I am trying to write a novel, could do with some help?

MickeyFinns said:
If its a novel totally forget about counting words etc. Just let the story come to its natural conclusion in the first draft.
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I agree! Giving yourself a no. of pages target is not what you should be going for.
Just write it and extend it if you feel it should be longer.
 
thanks for the replies

I never intended to set a page number, i just wrote it and have finished it and once counted it was 260K, ofcourse i am going to clean it up a bit, i will probably loose several thousand words here and there and add another several thousand but before i do so i would like to get an agent to read through the first draft so they can use their experience and tell me which parts need improvement.
 
I would suggest you do a lot of the initial editing yourself before getting an agent to read it. Make it the best you possibly can first. Read articles such as this one as a basis for your analysis and editing. And/or get a book like "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print" by Renni Browne and Dave King (a book highly recommended by other authors - Google it). Take a look at this e-zine, flick through the archives - there's a lot of info there about publishing and so on. And, I came across this site - you might want to take a look, it gives some interesting information about copyright, things for new writers to avoid, etc.

Hope that's helpful.
 
dvdbunny said:
thanks for the replies

I never intended to set a page number, i just wrote it and have finished it and once counted it was 260K, ofcourse i am going to clean it up a bit, i will probably loose several thousand words here and there and add another several thousand but before i do so i would like to get an agent to read through the first draft so they can use their experience and tell me which parts need improvement.
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Not gonna happen - they're interested in whether they can sell you and your book, not in critiquing your writing.

Take a course in creative writing
 
Whats your book about? Can I have a couple of chapters to read please? The best book you can get now is the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook that has loads of stuff about what to do with your drafts etc. As well as havin comprehensive directories of all the places you might wanna send it to.
 
I've been unsuccessfully trying to write a fantasy novel for nearly 10 years :(
It'll probably be another 10 years before I have anything remotely readable.
 
loopstah said:
I've been unsuccessfully trying to write a fantasy novel for nearly 10 years :(
It'll probably be another 10 years before I have anything remotely readable.
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I dont understand the fascination with writing fantasy, with any form of art its only a few which get anywhere and with fantasy you have to more or less create everything from the colour of the grass to strength of the mavity. I think you (general form of you) would stand more of a chance gettin somewhere with somethin people can relate to easier. In writing general fiction or whatever, people already know how things happen etc.
 
loopstah said:
I've been unsuccessfully trying to write a fantasy novel for nearly 10 years
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I wouldn't worry about trying to write a "novel" - just write, and enjoy writing. The more you write, the easier it'll be to write something substantial. I've been writing for a couple of years now, and have only just started what I hope will be a novel-length work. Over those years I've managed to put together nine or so short stories (from 3k-14k words) and had great fun doing it. :)
 
Im never going to be a novelist. I prefer poetry to convey my stories and I feel that the short story/ novella style suits me much better than full length novel as I concentrate solely on the content in terms of language. I also like to take huge trains of thought and condense them into twelve line pentameter as that takes some serious skillz.

Let us know how you get on dvdbunny as I'm pretty much in the same boat as you now. If you need a literary critiquing I'd be more than happy to oblige!
 
I started writing short story "scenes" when I was about 14, in the hope of tying it all together in a "Novel"
The characters were all loosely based on people in my year.

All it consisted of was fast cars, guns, violent killings, breasts and shagging.

I re-read some of it recently and it's utter pap :o :D
 
Lopéz said:
I started writing short story "scenes" when I was about 14, in the hope of tying it all together in a "Novel"
The characters were all loosely based on people in my year.

All it consisted of was fast cars, guns, violent killings, breasts and shagging.

I re-read some of it recently and it's utter pap :o :D
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got any you want to sell? :D
 
Guys

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated

My book is a fictional auto biography of my life, but i want to sell it as a truth life story. The book is about something that people can really relate to and it makes them think what if? but at the same time it takes you on a roller coaster ride, it's a mix of fact and fiction. It's also really out there. You got to have an open mind.

The story is not for everyone and my parents and friends would think i'm a nutcase. So i created an alias for this book. I plan on telling my agent and publisher that it's fiction but must be sold as a real autobiography. My name on the front cover must be the alias, but the agent and publisher would be the only people that know my real name.

Now in order to do the above, how will that work with the copyright issues? some time in the future i plan on writing a film script of the book, how do i stop others from copying what i say is real when in fact only i know it's fiction.

The book has been written in a special way so i can only really say that it's all real.

any help much appreciated

TIA
 
Sounds intriguing. I'd be delighted to read a chapter or two to check your style given that if you, the author is saying it requires an open mind then that can mean that you've created something somewhat inacessible to others. Also the notion of aliases for yourself isn't an issue and you can just sell it as a fictional autobiography, which could be popular. Not that I've recently read it but isn't Adrian Mole a kind of fictional autobiography? Obviously I wouldn't dream of lumping you in the same category as that, but the kind of idea is maybe not as unusual as you may have thought so. If you treat is first and foremost as a work of fiction then it won't be a problem, and as is the case with many writers in my field [poetry] ideas can be waaaay out there and fictional seeming to most, but you, the author and the people whom you choose to inform will know that it's really making references to yourself. A theme which I've touched upon in some of my older works [now 3 years old :O]

I shall think about your last few sentences there though because they are somewhat difficult to interpret clearly.
 
Hey Guys,

I am currently writing my second draft, and have stumbled into a bit of a block.

I am writing about a past memory between myself and a friend. But i don't know how to correctly write it. here's an example

I write only once that 'i have a distinctive memory that's been haunting me for these last few years. It starts in 1985, my friend and I are taking a stroll along the beach...'

So that's the first bit, then if i want to write about a character then do i need to write in the past tense or can it also be written in the present tense. That's my difficultly.

My first draft i would write about conversations between myself and my friend in the present tense even though it's a past memory that i am writing about. The idea was i wanted to write in this way for the immersion to the reader, it's better having them read this way as it's so much more immersive that they kind of forget that what they are reading is the past but really the present. But then problem arises is that this doesn't fit within good english criteria, as if you write about a past memory then you have to write in the past tense right?

But then how do i do it without writing too much like the past tense.

Sorry this is quite difficult to describe

A little more examples

If i was writing past tense it would read like this 'Then he came towards me and shook my hand, i never believed that i could stand a chance against him'

another example of past tense 'we had only been traveling for a few minutes or so.'

Now present tense 'we have only been traveling for a few minutes or so.'

Now here it comes, which sentence sounds better? I am a little loss or maybe really tired and perhaps my mind isn't thinking straight, but would really like to hear your opinions.

much appreicated

Many thanks
 
dvdbunny said:
then if i want to write about a character then do i need to write in the past tense or can it also be written in the present tense. That's my difficultly.
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Well as just a reader of novels and not a novellist myself I would suggest writing in the present tense, especially if there is a whole chapter dedicated to the 'flashback', if you're writing within the story as simply a memory the past tense will do, but in order to catch the theme and specific details any book I've read in the present tense, during the past, seems to relate better to the rest of the story. Also writing in the past tense can be a bit emotionally disconnected from the featured characters, if you get my drift?
 
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