Long Fiction Writing Process

For long fiction (for me that is anything from a novelette to a novel) I start with an idea. I don’t plot out before I start writing, but if it is longer than a short story then I definitely will switch to outlining my story. I find that for longer fiction (novelettes, novellas and novels) this usually means that the first part of the story needs to be completely reworked, but I don’t see it as a waste of time. Writing without a clear destination gets the process going without me having to spend a lot of time researching, plotting and fretting. Researching for some of my stories is quite important, but a lack of background won’t stop me from getting started.

When I decide to start the outline, I have some chapters in mind, but it isn’t until I start writing that I’m able to see where I’m going. As much as I try to plan out a story, it just doesn’t work. Even a novelette can change drastically once I start clacking away. Once I’ve got the skeleton sorted out, then I’m able to concentrate on the information gaps. Sometimes the plot fills the gaps, and other times it’s the characters that will determine what I need to add. In general, once I have the book populated with characters it’s much easier to fill in the blanks.

But there is something that I do find very difficult, and that is selecting the story length. I’m a big fan of novelettes and novellas, but these are not popular mediums. In a future post I will tackle these two with examples from my own writings.