Novel foundations
Start solidly, or your story will collapse later, says author and lecturer James McCreet, revealing the planning process of his current novel-in-progress
I’ve just started a novel, by which I mean I have written nothing. For me, the start of a novel is the idea. What follows is a process that allows me to either reject the idea or write a complete and effective novel. I’m not going to tell you my idea (because it’s really good!) but I thought it might be interesting to reveal what comes before the writing.
All of the following elements are necessary for a workable novel. It doesn’t matter in which order you gather them – it’s usually a case of simultaneous accretion – but you do need to feel that each one has been addressed. Without them, the novel is likely to fail. I keep an exercise book with the following headings and add to them whenever I think of a new idea. In time, the exercise book fills and there’s enough material to start.
The germ
Ideas take many forms. It could be a character, a location, a story premise, a historical period, a theme... or a combination. Critically, it must be something that excites you something you want to pursue to the end. My idea concerns two characters, each representing a different stage of life and experience. On meeting, they will learn a lot from each other. I also have a firm idea of where the action will take place and a rough sense of theme.