Writing Styles

With the National Novel Writing competition coming up soon, weblogs are abounding with advice on how to complete the challenge. I'm not linking them because the majority say the same thing I do: sit down and write. Simple, no frills advice.

The minimum to complete the challenge is 1667 words a day, five, six pages. It's not so much, if you've got a great idea, all your plot notes in order, your outline completed, your character interviews done and your research next to you for quick reference. Or... are you an 'organic' writer?

I came across this term a few days ago and wondered, yet again, why people are so determined to create a name for a group who sit outside the box.

An organic writer is one who starts with an idea and runs with it; who sits down at the keyboard and gets the words down, in order. They let the characters take them on the journey. I'm an organic writer... mostly. Here's how it works for me:

I get an idea. I let it stew for a week or so, write down a note about it. I'll spend time dwelling on various aspects of the book: the main character, other characters including the villain, the plot, the end, the beginning, whether there will be an intimate scene, how to kill someone, how a character escapes, weaponry, clothes, scenery, dialogue - I listen to other people's conversations for nifty sayings - weather, and so on. Each aspects comes to me like an excerpt from a movie. My job is to transcribe that movie onto the page, which is why, when I get these flashes, I'll jot them down to remind me of what I saw in my head.

Okay. When I feel ready, or the workings of the book get so overwelming that I must write, I will sit down and do so. The whole story is arranged in my head and out it comes. Most authors will tell you that they have characters living in their heads, but the pressure eases when they've been evicted onto a blank page.

So what does all this mean? It means that I don't have a lot of discipline until I actually sit and write, then I can write for fourteen, sixteen hours - with regular breaks to satisfy the Occupational Health and Safety gnome of my conscience - and write the first draft in a short amount of time.

How short? My first book - don't ask, it was appallingly dreadful and I keep it as a reminder of where I started and how much better I am at this - took me three weeks of fourteen hour days to write. It was 90k. Demonesque, last year's Nano, is 122k; the Oracle Duology is 280k and took me six weeks.

This method works for me. I would like to write three books a year, although I'm capable of more. This method doesn't work for everyone. Plotting is hell for me because it captures my creativity and cages it on the page before it's ready. When I have tried to plot, the book has deviated from about chapter three and that's an end to the plot notes.

Whatever you are, structured, organic, anal or free-spirit, the point is to actually put your bum on the seat and write. Your schedule doesn't matter, I don't think as long as you get the work done. Of course the challlenge of Nano is to guide you into a scheduled existence and into a routine. It's worthwhile. If nothing else, by the end of November, you'll have a book and you'll know what you like and hate about writing.