I would very much like to finish, edit, and publish a novel in the coming year. In between writing and publishing flash stories, short stories, creative nonfiction, and teaching modules, I’ve been working on two novel-length stories. Truth be told, ‘working on them’ is a misnomer as I have continued to edit or expound upon what I’ve already written on and off, with the ‘off’ parts lasting for years.
My favorite project is set on a fictional island. The spec fiction world, I have. The well-developed characters, I also have, both heroes and villains. The beginning crisis and closing resolution, I have. And of course, some of the major hurdles my two heroes need to cross, I have. My problem with this wannabe novel is that I don’t have enough “stuff” to fill the required pages to classify it as a novel. So how do I find sufficient information, action, and intrigue to fill a couple hundred pages without adding extended (and likely boring) backstory, or mundane secondary characters, or banal “how’s the weather” conversations?
By now you’ve likely surmised that I’m a pantser, someone who develops characters and writes stories without a well-defined structure. Yep. For forty years this pantsing thing has worked well for me with stories from 800 to 12,000 words. But beyond that, I run out of ideas for a particular set of characters and their situation. Then it’s time for me to move onto another story.
Within each of my books-in-progress computer folders lie myriad pieces / parts that fit with the story’s characters and tempo, but I’m not sure where they’ll go. Finding or building spots in the story where these embellishments will fit has been like finding the right spot in a jigsaw puzzle for a piece with an odd number of sides. So far, mind mapping hasn’t taught me how to connect these disparate events and ideas to what I’ve already written.
If I’m going to succeed this November at writing a novel’s first draft, I need to first create a plot point outline or narrative framework that will (or should) serve as my guide from one chapter to another, beginning to end. Whether that framework is linear, fractured, or circular, it needs to provide me with enough structure and direction that I can compose the full 50,000 words for one project.
Okay! I’ve identified my framework challenge and now I have just six weeks to create it before November 1st.
Write on!
