Part I: Writing the story

Lately I have been thinking not just about things, but about how I think about things, especially as it is related to writing. I have concluded that there are certain ways I think that pose interesting difficulties in writing novels. I have read several books about writing novels and tried to follow their advice, but have always failed for one primary reason: I think in terms of deadlines.

My life consists almost entirely of deadlines. Right now I am conscious of having to leave in a little over an hour, the preparations necessary for leaving on our camping and sailing trip next Monday, and a scholarship I need to apply for by May 31st. I have great difficulty in thinking more than a few days ahead, which results in my doing everything at the last minute, as it were. I do think about matters farther in the future than say next Monday, but only in a vague sort of way; for all it matters a deadline might be in two months or two years and I will regard it in the same manner, if I regard it at all, except briefly.

Now, as this pertains to writing:

When I am writing a novel I am thinking about the next point. When I have gotten there, I think about the next point. And so on until I reach the end. I cannot plan it out ahead, having this wonderful connected and cohesive weave of storylines. My mind does not seem to work that way.

As unhelpful as this sometimes seems, there is something to be said for it. Because I do not know what is to happen, it allows all sorts of surprises to creep in. I may have a character at the beginning of a novel and think he is just a one-scene character and then find out he is one of the main characters, as in the novel I wrote for National Novel Writing Month last year.

This, however, creates a lot of work for the next step: revision.