Write your novel with me

What if I told you there was an easy way to get your novel started, revised and completed. What if it turned out you have had the power all along, just like Dorothy did in the Wizard of Oz.

Here it is.

Write three pages every time you write.

So maybe it's three pages a day if you're a daily writer, or three pages three times a week for those of you who like powerful numerology.

Why three?

Three has several things to recommend it.

First, three is an attainable goal. I can write three pages in about 40 minutes if I'm humming. Sometimes it takes longer -- an hour, an hour and a half. But like many writers, I have a full time job, a marriage, a dog that needs walking, and so I need something that I can achieve in the time I have. Three works.

Second, three accumulates. Three pages a day, five days a week is 15 pages a week. Fifteen pages a week for four weeks is 60 pages. By that metric, at month five you will have a 300 page manuscript. Not bad.

The writing may need (WILL need) polishing. That is to be expected. If you require perfection from a first draft, you set yourself up for a nasty case of writers' block.

Get the writing flowing, get your ideas down on paper, discover who your characters are. Then revise the hell out of it. But that's the subject of a later day.

You have a story to tell. That's why you want to write a novel, right? Maybe a character has taken hold of your psyche and keeps knocking on your skull, trying to come out.

Or perhaps you're fascinated by encryption technology, and know there's a techno thriller buried in those 1's and 0's.

Either way, in your mind's eye, a story arc has started to take shape. A beginning. A middle (ok, most people don't usually imagine the middle, but we'll talk about that). And a whiz-bang ending that leaves your readers breathless, touched, crying or all three.

Chapters are the increments that get you from A to Z. But what are they exactly?

Tension: Two Dogs Fighting for a Bone

A key element in your writing is tension. Your character wants something: a new dress, her best friend's husband, the secret of the Codex, to get over that hurt from way back when. Something. The old truism says, "a story is two dogs fighting for a bone."

But as anyone who's ever been to a dog park knows, simply watching dogs fight is both disturbing and, from a narrative point of view, uninteresting. You want to know more. Who are these dogs? What makes them fight? And what's so special about that bone anyway?

Chapters help answer those questions and build tension in the process. Chapter 1: We meet Bowser, a bulldog from the other side of the tracks, all snaggle teeth and flesh rolls. In chapter 2, the point of view switches to Alsace, a Weimaraner who frequently models for a famous photographer. Chapter 3 cuts to the dog park where we discover there is a golden bone that is worth all the tea in China. Enough to transform the life of any dog who unburies it.

Now it's getting interesting. We start to see tension. That's a good thing. Because, unlike in real life, where tension causes belly fat and warts and a thousand other afflictions, in fiction tension keeps us reading because we have to know: What happens next?

How do you know when a chapter is finished?
This is one of the most personal questions you can ask a novelist. But some quick ways to think about it are:

1 chapter per scene: This is one of the most common methods, and most effective. It gives your story a clear narrative progression and builds your plot out nicely.

Driving question: Another way to structure chapters is around a driving thought or question that a character is experiencing. In this model you follow that thought until it is complete. The thought can (and should) be expressed in action (i.e., dramatized), but for the duration of the chapter, your character is doing things that illustrate this key thought.

In my current novel, I am using this approach. For instance, I have a character who is becoming involved in a community effort to stop a building project. So I have a chapter structured around both a scene (going to her first community meeting) and a thought - can I really do this?

Alternating viewpoints: If different characters share in the telling of your story, a common way to arrange chapters is to use one chapter per point of view. I am doing this in my current book, and did it very extravagantly in my first novel, Air Burial, where the character POV also switched between first and third person.

So you can use chapters to build tension and go more deeply into the revelation of your characters. Think of it this way: Each time we see a character again, we should learn a little more about him, we should see the forces (either internal or external) exert more pressure on him - increasing the tension and our desire to see how it turns out.

I am at the exact mid-point in the writing of my new novel. It's a tender spot in the process, a place where many things can happen. Your plot may spiral out of control. You may get inspirations for new books you really should write instead. Or, you may experience a visitation from a brand new character who demands his place in the story.

This is a good thing. He has been sent to you by your muse to help clarify aspects of your story, so make him welcome. He may not actually end up in your story (though he might), but this new apparition will help you tighten your tale if you let him.

Spin-Off Characters
A new character can be a welcome breath of energy. Thank God, you think, someone new to talk to! But as you get to know this new person, you may discover that he acts and talks and thinks very much like someone already present and accounted for in your novel. This is the spin-off character.

Take a closer look at this new figure. What is he trying to tell you? Some possibilities are:

Your existing character needs to reveal a new facet. If you've been writing awhile, you probably know your characters pretty well. Oh, she would never do that, you think, when a devious plot twist occurs to you. Your spin-off may be signaling that your character has a greater range of possibility than you imagined. Try this: Give all the dialog and action that your new character wants to do to your existing character. You may deepen and enrich your story by doing so.

The plot is changing. Your new character may be an signpost along the way to a new plot twist, calling you in a direction you didn't anticipate. I am always deeply grateful when this happens. It's a sign to me that my sub-conscious, where the real art-making takes place, is hard at work. Let this character take you where she wants. If it's a blind alley, you'll know pretty quickly, but that too is helpful knowledge.

The Truly New
The other option is that the character represents a new presence in your story. This happened to me in my first novel, Air Burial. Mid-way through the writing, the character of David started to assert himself. In the first draft of the book,he'd been a minor presence. As the story unfolded, he became a major point-of-view character and transformed the story in many ways.

So be open to new arrivals mid-way through your novel. They come to help you find your way. Listen, learn, and if they are only temporary guides, thank them and write your way home.