I still don't want to announce my big news until a contract is signed, but I am waking up amazed and happy.
And I'm working on a new novel. Starting a new novel is really hard for a whole variety of reasons. I have the initial idea, which I love, but executing it is going to be really tricky because it jumps about in time. It's like dipping your feet into a huge ocean and you aren't quite sure if that slice of black over there is a shark fin or just the way the light is hitting the water, but if you don't go in the water, you'll never swim.
I'm doing revisions on my last novel, so I can't quite hurl myself full-hearted into this new one, but I want to keep it alive so I try to think about it every day and at least write down a sentence or two, but there is always that terrible fear. Can I do this? Have I taken on something that's beyond me? And of course there are other questions--what is it really about? The what's it about question usually isn't answered untilt he 5th draft for me.
I just told another writer this morning that I only know one writer who "follows her pen", who has no outline or preconceived idea but goes right on ahead and writes her novels and does very well. I look at that in absolutely amazement. How is that possible?
So, what I'm really curious about is how other people start their projects. Are you filled with hope and excitement until you get to the middle of the novel when you lose your way? My last novel took me 4 years to write, and if I could prune that down to two for the next one, I would be so happy! I know part of it was a wrong turn in the storyline (I have a tendency to overstuff the plot) and once I got rid of it, the writing was really easy. Maybe this means showing a synopsis early on for me.
Anyway, I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts, especially fellow strugglers. Screenwriting counts, too.
welcome to my obsessive world
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- Caroline
- Stay tuned, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU, my 12th novel is coming August 4, 2020 from Algonquin. My 11th novel CRUEL BEAUTIFUL WORLD is an Indie Next Pick. IS THIS TOMORROW was an May Indie Pick. I'm also the New York Times bestselling author of PICTURES OF YOU, a San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick, a Costco "Pennie's Pick." a NAIBA bestseller and on the Best Books of 2011 List from San Francisco Chronicle, Providence Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Bookmarks Magazine. I'm the recipient of a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant in Fiction. I was a 2013 finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and a finalist in the Nickelodeon Screenwriting Fellowship, four of my novels were optioned for screen, and I talked my way into writing the script for two of them. My essay, HIgh Infidelity, has been optioned for film. I'm a book critic for The San Francisco Chronicle and People Magazine. I teach novel writing for UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and Stanford online, do private fiction editing, and I am a professional namer! I live with my husband, writer/editor Jeff Tamarkin and we beam with pride about our son, an actor/filmmaker in college. Visit me at http://www.carolineleavitt.com.
10 comments:
Oh isn't it hard to revise when you want to go back to the new one? But you'll have great perspective now, which will help.
And, yes, you can. My husband always repeats to me a story her read about V.S. Naipaul who, after his third book was published, said something like "Maybe I'm a real writer now." Naipaul! So, yeah, I guess we all have that fear, but you know you can do it.
As for process, well, I find that with the last two I don't want to outline - but I do like to have a general idea of where I'm going. But 1) I write mysteries, so plotting gets a heavy emphasis and 2) even with my rough idea/outline, I usually make lots of changes as I go.
YAY ON THE GOOD NEWS!
Oh Clea, I love that story about Naipaul. It never gets any easier, does it. It's really hard to revise because I'm trying to figure out the new book while wanting to make sure the one I'm revising is as perfect as it can be.
My process always changes, too. The novel I just finished was written in chunks. I knew the last chapter before I wrote the middle, and in a way it made it easier, because then I had somethign to work toward.
Screenplays, though--I think you have to know where you are going, alas.
C:
Love Minnie! :)
On outlining... I have unbounded respect for anyone who doesn't outline. I'm am a slave to outlines and I hate it. Some part of me knows that I'm chaining my creativity and controlling things too much, but I'm helpless... I need the security blanket. The bloody story never ends up the same as the outline, but I still do the blood things. I think it's control issue and fear about intimacy with your story and intimacy with process! Sorry, another guy with intimacy issues... I'm a cliche... what can I say. Anyway... I kiss the shells of anyone who doesn't outline and gets something written.
Screenwriting... I know screenwriters who don't outline and get the job done too. Takes them longer and their producers hate it, but it can work. Usually you have to outline because you have hellacious deadlines and story meetings and pushy producers who want pages yesterday. So, time is the enemy and outlines help. But, if you're not on contract... who bloody cares. I kiss these shells too.
J
Nope, I don't think it's fear of intimacy with my story, Dr. Jeff Freud. I think it's fear of all those wrong roads and wasted time. Nothing ever ends up the way the outline is, BUT THE SPINE DOES. THe basic idea is there, and it really helps me to save time and, in fact, to dig deeper.
C:
I'm sure intimacy isn't the issue for you... I was only speaking for my own pitiful self. :)
I kiss your shell anyway.
Dr. F (J)
C:
I'm sure intimacy isn't the issue for you... I was only speaking for my own pitiful self. :)
I kiss your shell anyway.
Dr. F (J)
I always start my scripts with a burst of passion and enthusiasm, but around page 30-50 I get this niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach. Do I have enough "stuff" for a 100-script? The feeling stops when I get to page 90 or so, yeah, I'm gonna make it, but still, after all this time, you'd thunk I would a know better.
Oh, and I hate outlines. Hate em'! And when are you going to spill on THE BIG NEWS???
So Pj, what do you start with? Do you have a spine for your idea? Or do you jot things down? Do you know how things are going to end? I'm fascinated by process.
I have to wait until there is an actual contract because I am superstitious!
I never "jot" things down. I have it all in my head. Usually what happens is that I get an idea or a dream, and the good ones, they just stay with me and nag. I keep replaying it in my head like a movie. I see the characters, they talk to me, I talk to them, I gve them names, backstory...and it simmers until I get an overwhelming urge/impulse/obsession that I MUST write it. In a sense, I don't choose it, it chooses me. I may change the direction of the story, or some plot points, but usually, what I "see" first is what I write. To other people it may not make much sense, but it does to me. :)
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