How I put ideas and background research into a novel is a question I’m asked a lot. Authors write many different ways, whatever works for them. With my previous career as an English teacher and as a longtime author and rabid reader, it’s something I’m always interested in.
One time I attended a signing at a bookstore by an author I really admired. But I was disappointed that he just did a reading, then autographed books, and didn’t give a glimpse into how he wrote his series. I decided then that I would always try to explain to readers what method of “authoring” works for me for book-length fiction.
So, after several decades of being an author, this is basically how I write. I won’t go into idea gathering, the intentional and the serendipity. Take a look at my author’s note to get a glimpse of that for this novel. It all began when I stumbled on a mention of falcate orangetips.
When I’m ready with an idea for a story, I send my editor ten pages or so of the possible plot. (This is typed double-spaced, so it’s about five pages long.) This is called an outline or usually a synopsis. She and I have worked together for a while, so she knows that events may change as I write, but she okays my ideas and makes early suggestions.
In the past, such feedback has been invaluable. One time an editor told me, “The sales reps just had a book that featured an actress and it bombed, so they won’t want to see another one. Can you shelve this for now and do something different?” Publishing is a business as well as an art.
I do plan somewhat ahead as I write, but I do not look too far out. Some writers push quickly through the entire story, then go back to delete, add or change things. I like to have each chapter quite well-written before I go on. I see each scene and chapter as the foundational building blocks to stack the rest of the story on.
I don’t print out chapters until I have read/revised them about seven times. After I have printed out part of the story, I let it sit, then go over it with a red pen—the former English teacher coming out in me again. I then make those revisions on my laptop.
Once I am all the way through the book and have it printed and corrected and input my changes, I reread the entire book online again, make final revisions and print out the final copy my husband proofreads. I then add his corrections. He knows to look for two things especially, besides typos: I am directionally challenged (even if I know one must drive north to reach a site, I might write it as south). Secondly, time spans give me trouble, so I have to watch a calendar to keep from messing up what day it is, how long Darcy had been gone, that sort of thing. Having a character pregnant for ten months in a book years ago has made me wary of dates.
Besides my and my husband’s proofreading, my editor catches things and makes important suggestions. Also, a professional copy editor reads and queries any possible mistakes. It’s been a long time since a “groaner” got through one of my novels after all that attention to detail. But in an early historical novel, whereas I thought I had written “along the riverbank drums rolled,” what appeared was “along the riverbank drunks rolled.”
The quote from another author that comes closest to an overall explanation of how I write is this one by E. L. Doctorow: “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
I have found that so true, discovering new plot possibilities by what already happened, finding surprises in what the characters do. A new turn and surprise in plot or my fictional people is always just around the next bend in the story.
Karen Harper