Since moving to Norfolk, Virginia from New York City last fall the biggest blessing — apart from a Costco™ membership and a grilling habit, of course — has been having more time to write. In New York I managed to finish a graphic novel over the course of a couple of years, which took a lot of painting and inking and other agony, and was primarily done in response to finding an agent who’d told me that a 100,000-word memoir I’d written would be more likely to sell as a graphic book. He’d seen some of my comics and I like to think he knew what he was talking about.
That said. Agents, as a friend warned me at the time, are often thinking of marketing your work and less of your wellbeing and interests as a writer. I hate to tell you this, but in any commercial relationship, that’s your job. My agent met with all the major publishing houses, and we got close to selling the book but in the end, that little work of art is going to remain between me, him, and the very few people I knew who asked to see it at the time. He’s still my agent, though, and I’m delighted to have him. We’ll just have to see whether he wants to continue representing me when he glosses the next hundred thousand words I’ve got to send him later this year. I’m done with comics.
So, yes, I’m now a third of the way through the first draft of a new novel based extraordinarily loosely on a vacation I went on as a teen. I’ve been inspired by last year’s Booker Prize winner, Flesh, by David Szalay, that there’s room for interesting writing about young men’s experiences particularly at a time when definitions of masculinity are so polarized. I’ve also been reading a ton of other great fiction this year and have enjoyed feeling inspired to write some again.
Here’s how you write a novel.
- Find the subject. I’ve come up with countless ideas over the years but the one for your novel is the one that won’t let you go. It keeps coming back to you every few months and when you talk about it with your friends they say, “you should really write that.”
- Figure out why it matters to you. Beyond the story you’re telling, what’s the thing you’re trying to say? In my case, I’d hate to nail it down too definitively but there’s something wonderful about being young and lost and having people show you the right direction.
- Have an idea about the plot and characters. You don’t need it all laid out on index cards and pinned to a noticeboard, but you do need a strong sense of the big scenes, turning points, and who your loudest voices are.
- Write every day. In my case, my eyes open around 6 a.m. and the first thing I do is get my laptop out and write a thousand words. I don’t open my email. I don’t touch my phone. I don’t do anything until I’ve got those words written. This is the only way I’ve found to make meaningful progress on a book. By 7 a.m. it’s too late, and by the time you’ve opened your phone, forget it.
- Give yourself a day off every week, but only one.
- Don’t spend hours re-reading what you’ve written before you start off again in the morning. You can re-read the whole thing every 20,000 words but only if you’re good, and even then, the goal is to finish the first draft before you rip it up and rewrite it. If you re-read too often that’s when you’ll get lost in the weeds.
- After a while you should find your characters start behaving in ways you didn’t expect. If they’re vivid and interesting enough, they’ll pick up the plot and take it in their own direction. The most delightful feeling in the world is to be surprised by the direction a piece of your writing moves.
- Remember that this is the hardest thing any writer does and that the novel is the essential form of expression. Poetry, criticism, newsletter articles, emails, whatever, they’re fine. But you’ll remember yourself for the novels you wrote and got published.
- No pressure.
Best of luck! And thanks for reading, as always.
