The Joy of Starting a Novel

Starting a novel often sparks joy to the writer!

Still on my euphoric high from last week’s post about finishing my novel, I wondered this morning how to mark the auspicious day.

Should I have a ritual for starting to write a project?

I couldn’t think of one and since I’m a writer by trade, it was just another day in the office.

I put on my “winter writing clothes” (see photo), which includes my UCLA vest and jeans. I opened the window a crack, printed out the synopsis and went to work.

Pure joy.

Starting a novel with chapter one (of course!)

I was off.

The Yuletide Bride is the story of a young couple in 1870 Nebraska.

While I had a synopsis that was going smoothly, I often tweak things and plot points change as I write.

I knew how it ended (it’s a romance; you do, too), but how they progressed and the extra layering would come was not yet firm.

Written nearly three months before, the synopsis was good.

I drew my usual plotting diagram (this time on a blue card), and it waited for me to return to the story.

I suspected, as usual, that I would have too much story for the allotted word count, so I took the synopsis and broke it up into the appropriate chapters: odd chapters were told from Ewan’s point of view, even chapters from Kate’s.

That presented a few problems because I wanted the final chapter in Ewan’s point of view, but I figured out how to make it all work.

When the joy of starting a novel flows

That first day I wrote nearly three complete chapters; 4500 words of the 15,000 word novella. 

I like to leave off before I’ve finished writing a chapter, so I can jump right back in when I return to the project.

If I finish a chapter before quitting time, I often will start the next one, even if I only write five or six paragraphs–again, to enable me to get started right away with the story.

I like to think of it like a sourdough starter. You add some flour and stir every day to keep it growing.

It also gives the boys in the basement something to think about while I’m living real life.

I ran into acts I needed to check and Google was helpful.

A friend arranged to let me play his bagpipes and I reviewed notes on fiddle playing. I listened to renditions of the music Charles Ingalls played to his family about the same time as the setting for my story.

Thinking about Ma and Pa Ingalls, Laura, Mary, and Carrie cheered me.

I interviewed friends on the phone, consulted a list of Scottish last names, scanned photos from a book about musical instruments, and looked through photos of Nebraska on Pinterest.

How do you go about starting a project? Do you have a ritual?

Tweetables

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Should I have a ritual for starting to write a novel?  Click to Tweet