How to Go from Idea to Novel

[marfisk]

I'm posting this under writing because as we speak the story in question doesn't have a working title (yes, still :p). However, I had to share the eureka moment.

I started this morning with a description that I'd jotted down for the FM Story A Day 2006 challenge last May. When I wrote the description back then, I quickly realized this wouldn't fit within the confines of a short story and pushed it off to the books to be folder.

So when I had writing time and a note on my schedule that says I'm due to write a novel this month, I pulled it out.

However, I quickly discovered the description was not the synopsis I'd thought it was. The first problem is that the story was about a man who ran away from his true love only to discover the young man who had defeated him at every challenge was actually the daughter of their union, trying to prove herself to him. Not a bad foundation, but not a novel. But I'd already solved that, I'd thought, in a third character who had been doing everything possible to get them together, even to the point of dragging the man out of retirement to join in a manhunt for the daughter. Ick.

So anyway, I'm stubborn. I really am. I said I was going to put it aside, but I didn't. I switched from the outline page on my novel spreadsheet to the notes page and I started writing down what I knew, drawing some of it from the description and some of it out of the air. The story got a lot more detailed, but still its underlying connection was gone. It didn't exist, and without that, the story wasn't worth telling.

Here I am, asking the questions, detailing the back story just so I can understand how this came to be, plowing on ahead through the moments in the description, and I get to the end. But then I say this end makes no sense and that isn't what would have happened. So off I go on the "what would happen next" route, and guess what I find? The answer to all my problems.

All that back story? It wasn't random at all. Within the seeds of the past come the solutions of the future. In a bizarre way the story could be characterized as learn from your mistakes and don't let them defeat you. If not for the reason Karth was in the forest in the first place, the king wouldn't have done what triggered the problem at the time of the story; his daughter, who is instrumental in the solution, wouldn't exist; and Karth wouldn't have the chance to make up for being too young and too foolish to value what he had back then.

So now I'm thrilled at this story that I was slogging through in the hopes of finding word count before :). Sadly, it hasn't instantly translated into 10k of outline, nor has it answered the question of whether or not Arrow gets a POV, but at least now the story is viable rather than a waste.

Hope you enjoyed this wander through the mind of Margaret. It's not the idea; it's really how you use it :).

Oh, and if anyone wants to exactly replicate my new book idea? Here's the starting point:

Random Adventure Generator
http://www.bin.sh/gaming/tools/adventure.cgi

Adventure Title:
Theme: Mystery
Goal: Protect Endangered NPC(s)
Story Hook: Old Enemy
Plot: Accumulation of Elements
Climax: Scattered Duels
General Setting: On the Road
Specific Settings: Legendary Forest
Master Villain: Conqueror
Minor Villains: Avenger
Ally/Neutral: Talkative Barkeep
Monster Encounter: Beast Amok
Character Encounter: Mean Drunk
Deathtrap: Pit and the Pendulum
Chase: Horseback
Omen/Prophesy: Totem Animal
Secret Weakness: Secret Embarrassment
Special Condition: Time Limit
Moral Quandary: Saving Quandary
Red Herring: Loony who Has It Wrong
Cruel Trick: Villain Accompanies Party

Stay away from the Random Adventure Generator in May. It makes books, not short stories ;).


And since I love stats:

Outline currently stands at: 3244
Total World Building with all the notes: 6463

Comments

[temporus.livejournal.com]

Oooo new toy for me to play with. Where was this when I was actually RUNNING a D&D game???

It sounds both like a cool idea, and very cool how you got there. Good luck with it.

[marfisk]

Thanks :). So far the outline is predicting about 45k, so a bit too short. Either more will come to me to flesh it out or I'll have to give Arrow a POV and have the novel be about their impending collision as opposed to his discoveries about her. I suppose that can work as well :). I just have to be careful because my novels hover more often at the 120k line than the 90k :p.

[eimarra]

Odd. Those elements seem to have very little to do with what you've actually described!

[marfisk]

LOL, maybe so...or maybe not.

Adventure Title:
Theme: Mystery - Who is Arrow anyway?
Goal: Protect Endangered NPC(s) In there
Story Hook: Old Enemy - Oh, I didn't even notice this but yes, that's how this all worked out with the eureka
Plot: Accumulation of Elements - Umm, very sorta?
Climax: Scattered Duels - Well, Arrow did challenge him before the book begins.
General Setting: On the Road - He's not at home...
Specific Settings: Legendary Forest - Yep.
Master Villain: Conqueror - Umm, nope
Minor Villains: Avenger - Yes!
Ally/Neutral: Talkative Barkeep - Nope
Monster Encounter: Beast Amok - Yes
Character Encounter: Mean Drunk - Nope
Deathtrap: Pit and the Pendulum - Sorta
Chase: Horseback - Sorry, cut the horses.
Omen/Prophesy: Totem Animal - Nope.
Secret Weakness: Secret Embarrassment - Umm, maybe if you consider that he abandoned the woman he loved.
Special Condition: Time Limit - Not really.
Moral Quandary: Saving Quandary - Yeah sorta
Red Herring: Loony who Has It Wrong - Yep on Loony, not so much on the wrong.
Cruel Trick: Villain Accompanies Party - Nope.

But a lot of that isn't in what I put above, I'll admit. And until you made me do it, I didn't go back and reread the prompt, so many are just coincidence.