Thoughts on writing a novel

Part 1: The rush of creativity is a thrill

I’m sure you know this.  I doubt you’d be reading this if you didn’t.  That dynamite exploding into your head - feels good.  I first had the idea for ‘The Lonely Heir’ when I was 15.  I then spent about 15 years revelling in the rush of the idea over and over.  Every now and then I’d dip my toe in to try to take it further, but that quickly seemed too hard and too much work, so that toe was just as quickly removed.

So what changed?  Well, it is a cliche.  I remember looking at my baby and asking - what do I truly want for them?  One of those things was that they would pursue their dreams no matter how hard things were, which then led to the question - do you go after your dreams?  I knew the answer was no by the squeezing in my chest.  It’s not the best feeling when you realise that you are too scared to go after something you really want.  Of course, I had the best excuses in the world - not enough time, too tired, so busy.  But the truth was, I was petrified to even give it a go.

I saw all these other people, who had story ideas.  Some of them had complete story plans for the beginning, middle and the end.  All I had were some characters, their names and how the two main characters met.  I had no idea how the story ended, let alone what happened in between.  Luckily around that point, Stephen King’s book, ‘On Writing’ landed in my hands.  I admire Stephen King, but I haven’t read a lot of his work.  Up to that point, I was a romance/ historical romance girl.  Stephen King though really is a master of the craft of writing and this book is inspiring!  I highly recommend you read it in full.  There were 3 main things from it that impacted me.  

First, Stephen doesn’t write story plans.  He has an idea, has characters and starts writing.  Reading this, lifted a weight from my crumpled shoulders.  I didn’t have to know how it ended!  I could just start writing! - Freedom!!  

He made an analogy that I fell in love with.  A story was like a fossil and it was the writer’s job to uncover it.  I didn’t truly understand what he meant until I started writing.  Once I got over the difficult start (which I will go into detail at a later time), something started happening.  The story just started unfolding.  It didn’t feel like my story or my idea anymore.  It was like there was a story out there that wanted to be told and I just happened to be the writer it chose, though its telling was limited by my skills and abilities and I felt that.  Ultimately though, the story itself ran the show.  I knew scenes were coming up and certain characters were involved and I was excited to get to it, but I didn’t know how it would unfold or what the characters would do.  

I was truly shocked at times by how characters responded.  Sometimes I wanted them to act differently.  At various parts, I wanted the main character, Brittany to be braver, but she just wasn’t there yet.  And Braun was so vocal and cheeky.  I wasn’t expecting him to have so much to say.  As for Nian, what a cranky bastard.  I underestimated how much things impacted him.

You’ve got me talking on this now and I want to keep going, especially with the 2 other things that impacted me from reading Stephen King’s book, but I think that’s enough for today.  Have fun 🙂.

Luv KR Fox.