What goes into writing a novel
Sometimes people ask me how I go about writing a novel. I’ve written three books now, two psychological thrillers, Anything for Him and The Stories She Tells, and one sci-fi novel, Networked. Now I’m onto my fourth book, I wanted to share what I’ve learnt about my writing process, and what goes into all my drafts!
Before I dive in though, I just want to say that although there is a fairly structured process here, I don't think of novels as just something that goes down a conveyor belt following a fixed set of instructions to pop out the other end ready to read. It is an emotional process as well. My characters have their own journeys, and by the time I've finished I know them so well I can almost imagine bumping into them in the street - and when the book is complete I can't imagine their story ending up any other way. However, without a process to follow I would end up floundering around without ever finishing a book, so for those who are interested in how ideas turn into a finished book, and how I unearth my character's stories, this is how I go about it.
Planning
Probably the thing I get asked the most is whether I plan my books. My initial plan for a book might look something like this (this is not a plan for a real book, by the way!):
Beginning: X grows suspicious that her husband is having an affair.
She tries to figure out who with. It seems like it is one of her friends.
End: It turns out is her sister. Maybe her sister’s child turns out to be his, or something.
(Yes, my plan really does start out that brief!)
First draft: Getting the bare bones of the plot in place.
After my very short initial plan, I spend a little bit of time just thinking about my characters and their story. I jot down a few notes about characters; name, age, significant relationships, occupation, perhaps some basic observations about their appearance. Then, when clear ideas form in my mind of how the story begins, I start writing, and follow further ideas that occur to me as I write. This takes me on an interesting journey, as all sorts can happen in the middle of the book - often things I would never have expected, and the ending can end up a little different from what I originally imagined!
Deleted scenes
During the first draft I’ll write some scenes that do not take the story in the direction I want it to go. I cut these chunks of text out but keep them in case I want them in the future. I never completely scrap anything. It is possible I will decide to re-introduce these scenes later, though this is rare.
Where do I write my first draft?
I used to write my first draft using Word, but for my most recent book I used Scrivener. Scrivener lets me keep everything in one place - so I can easily access my deleted scenes, have more than one chapter open at once using a split screen, keep any research handy, and be able to quickly refer to notes about characters. I can tag chapters with keywords, so I can search for chapters that contain certain things like physical descriptions of a character, or all the times a character talks about a certain topic. I can view all my chapters on a cork board and move them around if I want to.
How long does it take?
About 4-6 months of working part-time on the book (up to about 10 hours in a week.) I also have times where I get stuck and take a break to let my brain work away in the background on the plot. During these times I will switch my focus to promoting previous novels until I feel able to continue writing.
Second draft: Writing it like a “proper book”.
The first draft, though it contains a basic plot, is generally quite unpleasant to read. The action happens very fast, with little breathing space. It is probably quite short. I aim for at least 70,000 words for a psychological thriller novel, but the first draft would be about 50,000. In some ways, writing the actual novel only begins with the second draft, because it is likely that 90-95 per cent of the book will be re-written, as the changes needed are just too large to be incorporated into the original manuscript.
The second draft it is about writing a book that is rich and entertaining to read. It’s a very satisfying stage for me, because I feel like I’ve actually written my book.
How long does it take?
I would say usually about 4 months. Again, I only work part-time on writing.
Third draft: Tying up loose ends, making the story “correct” to my mind.
The second draft, though it reads like a proper book, probably still has some short-comings. Often I will have one stubborn character who has still not fully developed. It may only be when I read through the second draft that I think, “Oh, that’s what that character is really all about”. It may take until this point for something pretty important to the plot to actually occur to me. This means that the third draft may still involve fairly substantial changes. There may be additional chapters added and some second-draft chapters removed. All the “action” - places where characters are doing something or talking to each other, will need to be scrutinised to check that characters are acting in accordance to any new realisations I’ve made. It could be something as fundamental as a character who was a “goodie” becoming a “baddie”. This doesn’t take a complete re-write, but it requires important changes.
Fourth Draft: Making it pretty.
By the fourth draft I would hope my story would be “correct” (to my mind), i.e. when I read my completed third draft through there are very few, hopefully not any, places where I think, “this is going in the wrong direction”, or “hold on, it doesn’t make sense for my character to be acting this way”. There may be one or two chapters that I do decide to re-write or significantly change, but I wouldn’t expect there to be much more than that. The fourth draft is where I take grammar and typos more seriously (there’s not much point correcting these issues in earlier stages as it might be removed anyway). At this stage I can flesh out descriptions if I feel it is necessary, or remove bits of description that interrupt the flow of action. I can add a few words here and there to make things clearer. I can have fun with dialogue, trying to make it really zingy, and make sure characters sound like themselves.
