Breaking my one rule of novel writing

Hi friends,

I have one rule for a drafting a novel. Seriously, just one: keep going until I get to the end. That’s it.

When I drafted my first novel, I had the great fortune of working with J. Robert Lennon via an independent study at Cornell, where he teaches creative writing. I’m a staff member at CU and our greatest benefit is that we get to sit in on undergrad courses, as long as the prof is okay with it. I’d taken one of John’s classes and we hit it off, and suddenly there I was writing my first novel with his extremely generous mentorship.

Once every two weeks John and I would meet to go over my pages, and I would take notes, and he would remind me not to go backward until I’d finished the draft. It worked! So I’ve used the same rule for each book I’ve drafted since. And I’m using it now, for this one. Or I was—until I met with my accursed and talented writing group, Melanie Conroy-Goldman and Bob Proehl, on Thursday.

I tend to guard my first drafts from critical eyes until they’re done, and even edited a bit. But I was feeling too in my head with this story and needed some trusted writer friends to share it with so I could bounce ideas off them and begin to feel like it was a real story in the world. Plus, I knew Melanie and Bob would have good advice. Bastards.

The thing was, I’d hoped to talk to them about where the story should go from the messy middle, where I’ve been flailing around a bit (roughly 40K words in; if you’ve written a novel, you know that place). But I only shared the first fifty pages with them, so they were understandably focused on what the beginning needed. We spent about an hour clarifying and trading ideas, talking about world-building, character, and relationships. It was the exact thing I’d told them I didn’t need. But they got me so fired up, I couldn’t stop thinking about our conversation hours after it ended.

That’s when I dared to break my rule—my own singular rule. For the last three days I’ve been writing a new first chapter. And let me tell you: I cannot express how helpful it’s been. In some ways it’s created a mess for me, but it’s a welcome mess, because I’m getting to know one of my characters way better, understanding her motivations and, maybe more importantly, how she operates. As I go back to the murky middle to plod ahead, I feel confident I’ll have a much stronger sense of this person’s full arc, which is sure to have an impact on the plot and other characters.

So, this week, I’m daring you to break one of your own rules too. Something you hold fast to that has served you well but that might also serve you to ignore for one day, just to see what happens. I don’t think you can lose.

Happy writing, everyone.

Yours,

Jen