A Writer's Tale

They mean it as a high compliment.

And it means I’m achieving one of the desired effects. I want to keep them guessing and reading.

I accomplish it by not outlining.

Most of the really good writers I know do not work from outlines. They make up their novels as they go along, and hope for the best.

It may seem like a dangerous route. Like setting off on a long driving trip without a map.

No telling what might happen or where you might end up!

Exactly.

A trip without a map makes for an exciting trip.

And you do end up getting where you’re going.

It might not be where you’d intended to go. But it might be a better place.

When you do take the mapless trip, you’ll discover something very odd and amazing.

Magic happens.

Somehow, the bits and pieces of story and character and theme and setting end up fitting together in unexpected, often wonderful ways. Ways you never could’ve planned.

Almost as if an actual story is out there someplace already created by someone else and you’ve somehow tapped into it.

So don’t worry about “getting lost” without an outline or “painting yourself into a corner.”

Just start writing, head things in the right general direction and see what happens.

Let the destination take care of itself.

And if you do get lost first make sure you’re not off on a detour that might take you somewhere interesting. If it’s leading you to a dead end or some other place you definitely don’t want to visit, just backtrack to where you took the wrong turn. Go in a new direction. Your trip isn’t “chipped in tablets,” it’s on an electronic screen or on paper.

Making changes is usually a simple matter.

Take chances.

Take the roads not taken.

You can always revise.

The best time to write an outline of your novel is afterward.

Your agent may want one. Editors may want one.

So throw it together after you’ve finished writing the novel. That way, it can’t hurt you.

If you write the outline before you’re done with the book, you’re asking not only for the damages I’ve described above, but you’re inviting various external disasters.

Some agents like to sell novels on the basis of proposals.

That is, they’ll shop around your outline, along with a few sample chapters. (This can’t usually be done until after a couple of your novels has been sold.) In theory, your new novel might consist of thirty pages twenty pages of sample chapters and a ten page outline of the rest. You don’t actually have to write an entire book unless a publisher buys it in advance.

Sounds great.

In the time it might take you to write a whole novel, you could probably write twenty proposals. One of them is sure to hit.

But there’re always buts…

1. For obvious reasons, it’s much better to have one completed novel than any number of proposals.

2. If your agent does sell one of your proposals, you will most likely receive a smaller advance than if he’d sold them the same novel after it was complete.

3. If the proposal sells, you suddenly become obligated to write the actual novel. And you might find out, much to your surprise and alarm, that you’re not able to write it. Maybe the topic is over your head. Maybe certain elements of the story, when fleshed out, don’t work the way they’re supposed to.

Until you’ve written all or most of a novel, you can never be absolutely sure it’ll fly. You don’t want to sell it in advance, only to find out too late that your story has no wings.

4. If your unfinished novel is sold on the basis of a proposal, the door is wide open for…  EDITORIAL INTERFERENCE.

There is little excuse for editorial interference when the publisher has bought your completed book. If they want you to make significant changes, Why the hell did they buy the book in the first place?

If they’ve bought it on the basis of a proposal, however, anything goes.

Most likely, you’ll hear from your editor. He will have a few “suggestions” about “fine tuning” your concept. He’ll have reservations about how you propose to handle certain characters, scenes, plot-lines. He’ll have ideas for how to give it more “mainstream appeal.”

The suggestions will be ripe with common sense.

“He’s an old man, but he’s not stupid. Don’t you think, when he realizes the fish is towing him out to sea, that he’d cut the line?”

“Supernatural stuff doesn’t sell nearly as well as suspense. So why don’t you dump the ghost stuff. How about having three different serial killers drop into Scrooge’s bedroom?”

“He just turns into a cockroach? No, no, no. You need to explain why. Maybe he was involved in a science experiment that went awry. DNA is big, these days. Maybe you can explain it with DNA.”