Day One - Preparing for the Journey

Before starting out on the journey of your first novel, you need to decide on a plan of attack.

There are an infinite number of ways to go about writing a novel, but some are more effective than others. Over the next few posts, I'll be discussing methods for novel writing that are suggested by three published writers: Randy Ingermanson, Michael A. Stackpole, and Stephen King.

Stephen King is by far the most famous (an most prolific) of the three, and really needs no introduction. I will be discussing his views of writing a novel as presented in his book On Writing: A Memoir on the Craft.

Randy Ingermanson is often better known as "The Snowflake Guy" (for a reason that will become obvious when I talk about his method for writing novels) or as "America's Mad Professor of Fiction Writing" (because of personality and his Berkley physicist background). He's published a number of novels, won several awards for his writing, and has his own website to help pre-published writers grow into published writers. You can find him at his Advanced Fiction Writing webpage, where he has a number of free articles on writing, a free writing E-zine, a writing blog, and a large number of other free or reasonably priced writing aids.

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York Times best-selling science-fiction writer, and is best known for his contributions to the Star Wars universe, with novels such as Rogue Squadron and I, Jedi. You can find him at Stormwolf.Com , where he, too, has a lot of useful information for writers, including free podcasts and an inexpensive newsletter. Not only is Michael a good writer and teacher, but he also comes across as a genuinely nice guy. He has contributed to the writing community both through his own website and also by graciously providing interviews to other websites and blogs on writing.

While these three writers take slightly different approaches, there is one thing that they all have in common. They preach that conflict is the key to good writing. Conflict is to a novel what gasoline (or petrol, if you prefer) is to a car. When the gas runs out, the car stops. When the conflict runs out, the story stops.

So as you start to consider topics for your novel (and as I do the same), remember the key: seek out the conflict. Where you find conflict, you find a story.

The Start of My Novel Journey

Welcome to the first post on my first blog as I start the journey to complete my first novel.

Chances are that now is not the best time for me to begin this journey. My job requires me to work seven days a week, and in about 7 months I am going to be a first-time father. But as I've learned before, if you wait for a good time to start something, you'll never begin.

I'm also hoping to pick up some fellow travelers along the way. I'm convinced that the journey will be easier and more enjoyable with some company. Who knows? As we share are stories along the way, we might become the modern-day equivalent of the Canterbury Tales.

A word of warning, though. I'm not a published writer (other than through some online communities such as Helium). I'm not even an English major. I was an aerospace engineer with NASA for 14 years, and I now teach English as a foreign language in Asia. My only credentials are a passion for writing, access to websites filled with advice from "real" writers, and a willingness to try.

My goal is to show and share the process of writing a novel, starting from the very beginning. If there is interest, I would love for this blog to develop into a writer's critique group, where we share ideas on the craft of writing and share our efforts for comment on by others.

The good part is that this community is likely to be small, so we will all have a chance to submit our writing for comment and learn from each other.

If this journey sounds appealing to you, lace up your hiking boots, strap on your knapsack, grab your walking stick, and let's get ready to go!