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“What do you want to write about?” I brought a plate of cookies to the living room along with a cup of hot cocoa and a cup of milk.
“I don’t know.” Ben took the cocoa from me as I set the plate down. I had a bad moment as the other cup tried to slide off my finger, but managed to escape spill free.
“It’s going to be kind of hard to write a book if you don’t know what it’s about. Not impossible, but not much fun, if you’re like me.”
“You’ve done that?”
“Well. Kind of. Some books I already know a lot about before I start to write them. For instance, for The Rancher’s Heart, I had a complete outline done before I began the first word. It was a short book, but I’m sure the outline is why I got through the rough draft so quickly. Fourteen days from beginning to end. Unluckily I had some nagging issues with characterization and pacing, and it was rejected out of a limited market on the query, but that wasn’t the outline’s fault.”
“Huh.” I must have used too many technical terms because his eyes were glazing.
“For me, different books work different ways. I have a friend who has published many Harlequin Romance novels who can’t outline. She says once she’s done so, she no longer has any interest in actually writing the book. I know others who generate up to forty pages of outline before they start to write.”
“What’s the least amount you’ve ever started with?” He put the plate of cookies on a side table untouched. “Or what do you usually start with?”
“Hmm… Well, generally a book starts with a scene for me. Sometimes I try to write the book with only that to go on. Other times I’ll work out exactly what the characters are like and what the situation is all about, and what the setting is like before I start. I hardly ever wait until I’ve got the outline completely detailed. Even when I do, I’ll probably break free from the outline as soon as I start writing it.”
“Well, how do you know when to start?”
“When I can hear the dialogue clearly and am afraid if I don’t get it down I’ll lose something, then I generally start writing. I frequently have the first scene of the book written, then stop and work on the outline, then go back to working on the book.”
“Huh.” Ben nodded, but looked a little slack-jawed.
“Every writer has a different process. What do you do when you write a short story?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I just write it.” He took a cookie off his plate.
“So you already know what the whole story is about when you first start?”
“Kind of. But I can’t do that with a whole book. Right?”
“Because you can’t keep the whole thing in your head at once?” I grabbed a cookie for myself.
“Yeah.”
“You might be able to get the same kind of feel for how an entire book will go, at least long enough to put it in an outline.”
I didn’t look enthusiastic.
“I get the feeling you don’t really want to write a book so much as to be able to say you had in idle chit chat.” I smiled. “I understand. I was a coffee house writer for a long time. I loved talking about books I was going to write and stories I had written, but actually doing it didn’t have much appeal.”
“No, I’m not like that. I’m just trying to figure out how to start.”
“You know, I have an idea. A lot of the stories you’ve brought to me feature the people who live at your place. Why don’t you take all of them and see if they might fit into some kind of order. It might turn out that you have actually already written a book through the short stories.”
“What? No.” Ben wrinkled his nose. “I want to write a real book.”
“I’m not talking about an anthology. I’m talking about something like some of the old time Science Fiction authors have done. They write stories in the same world, then put the stories together and it turns out they all fit into one big story. It’s not so different from writing a book from beginning to end because books are made of scenes the same way the stories are. You might have to revise to get rid of some choppiness, but so what? Unless you want to just take the plunge, it would be a good way to go.”
Ben ate his cookie while he listened. He finished with a sip of cocoa before responding.
“No offense, Mrs. Audrey, but I think I’d rather just take the plunge.”
Oh well. It’s not like he couldn’t do my idea later, if he felt like it.
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Happy new year to you – I not only smiled through this chapter but learnt a lot…I think I am a Ben kind of scribbler aspiring to be a Mrs Audrey..I am glad we got to hear the authors voice..very clever!
Well, you already know I fly by the seat of my pants, but I can totally relate to a scene being so clear I have to write so I don’t somehow lose it. I love reading your explanation to Ben. We all have to start somewhere. Somehow, though, I think Ben’s book is in the making. He may just not know it yet!
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Happy New Year!
Yes, everyone has their own method and although we can tell others what works for us, each writer must ultimately find their own way. Sort of like life.
Loved your explanations to Ben — every writer must find their own process. Also agree that he might do a book by putting together his short stories. Really fun to hear your author voice coming through!
Hopefully Ben will learn. He could of course write a scene or episode of anything that comes to mind and then expand on the characters and what they have done in the past or will do in the future. The most important thing is to write and not talk about it but just start. How many times have we ourselves mapped out something only to revise it beyond recognition? I am so anxious now to see how this pans out. Suzie has the patience of a saint!
Ben and I are alike!
I want to write a long book but I am not sure I can do an outline….and that’s why I haven’t moved from short stories yet.
I want to know more about this outline thing. I want to try writing at least a novella
nice….great job using your story to teach…that is really cool to get an inside look at your writing…
clever I like the way you incorporated how to write a book into the story.
I don’t think anyone can be taught how to write a book. They can be taught spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but a ‘book’ comes from the soul, and must be felt rather than written. A Finnish girl once told me she was studying to be an artist. I’m afraid I simply HAD to tell her that she could, by all means, study art, but she would need to be born to be an artist. Didn’t go down too well!