Sensitive scenes
I pay particular attention to highly emotive scenes - I often cover sensitive topics in my books and it is very important to me to write these with care; to try not to sensationalise things, to utilise research when necessary, make sure what I am writing is respectful and only including as much detail as is necessary for the plot, so that nothing appears to be there purely for “shock value”. Of course the extent to which I achieve this is going to be subjective, and readers may differ in how effectively they feel I approach these sorts of topics in my books, but I will strive to write this content to the absolute best of my ability (as I will with the whole book, of course). These kind of scenes will often be the ones I spend the most time thinking about, and lose the most sleep over!
Grammar, punctuation.
The fourth draft is also where I begin to focus on finer details of words, sentences, paragraphs. I cut out words I tend to overuse. I look for words that are repeated in close proximity to each other. I carry out fact-checks and make sure my timeline makes sense. For my first two novels I didn’t use an editor, but for my third, The Stories She Tells, I had the manuscript copy-edited around this stage. My copy-editor found some issues with my timeline, pointed out things that sounded odd or weren’t clear, made suggestions how to make sentences sound nicer and corrected grammar, punctuation and typos.
Further drafts: beta reading, proof reading.
The next draft is where I make the changes suggested my copy-editor, I proof-read, and get friends to check my manuscript and give me their thoughts. By this stage I feel quite impatient for the book to be done. I might not feel inclined to make changes, but of course it is very important to listen to feedback and I implement pretty much every change suggested by my editor and my beta- and proof- readers. Around this time I will also have a basic plan for my next novel, so that as the novel I’ve spent all the past months working on is published, the cycle will be beginning all over again for a new book!
How long from start to finish?
For each novel so far it has taken me about 16-18 months from start to publication. I tried to work out how many hours that might be - I think it probably works out somewhere around 600! Or to put it another way, for the 60 or so short chapters my books are usually divided into, that’s about 10 hours per chapter.
I love the process of seeing my novels develop from the tiniest little grain of an idea and a couple of lines of planning, into a full-length book that takes several hours to read. Writing is not without its struggles in places, but I enjoy each and every step, and I hope you enjoyed reading about my process too.
To find out more about me and my books, please visit lkchapman.com, or find me on Facebook or Twitter.
Before I dive in though, I just want to say that although there is a fairly structured process here, I don't think of novels as just something that goes down a conveyor belt following a fixed set of instructions to pop out the other end ready to read. It is an emotional process as well. My characters have their own journeys, and by the time I've finished I know them so well I can almost imagine bumping into them in the street - and when the book is complete I can't imagine their story ending up any other way. However, without a process to follow I would end up floundering around without ever finishing a book, so for those who are interested in how ideas turn into a finished book, and how I unearth my character's stories, this is how I go about it.
Planning
Probably the thing I get asked the most is whether I plan my books. My initial plan for a book might look something like this (this is not a plan for a real book, by the way!):
Beginning: X grows suspicious that her husband is having an affair.
She tries to figure out who with. It seems like it is one of her friends.
End: It turns out is her sister. Maybe her sister’s child turns out to be his, or something.
(Yes, my plan really does start out that brief!)
First draft: Getting the bare bones of the plot in place.
After my very short initial plan, I spend a little bit of time just thinking about my characters and their story. I jot down a few notes about characters; name, age, significant relationships, occupation, perhaps some basic observations about their appearance. Then, when clear ideas form in my mind of how the story begins, I start writing, and follow further ideas that occur to me as I write. This takes me on an interesting journey, as all sorts can happen in the middle of the book - often things I would never have expected, and the ending can end up a little different from what I originally imagined!
Deleted scenes
During the first draft I’ll write some scenes that do not take the story in the direction I want it to go. I cut these chunks of text out but keep them in case I want them in the future. I never completely scrap anything. It is possible I will decide to re-introduce these scenes later, though this is rare.
Where do I write my first draft?
I used to write my first draft using Word, but for my most recent book I used Scrivener. Scrivener lets me keep everything in one place - so I can easily access my deleted scenes, have more than one chapter open at once using a split screen, keep any research handy, and be able to quickly refer to notes about characters. I can tag chapters with keywords, so I can search for chapters that contain certain things like physical descriptions of a character, or all the times a character talks about a certain topic. I can view all my chapters on a cork board and move them around if I want to.
How long does it take?
