Do you ever think about how supermarkets have no clear indicator of time passing visually? Like if u go into a supermarket in the morning or midnight it would look the same, same harsh white lighting. Time isn’t real. Nothing is real. Avocados are half off
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Write Your Novel In A Year – Week 1: Start Strong, Start Simple
by Anthony Ehlers
Write Your Novel In A Year – Week 1: Start Strong, Start Simple
Anthony Ehlers invites you to join him as he helps authors write a novel in a year. Through a series of inspirational, useful posts, he aims to get you to start and finish a book.
Goal setting
- Go through your rough and raw ideas of your imagination
- Choose an idea that you can live with — and love
- Commit to that idea for 52 weeks
Breaking it down
The imagination room
Where do you keep your ideas for stories? Maybe you have the scratched on pieces of paper in a box, scribbled in a notebook, or in a
file on your smartphone or Mac. Maybe, just maybe, you have it lurking somewhere in your imagination like something you can almost see from the corner of your eye — and if you turn your head really fast, it’ll be gone. If you’re lucky, maybe you already know what story you want to tell.
For years, I’ve kept notebooks where I jot down ideas for stories — random thoughts, thumbnail synopses, little character portraits, and
inciting incidents that could spark a story. Sometimes I have just a title I like but with no story to go with it. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
I like to think of this book as my imagination room and everyone and everything is welcome. From vampires to small-town farm girls, from big Hollywood plots to quiet little stories, I write it all down without judging it or over analysing it. Some ideas are silly; others are exciting or at least have the possibility of being exciting. But they’re all there — like a bag of Liquorice All Sorts or a bar filled with cocktail mixes. I’m glad I’ve kept this book next to my bedside. If you haven’t started a notebook like this, it might be a good idea to start one and fill it up as you go along.
Picking a puppy — or a cat
I have friend who owns a Cornish Rex, a sinuous, beautiful, hairless breed of cat. He loves cats but is allergic to them so this is the only breed he can have around. It’s the same with choosing a novel as your project — it has to be a project that you can live with for a whole year. More than that, it has to be something you can love for a lifetime. (In fact, I think I’ll have a Cornish Rex somewhere in my novel. Why not?)
What kinds of characters fascinate you? I’m drawn to obsessive characters living compromised lives — dark or funny stories, or both.
I like beautiful but broken characters. Driven by their desperate desires or haunted by secret dreams. The characters that fascinate me have a psychology behind their sexuality; it’s tied up with their identity or lack of identity.
If I look at the stories I’ve published, most revolve around three themes: sexuality, obsession, identity. And I used this as a filter for the ideas in my notebook — because I knew stories with these elements would excite me and (hopefully) keep me excited about a project for the whole year. I finally found one through process of elimination. Have you found yours?
Find the thread — and keep your place
Basically, it’s the story of an engaged couple who decide they need some excitement in their relationship. They pick up a young man at a
club and invite him back to their apartment for a threesome — not knowing that behind his placid and beautiful exterior lies an unbalanced personality. This one impulsive invitation causes their seemingly perfect existence to unravel.
That’s all I know about the story. It’s not a clear and complete formed novel — it’s just a sliver. It’s a thread. It’s a start, that’s all I need for now, and perhaps it’s all you need to start for now too. Just make sure it’s as clear and interesting as you can make it right now.
On a December night in the middle of a heat wave in Johannesburg, I was wrapping presents for my nephew. I was struggling to find
the beginning of a roll of sticky tape. In the heat, I was irritable and was about to give up — but I finally found the seam and made damn sure I didn’t lose the start by folding over the end the tape to keep it from sticking down again. It’s the same with my story. You can only do it one strip at a time; the most important thing is to find the beginning.
For this project, I’ve taken a simple manila folder and kept all my notes for it inside. This will make sure I don’t have to hunt for my notes when I’m writing. Where will you keep all your notes?
Timelock – 60 Minutes
To find an idea for my novel, I set myself a time limit of an hour before bedtime.
5 Quick hacks
- Write down 10 ideas for a novel on a sheet of paper. Scratch out every option that doesn’t excite you. If you’re left with two or
three, toss them in a hat — and choose one. - Keep a small notebook at your desk or your bag — jot down further ideas during the day.
