Writer's Blog

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up for work." --Chuck Close

I sure hope that isn't true because I feel suddenly inspired. I want to write a novel. I don't think of myself as an amateur writer, though the idea of being a full-fledged novelist is intimidating. As both a guidebook and a way to soothe my ego, I ordered The Practical Writer. The book goes into detail about the process of turning the outline for a story into a novel and then how to publish it. The emphasis is on the professional approach that is required for a novel to be bought by a publisher, which is exactly what I want to learn. I hope The Practical Writer can prepare me for both the inevitable rejections and the joy of acceptance.

I have only just begun the basic concepts of my novel. For the time being, my novel is only a single page of loose leaf paper. Could be worse...JK Rowling started out with napkins. I know from experience that the easiest time to quit is during brainstorming, so I have to believe in myself and back it up with hard work.  I am trying to create characters and fully understand them before I even start outlining. Another good plan is using notecards to organize the scenes in the story. That way I can quickly rearrange things to change the pacing if necessary.

It took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to write. I was inspired by Giles Milton's book, Paradise Lost: Smyrna, 1922. I immediately threw out the option of writing a history, because it had already been done so well. I contemplated writing historical fiction, but eventually settled on writing a satirical novel. I like the idea more and more as I think about it. In this case, a satire is really my lazy man's nonfiction. I bet it will, regardless, still be a challenge. I hope that I'm up for it.