About 4-6 months of working part-time on the book (up to about 10 hours in a week.) I also have times where I get stuck and take a break to let my brain work away in the background on the plot. During these times I will switch my focus to promoting previous novels until I feel able to continue writing.
Second draft: Writing it like a “proper book”.
The first draft, though it contains a basic plot, is generally quite unpleasant to read. The action happens very fast, with little breathing space. It is probably quite short. I aim for at least 70,000 words for a psychological thriller novel, but the first draft would be about 50,000. In some ways, writing the actual novel only begins with the second draft, because it is likely that 90-95 per cent of the book will be re-written, as the changes needed are just too large to be incorporated into the original manuscript.
The second draft it is about writing a book that is rich and entertaining to read. It’s a very satisfying stage for me, because I feel like I’ve actually written my book.
How long does it take?
I would say usually about 4 months. Again, I only work part-time on writing.
Third draft: Tying up loose ends, making the story “correct” to my mind.
The second draft, though it reads like a proper book, probably still has some short-comings. Often I will have one stubborn character who has still not fully developed. It may only be when I read through the second draft that I think, “Oh, that’s what that character is really all about”. It may take until this point for something pretty important to the plot to actually occur to me. This means that the third draft may still involve fairly substantial changes. There may be additional chapters added and some second-draft chapters removed. All the “action” - places where characters are doing something or talking to each other, will need to be scrutinised to check that characters are acting in accordance to any new realisations I’ve made. It could be something as fundamental as a character who was a “goodie” becoming a “baddie”. This doesn’t take a complete re-write, but it requires important changes.
Fourth Draft: Making it pretty.
By the fourth draft I would hope my story would be “correct” (to my mind), i.e. when I read my completed third draft through there are very few, hopefully not any, places where I think, “this is going in the wrong direction”, or “hold on, it doesn’t make sense for my character to be acting this way”. There may be one or two chapters that I do decide to re-write or significantly change, but I wouldn’t expect there to be much more than that. The fourth draft is where I take grammar and typos more seriously (there’s not much point correcting these issues in earlier stages as it might be removed anyway). At this stage I can flesh out descriptions if I feel it is necessary, or remove bits of description that interrupt the flow of action. I can add a few words here and there to make things clearer. I can have fun with dialogue, trying to make it really zingy, and make sure characters sound like themselves.
Sensitive scenes
I pay particular attention to highly emotive scenes - I often cover sensitive topics in my books and it is very important to me to write these with care; to try not to sensationalise things, to utilise research when necessary, make sure what I am writing is respectful and only including as much detail as is necessary for the plot, so that nothing appears to be there purely for “shock value”. Of course the extent to which I achieve this is going to be subjective, and readers may differ in how effectively they feel I approach these sorts of topics in my books, but I will strive to write this content to the absolute best of my ability (as I will with the whole book, of course). These kind of scenes will often be the ones I spend the most time thinking about, and lose the most sleep over!
Grammar, punctuation.
The fourth draft is also where I begin to focus on finer details of words, sentences, paragraphs. I cut out words I tend to overuse. I look for words that are repeated in close proximity to each other. I carry out fact-checks and make sure my timeline makes sense. For my first two novels I didn’t use an editor, but for my third, The Stories She Tells, I had the manuscript copy-edited around this stage. My copy-editor found some issues with my timeline, pointed out things that sounded odd or weren’t clear, made suggestions how to make sentences sound nicer and corrected grammar, punctuation and typos.
Further drafts: beta reading, proof reading.
The next draft is where I make the changes suggested my copy-editor, I proof-read, and get friends to check my manuscript and give me their thoughts. By this stage I feel quite impatient for the book to be done. I might not feel inclined to make changes, but of course it is very important to listen to feedback and I implement pretty much every change suggested by my editor and my beta- and proof- readers. Around this time I will also have a basic plan for my next novel, so that as the novel I’ve spent all the past months working on is published, the cycle will be beginning all over again for a new book!
How long from start to finish?
For each novel so far it has taken me about 16-18 months from start to publication. I tried to work out how many hours that might be - I think it probably works out somewhere around 600! Or to put it another way, for the 60 or so short chapters my books are usually divided into, that’s about 10 hours per chapter.
I love the process of seeing my novels develop from the tiniest little grain of an idea and a couple of lines of planning, into a full-length book that takes several hours to read. Writing is not without its struggles in places, but I enjoy each and every step, and I hope you enjoyed reading about my process too.
To find out more about me and my books, please visit lkchapman.com, or find me on Facebook or Twitter.
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