- Let go of your perfectionism or procrastination — you have to knit some bad sweaters before you design that award-winning designer
gown. - Read a few passages of your favourite novel or a book on writing to inspire you — there are also some great clips on YouTube.
- Put up a calendar behind your door and mark each day you work on your novel.
Pin it, quote it, believe it:
‘Art is when you hear a knocking from your soul — and you answer.’ ~Terry Guillemets
“Define lovelorn.”
Kia’s eyes didn’t so much as waver from the computer screen. Her back was hunched in a position that lifted the cropped back of her sweatshirt, exposing the faint line of her spine. Tomorrow, she’d grit her teeth and refuse to complain because her neck hurt.
“I mean… Why do you need me to define it. You know.” I watched her fingers peck at the keyboard like there were tiny beaks at the ends of her one inch nails. Actually, that would make her nails the beaks.
The beaks stilled, only for a second. Kia shot me the raise of an eyebrow. “I actually don’t. Compared to your love life, Isabella and I are as drama-free as it gets.”
She went back to her coding but I wasn’t so convinced.
Writing a Relationship Your Readers Will Ship
Relationships, especially in beginner writer’s works, have a tendency to feel forced. Even in some popular and famous works of fiction, the relationship doesn’t feel natural. It seems like a boring afterthought which the writer added in at the last minute. Far too often, I find myself completely indifferent to a character’s romantic life. A good romance in a story will give the reader a bit of second-hand infatuation. They’ll root for the relationship, beg for it. If the romance is well written, you can make a reader smile and blush just by reading a few sentences. When done properly, it can even compensate for a weak and cliché plot.
But first, decide whether the romance is needed. If you’re adding a character to the plot simply for the sake of being a love interest, it’s probably not a needed romance. You can still add it, of course, but it will be much harder to keep your story focused on the central plot.
Step One
Make sure the characters have chemistry.
The characters should compliment each other’s personalities. If he’s loud, stubborn, and aggressively opinionated, a more tranquil and soft-spoken love interest would suit him well. Two headstrong people wouldn’t be likely to have a lasting relationship in real life, unless they (impossibly) agreed upon every subject. But, there should be some similarities. While opposites do attract, polar opposites will not and the whole relationship will feel forced. The characters should have something in common. It could be morals, a parallel backstory, the same motivations, whatever. As long as there’s a reason for them to be drawn to each other, there’s potential.
Step Two
Slow burn ships are fantastic.
Don’t make your characters fall in love right off the bat. There can be attraction, of course, but genuine feelings of true love don’t happen instantly. Your characters should become closer as people, feel at ease around each other, and truly know the other before they fall head-over-heels. The readers will crave the relationship far more, like dangling a treat right in front of a dog’s nose, but keep pulling it away. Teasing is a beautiful thing.
Find ways of showing (NOT TELLING) the characters are falling for each other. Have them stand up for one another, be protective. Have them break their own normal routine for the other. For example, a callous, guarded character could lower their walls for a moment if their love interest needs emotional support. These scenes can be awkward for the character changing their typical behavior and that discomfort can demonstrate how much they care for the other, altering their own selves for the other’s benefit.
Howeve, make sure that you combine these cute emotional moments with distance. Make the characters deny their true feelings or even distance themselves from their love interest upon discovering their feelings. The more the characters long for each other, the more the reader will long for them to be together. Build barriers between them for your characters to have to work to knock down. Keep them close, but maintain that distance until the moment is right.
Step Three
“_____” translates to “I love you”
The first example of I think of when I think of this is The Princess Bride, where the male protagonist tells his soulmate “as you wish” when he really means “I love you.”
This falls under the category of show, don’t tell. Hearing a character say “I love you” has become so boring. Unless it’s done in a surprising confession or unique way, it’s boring and stale.
Come up with a phrase that you can repeat in moments throughout the story until it has a meaning of love for the characters and both know exactly what the other means when it’s spoken.
Step Four
Taking a break can help create tension.
You know you loved someone if you leave them and feel awful. Apply this into the writing. Your characters can break up, then get back together in a joyous reunion.
Step Five
Not every couple has a happy ending.
Sometimes, things don’t always work out for different reasons. An ending that leaves readers craving more can be a good move.
