WRITING A NOVEL - 25% 50% 25%

WHERE, WHEN, WHO: With the setting decided (Dothan, Alabama), I need to determine when the story takes place. I mentioned in a previous blog that the time period the story covers can be a month, several months, a year, several years, etc., but I also need to determine the "WHEN". Once I know the year the novel starts, it will be easier to develop the characters.

Having grown up in Dothan, I have a particular interest in the late '50s through the early '70s. Dothan was in a growth phase during that period.

The Local, as it is now called, is a story about...

This is a question I will soon need to answer before I begin writing/typing. I will write a short synopsis of the story and boil it down into a single sentence. Then I will start the writing. So you might ask, "When do you think you will actually start writing the story?" Here is the way I set up the timeline for writing the story. Assuming "life" doesn't throw me too many curves, the map below shows how I divide the project. Interestingly, it follows the same "Blueprint" for the actual story (see the previous blog: WRITING A NOVEL - The Blueprint).

25% - 50% - 25%: The beginning/setup section of a novel takes approximately 25%; the middle/development section takes approximately 50%; the ending/final push & aftermath takes 25%. Or you could call them Acts I, II, and III.

For me, writing the story is much the same. I normally spend 25% of the time researching, outlining, building story boards, getting to know the characters. Then I spend 50% of the time writing the first draft. The last 25% is spent re-writing, editing, and polishing the manuscript. If I use that formula, I can tell you the date the novel will be available. Of course "life" will and usually does change the timeline a bit. For example, while writing Flight to Freedom we moved from California to Alabama. I lost almost three months of writing time.

The following timeline is my goal for this next novel:

I want to complete the project in one year (12 months). My first blog post was made on September 11, 2013, so I'll call that the start date. Based on a starting date of 9/11/13, the novel will be available on September 12, 2014. I know there will be situations that will slow me down, but I also know that those situations will most likely contribute to my story--they always do.

Considering one year as my goal, the first phase (25% or 3 months) will occur from September 11, 2013 to December 11, 2013. The second phase (50% or 6 months) will take place from December 12, 2013 to June 11, 2014. The third phase (25% or 3 months) will take place from June 12, 2014 to September 11, 2014.

Based on my 25% - 50% - 25%, when I start writing in December, I must write a certain number of words per day to reach the goal. Shooting for a rough draft of 80,000 words (10% will be cut in re-writes giving me a finished product of approximately 65,000 words), phase one will have 20,000 words, phase two will have 40,000 words, and phase three will have 20,000 words. With an average of 1,600 words per chapter, the novel will have 50 chapters.

My personal goal is to write 1,000 words per day. Some days I write less, some days more. Some weeks I write all seven days, but my target is to write five days per week. With an average of 20 days per month, I will be able to write 20,000 words in one month. So in theory, if I start writing the first draft on December 12, 2013, I should have the draft completed by April 2014 (20,000 x 4 = 80,000) and ahead of schedule, instead of June 11, 2014. Note: I would be foolish to think there won't be any dead days, spells of "writer's block", and the need for more research.

There you have it. The Local will be available on or before SEPTEMBER 12, 2014.

WRITING A NOVEL - The Setting is Set

Today was a good day…no, a GREAT day! I think I found it, or better put, it found me.

 

Friday afternoon I drove to Target for some coffee with Sue Marie and David. Sue Marie is not a coffee drinker (she gave up caffeine several years ago), but she likes an occasional decaf, skinny, latte. Since leaving California and moving to Dothan, probably the only city in America (probably the world) without at least one free-standing Starbucks, I too have cut way back on my coffee. But there is hope…Dothan is soon to have its very own Starbucks. I digress…

David and I were doing some serious people watching when the idea for my next story hit me. It was like a powerful force taking control of my right brain. All doubt was removed and in that instant I knew. I’m not sure if it was the 390 pound man with the 32-oz Bojangles’ cup and bag of fried chicken struggling to squeeze behind the wheel of his car, or the thin, malnourished woman seated in her car in the Target parking lot taking her last, deep draw on her cigarette with the little stuffed bear securely belted in the passenger seat beside her. Perhaps it was the conversation I had earlier that day with a hard-working waitress and her struggles to make a living. Or maybe it was the young woman in her early 20’s wearing different colored tennis shoes and a fuzzy tiger’s tail hanging from beneath her skirt waving in the breeze behind her as she walked hand-in-hand with her boyfriend. If I had been on the boardwalk at Venice Beach I’d have hardly given notice to the girl with the tail, but this is Dothan. I don’t believe it was any one person that released my creative mind, but rather a closer look at humanity in general. Stories are all around us if we take the time to look for them.

The themes are still a bit foggy and I’m not completely sure about the storyline, but what I do feel strongly about is that the story setting will be in Dothan, Alabama. Also, the story must be written in first person point of view. I know what you are thinking: “Didn’t you say in your last post that your next story was going to definitely be written in third person?” Well…yes, but remember I told you this blog was going to be an honest look at the journey of writing a novel. Change is the one thing that is certain.

Not only do I feel strongly about the setting and the POV, I even discovered a working title for the novel. Although the title is likely to change, at the present it will be The Local. When I first started writing Flight to Paradise, the title was A Love Once Lost, and the first title I had for Flight into Darkness was The Golden Gate. Margaret Mitchell first named her one-and-only novel Tomorrow is Another Day (from the last line in the story). It was later named Gone with the Wind. So story titles do change quite often. That is why I call it a working title.

My challenge now is to work on developing the main character and his/her (probably going to be a “his”) driving motivation and deepest desire. There must be a great “want” and a great “obstacle” in order to create the conflict necessary to make a good story. And then there are the all-important themes. So for the next few days/weeks I will be focusing on bringing the character to life. Some of the questions I will need to answer are: Where does the character live? Where is the character from? How old is the character? What is the character called (names are important)? What does the character look like? What kind of childhood did the character have? What does the character do for a living? How does the character deal with conflict and change? Who else is in the character’s life? What is the character’s goal or motivation in the story?

The last question is VERY important and will be the driving force behind every scene in the story. But first I need to meet the character and he and I need to get to know each other.