12 Posts of Christmas – Day 4

So I am pondering writing again. Like proper, novel writing.

My last attempt at a book barely made in past chapter 2 because I lost a lot of time and confidence and the belief that anyone wanted to read what I had to write.

Writing consists of having the courage to tell a story, and I didn’t have the courage to tell mine.

Nearly 9 months on and I am ready to tell a story, to pour my head out onto the page. I have downloaded Word onto my phone for the moments when I suddenly come up with the kind of quote that makes an author great, and I am collecting up my previous notes from my laptop.

I would like to play with the linear format a little, crossing over past, future and present, 500 Days of Summer style. Or I could try my original idea of a 16 chapter book, comprised of 4 years with 4 seasons.

Ideally I would love to write in the present and the first person but with 4 different characters, alternating similarly to the Noughts and Crosses series. However from a readers perspective that might bring about a feeling of nausea and I level of complexity for me as a writer that I might not be able to pull of elegantly.

You see the problem is 2 fold. First, in my head, I believe that great novels were written in a month and barely edited. That they just sprang from F.Scott Fitzgerald’s or whoever’s head and became words on a page. Which of course is ridiculous, but I worry that I am struggling with something others find easy and I hate that feeling. The second problem is that I write stories for myself. I do it with essays too. I don’t fill in some of the basic gaps because I think they are implied obviously, but as I am constantly reminded by teachers, the reader is always unaware of the intentions of the writer; that is why they read.

Onwards. I am now going to try to write for 30 minutes and see what I come up with.

Any good YA novels that you think I will enjoy, please comment because reading other peoples work gives me ideas and pushes me to be creative.

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