The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel part 1

I've recently started reading this book. The title makes it sound a little cheesy, but I think that any truth you can get from any source that will help you accomplish something is valid. I saw the book The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel at the library one day when I was browsing for a free movie to pick up. I actually decided to check it out because the subtitle read "From completing the first draft to landing a book contract - all you need to fulfill your dreams" and it was written by authors Joyce and Jim Lavene who have published over forty books - I thought, "Maybe this book can teach me a few things that I don't know."

I've read lots of other books about writing through the course of my education and also as just reading for pleasure - from Bird by Bird, The Artist's Way, The Graceful Lie, and Self-editing for Fiction Writers to How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card and On Writing by Stephen King. The great thing is that I've taken away some very important tidbits or even mantras from each of these that I believe has improved my writing. I imagine that is why I decided to try the "Everything guide."

At the beginning of the year, I made it my New Year's resolution to work on writing, editing, researching, or brainstorming my novel every day of this year, and I haven't really talked about it much since. The truth is I have not been very good at keeping this particular resolution. January and most of February were a complete bust; when I finally got my new laptop in mid-late February, I got much more productive, but it didn't last as long as I would've liked it to. Since March began, I've devoted pretty steadily several hours a day, three days a week to this pursuit, and I'm actually pretty proud of that accomplishment. This pace is going to be much easier for me to keep up, and it is still resulting in about 20 pages a week being written which I feel is a great contribution. So, from now on it will be my goal/resolution to write for a couple hours a day, three days a week - if I get in more, great, if not then I won't beat myself up about it, if I don't meet that goal then I will strive to make up the slack. In between writing days, if I so choose, I can work on reading and research that inspires my writing which can include anything from reading my "Everything guide" to going to the movies or watching TV shows - I get such inspiration from other people's work a lot of the time.

That all being said, I have also decided to include some of my journey through the "Everything guide" here because it has actually helped me so far to think about important aspects of my writing. I'm currently on Chapter 6: Creating Your Characters, and I thought I would include some of my thoughts and brainstorming for Gayle from this chapter in this post. The chapter describes important aspects of protagonists and antagonists - things that I'm extremely familiar with - but it also talks about "What Makes (your characters) Tick." It highlights the fact that if your characters are going to be relatable and believable that they have to have goals, motivations, conflicts to these goals, strengths - skills and abilities, charisma, etc. - and even weaknesses whether they are character flaws or fears. This really resonated with me. In my pursuit of writing Gayle, I have not really thought about these aspects unless they have come up in a particular section that I am writing. I am not the type of writer who plans out much of what is going to happen in my novel; I write what comes to me when I have dedicated the time to sit down to write - it comes to me very organically that way. However, I completely recognize the importance of knowing your characters' traits at least ahead of time so that you can begin to understand how they react to the situations you are putting them in as they come along.

So, I've been thinking about my protagonist Gayle, and "what makes her tick." One of her strengths (skills and abilities) would be her Elemental power (her ability to manipulate the elements by her ability to see the animal nature of each element and interact with it). Some strengths of character would be her excellent listening skills which make her a great friend, her ability to love fiercely (she is very close with her mother and three friends), and her strong sense of what is right and wrong. One of her weaknesses is her sensitivity - she gets very upset if she believes that others are slighting her or someone she loves. Also, because she has lived her whole life in the same place, she has a fear of the unknown. She can get very anxious if she is going into an unfamiliar situation. Another weakness is that she doesn't like to ask for help; she deals with most conflict internally, and can have a tendency to bottle things up (which as we all know will snowball until the person experiences the "last straw" and explodes).

As far as goals and motivation goes, I'm still unsure about Gayle. I try to think about what I would want and dream for if I were her age and faced with the things that Gayle is faced with. Knowing what I know about her other characteristics, I would think she would want to do what is right and make her family proud. As far as any other goals or motivations beyond that, I am at a loss. When modern people are at Gayle's age, they are focusing on going to college, what career their going to have, and relationships. Gayle is set in a place that operates similarly to the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance so these things don't necessarily translate. I guess I'm going to have to do some more brainstorming, and analyze Gayle more.

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