What I learned from Stephen King

I don't like reading thriller novels. (In fact, I cannot let myself, because I really need my sleep.) And I can't say I've read a single of King's novels. But I read his book On Writing this summer, and I got a lot from it about the process of putting a novel together.

First, I love that I'm now free of this weird burden I'd put on myself: while writing my first draft, I kept going back, trying to do everything all at once. But King reminded me that a writer is first a storyteller. I've got to worry only about telling the story in this first draft. Symbolism, beautiful language and style are things to worry about in the second draft. Whew. I don't know why I was expecting so much of myself in the first draft. (Or maybe I didn't like feeling like a crap writer making a crappy first draft--and so went back to older chapters, refining them, so I could experience the feeling of writing something really good, with style, with refined figurative language. Cuz writing a first draft for years can make you feel like you're in an interminable first-draft helll....) But somehow, the way King talked about it, it got through to me. No one is going to read this draft--it's not supposed to be stellar. No one is expecting it to be a measure of all my skills.

Second, he got me to see I shouldn't be letting anyone read my first draft. It led to the problem I just mentioned. I was letting a small group of novelists read my beginning--and what that did was stop all forward motion as I made the beginning better and better to present. But I realize I may have wasted a lot of time. Until I can tell my whole story, who knows how much of those first chapters I will completely ax out of the book in the end! King talks about writing the first draft with the door closed. I'm now committed to that. I'll not worry about workshopping and etc until the second draft.

The third thing I learned made me feel a lot of comfort. King thinks plot is very over rated. He swears he doesn't plot, but lets his characters work out their problems It's apparently worked for him. Now I'm not going to say all I've tried to learn about plot is useless to me now. I really needed to learn it--I've got to get the bones of storytelling down. But I now need to take a step back from that and not worry if I've got a 3-act storyline or that my climax happens where people say it should be, etc.

King talks about how he doesn't plot, but instead takes a problem and then watches to see how his characters get out of it. That's a pretty good reflection of what I'd say I do. King calls it "what if" inspirations. I wrote a short story called the Advent of Asher, and it was a what if story about two college friends who, years later, after they marry other people, meet again and confess they'd both been interested in each other. The story was a what if tale of the terrible drama that ensued. That story was about them. But someone in my writing group suggested maybe the story was really the beginning of a novel about the baby. Then it became a what if question: seeing the unstable situation the baby is born into, I wondered what happens to this boy as he grows and becomes a man.

I'm encouraged to know a successful writer has made this sort of "plotting" (I used that term very loosely here) work. But I am a little apprehensive still--for one reason. King is successful--but have you noticed how long his books are? That's my problem too. I've got a manuscript of over 128,000 words and I may have written only to the climax so far. But I'm trying not to worry about that now. My second draft experience might be about very heavy editing, after I see what the bones of my story really are.

But I have to say, I got a lot from King's book. Shortly after reading, I made myself a one-year deadline to finish my first draft.

Some other things I've written online:
How Much Genetically Modified Food Do You Eat?

Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile

Power Your Electronics with Your Body's Own Movement? The nPower PEG, The First Kinetic Energy Recharger

My Deadline to Finish a Complete First Draft

So, in June, I got serious. I've written multiple posts in my blog about my freelancing journey about how I started much of this writing thing--going in many directions--as an experiment. After a year of data, I said I'd reassess and decide which avenues were best for me to focus on. Well, it took me longer than a year. About 14 months I guess, but by the end of June I'd made one decision, leaving the rest in the gray area.

Goal: I will finish the first draft of my novel by the beginning of next July.

There, I said it--though it took me over 6 weeks to commit publicly like this. I made the deadline generous, because I really hope I may be done sooner, and by July, be in the second draft.

I enjoy what I'm learning in freelancing, but I refined my goals. If I'm going to get anywhere as a novelist, i've got to start getting serious NOW. It takes years to get a book written, marketed, accepted and then published. I don't want to waste any more time not pursuing that. I'm a member of one writers group full of novelists, and going to those meetings helped me decide it was simply time to get down to business. I've been working on it for over a year, but just by squeezing it in between writing magazine articles, online content articles, and other essays. It's time I said the opposite--focus on the novel and write other things only when they're really compelling or I'm doing it to deal with writer's block with my novel.

Strange as it may sound to my own ears, I'm looking forward to the second draft. I think that part will be maybe the most fun. This first draft is a real mess of a thing. Hugely long (over 128,000 words already--past the top limit agents and publishers say they'll even consider for a first-time novelist), it's going to need not just pruning, but some outright amputation. I've finally been able to just leave beginning chapters alone (instead of editing all the time) and just press on to the end. When I'm done cranking out the story, then it's time to go back. Til then, wish me well on seeing my characters to the end. (And that end, I now finally see. While on vacation at the beach, I got a clearer glimpse than ever before of how the characters are getting to the end. That's a great thing for a writer who writes into her story--not exactly from an outlined, predetermined plot!)

My sparse online writing activities of recent months:
Zucchini for Breakfast, Dinner and Dessert: Five New Ways to Use Up Summer Squash and Zucchini

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Obesity?

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It

100% Whole Wheat Bread with Honey or Molasses, for a Bread Machine

For fun, two from over a year ago:
Potty Training: Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables

Baby Food: Save money by Making Your Own