by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The thing I’m learning about writing a novel is that to write one well, you have to be able to write scenes that are simply necessary for structure in such a way as they seem essential. You could very well start the story at the exact moment the story begins — a lot of novels begin that way — but that’s not how you write a novel that is going to be a really big hit.
You have to have some character development on a structural level so when something actually does happen, you are invested enough in the characters that things really start to “get good” at that point. The trick is, you have to build up to that point — the inciting incident — without boring the hell out of your readers.
You also have the demand of making the beginning of the novel interesting enough that a literary agent gets hooked soon enough that they are willing to even consider giving you the time of day. The thing I keep thinking about is how Stieg Larsson was a well known Swedish journalist when he manage to sell three novels.
The more I actually look at those novels as an aspiring novelist, the more I realize I simply can no longer use them as any form of direct inspiration. They’ve served their purpose. The novel I’m beginning to use as my “textbook” is The Silence of the Lambs.
Anyway, whatever book I use, it’s going to be a struggle. I really have to balance the needs of character and structure with the needs of the reader to be willing to wait long enough to get to the point where the story begins. It’s very fun, but also a little bit alarming how much work I have ahead of me at this late point in the process.
I’m not going to live forever, afterall.
