The Creative Lifecycle of a ‘Garth Nix’ Book.
Disclaimer: All rights and copyright belong to Garth Nix.
The nine stages in the lifecyle of my novel creation are:
A Small Vision
Building the Bones
That First Chapter
The Long, Hard Slog
Sprinting Home
Rest and Revision
Revulsion and Dejection
Parting Company
1. Daydreams and Musing
* The first, ‘Daydreams and Musing’ is about ideas. Ideas are the easy, fun part.
* Gather ideas from everything that goes on, from observing and experience, e.g. from your life,other people’s lives, reading, television, the Internet, incidents on the streets or details of history; from myth and legend; from landscape; from the living natural world; from all the fiction you've ever read.
* ‘Ideas’ I don’t mean fully-fledged plots, situations or characters - these are expressions. Ideas are the fleeting bits of information that lodge in my head, e.g. :
- The look of the sky in summer when a light rain is falling at sunset.
- Two old men bickering light-heartedly on the street about something that occurred forty years ago.
* Daydreaming is taking thoughts and seeing where they might go and how they might connect with other thoughts.
* At this stage, it’s nothing but daydreams and musing. Nothing concrete, in story terms. But at some point there will be a bunch of ideas that will join together and rise up to the surface, ready to move into the next stage of the novel-writing lifecycle.
2. A Small Vision
* My novels usually begin for me with some kind of image that captures the beginnings of character, setting and story. Like having a still from a film – where I know nothing about any other part of the film. All I have is this image, and a sense of the mood that it evokes.
* Usually, I will play around with this ‘small vision’ and look at the thoughts and ideas that it throws off. Sometimes, the original scene I’ve imagined will never be in the book at all, it will just be a foundation that remains out of sight.
* I usually have very limited knowledge of my characters when they first come into a book. I think about the sort of person who would be good to have in this story, I get a vague idea of what they are like and perhaps of their physical characteristics.
- All I need at this stage are a few ‘starter’ details, enough for me to get on with the storytelling.
* As these ideas are coalescing into something resembling the outline of the story, I will write them in a notebook and it’s very likely they will remain without anything further being done to them.
* At some point I will sit down to develop this first image and the ideas connected to it into an actual story outline, moving along to the next stage in the lifecycle.
3. The Building Bones
* A week, a month or even years after that initial ‘small vision’ I will usually sit down and try and work out the bare bones of the story and how I am going to tell it.
* I look back at the notes I’ve taken and I dredge up all the points I’ve been thinking about it. Then I sit down and write a chapter outline. - I write a paragraph for each chapter, describing what happens.
* I sometimes wonder why I bother to do this, chapter outlines rarely bear any close resemblance to the finished book. I’ve usually departed from the outline within a few chapters and by the time I’m halfway through a novel there is often almost no correlation between the outline and the actual story.
* However, it makes me think about the overall structure of the novel, which kickstarts some subconscious process that will continue through the writing, monitoring the narrative structure. Secondly it serves as a psychological prop.
If I have a chapter outline, I presume I know where I’m going, even when I don’t really. In this sense the chapter outline is like a very out-of-date map. Most of it is wrong, but there will be some landmarks on it. So if I get terribly lost in my book, I can always go back to the outline and though most of it will be wrong, I might see some important plot point or notes for a character that will help me get back on the narrative road.
* Using the ideas I’ve mentioned (See full article on www.garthnix.co.uk) and the small vision, my chapter outline might begin something like this:
Prologue
A magical vortex kidnaps two Venetian merchants, Antonio and Salerino from their ship on a rainy evening. The event is observed only by Adrian and his pet monkey, Morocco Adrian with a gift and a curse, and Morocco Adrian
Chapter One
4. The First Chapter
* It’s not unusual for me to write a prologue at the same time as I’m working on the chapter outline, and in some cases I’ve written the prologue immediately after my initial ‘small vision’
* After I’ve written the prologue I often stop for a while. My usual practice seems to be to write the chapter outline and the prologue (in whatever order happens) and then to rest the whole thing for a few weeks or a few months before really starting in again.
* In this ‘resting time’ I’m still writing. I work on short stories, or on the ideas that may or may not come together. And of course part of my mind at least is still putting together more ideas and working out the story for this current book.
5. The Long, Hard Slog
* I never tell myself I am writing a 100,000 word book. When I sit down to write, I focus on the fact that I am writing a 2,000-4,000 word chapter. It’s possible to write a whole chapter in a single sitting, on a good day, or it might take several days. But then it’s done and I write it in the book, and I add up the total and as that list grows, chapter by chapter, I know I’m getting to my ultimate goal.
* The key is to force myself to the keyboard or to pick up a pen. I can find any number of excuses or diversionary activities to avoid writing, but you can’t let too many days go past without getting some words done. Writing is a habit as much as anything else and it’s a habit that can easily be lost.
