Red light, green light.

[alexandraerin]

For a lot of people, the hardest thing about writing is getting started... as the NaNoWriMo folks observe, writing a novel is a "one day job", as in "One day, I'll do it." (Paraphrased from memory, that may not be exactly what they say.) Anna Paradox has written some great material on the subject of just sitting down and writing.

I know so many people who carry around notebooks... or flash drives... full of Notes™. Detailed Notes™ describing their story's world, its characters, their backstories, their families, their families' backstories, etc. When they have enough, when their Notes™ are done, they'll be ready to write their epic fantasy trilogy.

But of course, there's always another fact to hash out, another wrinkle in the timeline to iron out, another character to dream up, another land to detail... and of course, nobody's ever really ready to write a novel.

Trying to prepare for it is like beginning the journey of a thousand miles by visualizing every single step. Not only will this likely take longer than the actual journey, but assuming you ever get going, you're going to keep finding your pre-plotted mental image is at odds with the reality unfolding before you.

Wow, that's actually a better metaphor than I thought it would be.

I know all this... but the whole "getting ready" thing is an insidious and attractive trap. "Any job worth doing is worth doing right," and all that. I keep finding myself thinking in those terms about Star Harbor. I suppose that's not surprising, since Star Harbor includes things I filled notebooks with all the way back to middle school. I held onto a dead computer far longer than I needed to because its antiquated hard drive contained GURPS stats for a bunch of superhero characters I've not yet used. And every time I fall behind in Star Harbor, I start to think, "It's such a large and intricate universe. I can't just dive back in. I have to figure things out."

But I don't have to. I know this universe. I know it better than I know the MUniverse. I know it better than I know this universe, probably. There are very few characters in the Harborverse or the Sands of Time I couldn't spit out a line or reaction for in response to any given situation, and the exceptions are characters that don't come up that often.

So, anyway, tomorrow SHN will get its first update in however long it's been, and then I should be well and truly firing on all cylinders... and I'm going to bookmark this post to remind myself not to overthink. And anybody out there who's planning on one day taking their notebooks full of names and dates and turning it into a story... seriously, go for it. If you don't feel like you've got a handle on your characters, you'll get to know them faster through writing them. Everything else will come as needed.

Comments

[jira-rd.livejournal.com]

My world, Angodena, is very similar in that it's fantasy, it's created in my mind, and there is a totally fictional language that I am busily creating.

I have put down basic grammar rules, and am working on creating a dictionary, and am also trying to sketch out the world with continents and seas and such.

But I force myself to write, even if I don't know, because I can go back and correct eventually, otherwise I'll never write.

Jira is my nickname, yeah, but she's also the main character in this novel and I know her almost better than I know myself, yet she constantly changes as well.

I agree, you just have to write. You can't just keep preparing. At least, I think that's what this post is. If I'm wrong, correct me.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the point: the secret to writing is writing. It's not that filling in background details and working out timelines and such are a bad thing, but you can't let them be a substitute for actually writing... I spent years doing just that.

[jira-rd.livejournal.com]

Also is your subject a Billy Squier reference?

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Fraid not, just a reference to starting and stopping.

[jira-rd.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh, do you know the song I'm referring to? Lonely is the Night?

[gamercow.livejournal.com]

Now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head. :P

The thing about writing in this day and age is that you can go back and change things MUCH more easily than you could in the day of typewriters. And even if you do just use a notepad and pen, thats fine too, that can be scribbled out and corrected as needed too. I was amazed to find out that Neal Stephenson, Mr. Technocrat himself, writes his books in notebooks first.

[the-leaking-pen.livejournal.com]

Having gotten past that, i find i have more fun writing when I DON'T know where its going, other than vaguely, until i start typing.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I find half the little details in my universe get filled in as I write. After I've done first draft of a story, I'll go back and fill in the background notes (this tavern has this layout, the windows is now broken, the bartender is called X and has a scar there) and check I haven't contradicted anything, but most of the time it's "I need my character to refer to a historical event that parallels this one, invent something quick", and figure out history based on that. I know the broad outlines in advance, of course, but details: no.