Writing my Novel by Jodi Stone

I’m currently working on my first novel.

The plot has been rolling around in my mind for a few years now and after a little
encouragement from a couple of fellow bloggers, I decided now was the time to sit down and write it.

Before I started I felt like I needed to know a few things. Where would the story take
place? Who would the protagonist/antagonist of the story be? How would the book end?
Would the book be written in first or third person?

A number of years ago my husband and I vacationed in a lovely beach town. I fell in
love with that beach town and decided to have the story take place there.

I find it easier to write what I know, so I based the protagonist on me. On my beliefs and
how I would expect myself to react in given situations.

I also knew who the antagonist would be and how the story would end.

I’m definitely more comfortable writing from the first person point of view. I decided to
stick with that.

Having no experience in writing a book I had no idea where to begin, but I did have an
opening line. It had popped into my head one day when I was out walking. I started
there.

Once the line was written I expanded on the setting. I asked myself, what would
logically happen next?

My daughter’s in-laws happen to live in the little beach town I’m writing about. I have a
great resource in terms of local activities and current events. Based upon this information
my plot changed slightly. A new character was added.

While doing research I found information that would work within the plot. I added that.

I found that once I started writing, the story did not unfold the way I had expected it to in
my head. But it did unfold.

I find sometimes I’m very happy with what I’ve written, and then there are other times
when I think its complete trash. But I don’t want to focus on what I don’t like about the
book. I need to get the story down and then when I get to the editing process I can clean
it up and fix any discrepancies I find.

Of course there are obstacles.

I wrote what I thought was an exciting chapter, then I felt deflated, like how will I top
that? How can I switch to a boring scene and still keep my reader’s interest?

Finding the time to write is sometimes difficult. Once I get into a groove I can sit and
write for hours at a time, but if I don’t have hours to work with, then what? Should I
sit down and write for ten minutes and not feel satisfied or should I wait until I have the
time?

For me I think the important things is, whether I am writing or not to keep the story fresh
in my mind. To keep thinking of ways to move the story forward, so when I do have the
time to write, the idea is all there, it’s just expanding on it to help make a good read.



Visit Jodi Stone here.