* I will complain I don’t know how to write books any more, that what I’ve already written is incredibly clunky and terrible and that I don’t know how to go on. It needs reminding that I always react in the same way at the same time and that I also always go on to finish this clunky, terrible tome. I then remind myself that even if it is terrible, I am no judge at this time, and it’s better to have something written that can be fixed later than a blank page....So I go back to work, muttering and complaining about my lack of ability, and I get on with it.
* It usually takes me about 90% of the total time spent writing a book to write the first two-thirds. At some point, usually in that last third, everything suddenly accelerates. The story comes together, the pent-up power of the narrative suddenly flows and the book enters its next stage.
6. Sprinting Home
* By this stage, I am usually writing at night as well as during the day. Since becoming a full-time writer, I try to keep regular office hours. (This is a luxury I’m well aware of and I often remember the days when I could only write on the occasional evening and on Sunday afternoons. But as I’ve mentioned before, I still managed to write a book every few years.)
* I think there is some relationship between the energy put into a book and the energy of the narrative, and when everything is building to the climax and resolution of the story I think that for me at least, it helps to keep at it, to write fast and really charge for the finish line.
* Naturally, this usually results in exhaustion and the need for rest. Which is not a bad thing, because books need that too, before you can bring a fresh eye back to the manuscript. After the mad rush, the book enters the next stage of the lifecycle.
7. Rest and Revision
* Once finished I like to let the manuscript lie fallow for a while, preferably at least a few weeks. In that time I catch up on administrative things, perhaps jot down a few ideas and generally take life a little more slowly. I don’t look at the manuscript at all and I try not to think about it.
* Then, when the time seems right I sit down and go through the whole manuscript again, to revise it and improve it and try and make it as good as I can.
* By this stage, each chapter in the manuscript has probably been individually revised three or four times and different parts of the book may have been revised many more times. But there is nothing like coming back to the entire manuscript after a bit of a rest.
* Usually the revisions at this point are to the prose, to correct minor plot points or inconsistencies, and to add detail.
* Even if there isn’t a deadline, there comes a time when you need to stop revising and just send it off, either to see if someone will buy it (as in make an offer to publish) or to deliver it to your editor. Then comes the waiting, to see what the editor thinks and to get their editorial report or first edit. It is during this period that the author, more than the book, enters the next stage.
8. Revulsion and Dejection
* I mentioned that halfway through I usually doubt my work, but I get over it and keep going. Often, when the book is done and has gone off to the editor, this doubt returns and I think that not only have I lost the ability to write, I’ve demonstrated this lack in the latest manuscript.
I overcome this in three ways.
~ First of all, I tell myself that if the book does turn out to be terrible, it simply means a lot more work ahead to try and make it better, with the help of an editor.
~ Secondly, I tell myself that if even after that the book is no good I will just have to work harder to write a better one next time.
~ Thirdly, if that doesn't work and I really have lost all my writing abilities, then at least I can go back to work.
* This stage doesn’t usually last too long. After I’ve moaned a bit, I start thinking about a new book and get interested in that and forget to be angst-ridden and melancholy.
* Around this time, the manuscript also comes back, with an editorial letter and either some or lots of notes in the margins or on the electronic file. This edit is what is often called a structural edit and usually it flags places where more is needed, or less is needed, or something simply doesn’t work.
* As I go to work on the structural edit, which is essentially a guided revision process, the book and I are already entering the final stage of the creative process.
9. Parting Company
* Responding to the structural edit and then later checking the copy-edit (which is where the prose is smoothed and minor inconsistencies are corrected) always feels like a strange afterthought to me. Emotionally I have already moved on to the next book, and the editing is purely a craft process, done with the head not the heart.
* I think you need to let a book go when all the work is done, it’s important to move on. I've often met authors whose whole self was entirely bound up in a single book, usually their first. Their lives would rise or fall depending solely on that book’s fate, and in this business, that’s an incredibly foolhardy and dangerous gamble to make.
* You need to say ‘goodbye and good luck, my friend’ and start on the next book. Sure, you’ll be meeting again when the book comes out, and it’s important to try and help it along then as much as possible, though again it’s easy to lose balance in promoting a book.
I’m always really pleased to see one of my finished books. I get a great feeling of accomplishment when I hold that firsy copy in my hand, a feeling that is undiminished from the very first time, way back in 1990.
* However I also feel detached, and I think that is a good thing. I probably already have a new book partly written, or at least the outline is there and the prologue. I look at this finished book and I flick through the pages, and even though I can remember every part of writing it, sometimes I read a bit and I feel like I’m reading someone else’s story. A real book, not one of my own. I like that feeling, because it means I’ve succeeded in my ultimate ambition: writing the sort of book that I like to read.
* Those are the nine stages in the creation of one of my novels. I’m not really sure whether I understand the whole process any better myself, but I hope I have provided something of an insight into my methods, techniques and eccentricities.
Source: www.garthnix.co.uk
Photo Credits:
3. http://www.publicpropertyuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/building-blocks.jpg
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