starting at 11:22 and finish by 12:17. So he’ll pick up lunch for everyone. After that, they all talk about a book that’s got them stumped. A man shot, no bullet, and only a couple of drops of water.
The man who knows the weather explains it came from Dick Tracy, and it was a bullet made of ice. He then runs outside to get lunch for everyone.
Sounds like a winner of a movie or novel, huh? Well, if that’s all you got, hang it up. That’s not a novel.
Okay, let’s gum it up. He comes back to the office and everyone’s dead. As a matter of fact, let’s make the killer the mailman whom the hero ran past on his way to buy lunch for everyone.
Now what do you have? THe hero has to run, and keep running. He works for the CIA as a book reader, and knows that whoever killed everyone knows where he lives, who his friends are. So he takes the pistol from a co-worker, and starts running.
Okay, now you got a novel. That’s Seven Days of the Condor, released as a movie of 3 Days of the Condor. One of my favorites, because I saw it when I was 12, and it made a huge impression in me. My dad shared my interest in shadow government novels, and I used to read through his collection after that – novels by Forsythe, Trevanian, etc. Some were TERRIBLE, some were not.
So, tying up the loose thread from yesterday about not spending two weeks writing character bios for every last character in your book (2 weeks per means one month wasted writing 4 character bio’s), here’s the main thing – write every day.
Don’t know how to type? Stare at your keyboard. I don’t know how to type, but I can most certainly type quickly, because I memorized the keyboard. Kwerty-yoo-eee-op is qwertyuiop, As di fidget kill is asdfghjkl, and the third row I know and can’t prounounce!
Write every day. That’s advice I’ve read, advice I’ve been given, and advice I pass on to you.
When one book is going nowhere, try writing a different one. Doesn’t matter what it is. Just write it. You may end up with four incomplete novels, but by that time, you’ve figured out where you got stuck on book one. So finish it. In two years, you suddenly have four books publish ready.
write, write, write, write!
