Phases Along the Storytelling Path

Often people tell me that they want to write fiction like I do. Usually they tell me that they tried to write a novel and they just didn’t have it in them. Either they finished the novel and feel like it wasn’t a very good story, or (more often) they don’t actually finish writing the book at all.

I understand both situations. I’ve experienced both situations. I unfortunately have unfinished manuscripts. I unfortunately have novels that I feel like aren’t good and will never see the light of day because of it.

There’s not a lot I can say in a 5 minute conversation to encourage someone to finish a whole novel. There’s not a lot I can write in a short blog post like this that can encourage you to write an entire novel.

Novels take hours of work to complete. Even typing an 70,000 word novel at 70 words a minute would take 16-17 hours. That’s assuming you know where every word goes.

In my experience writing a novel is a 40-80 hour project stretched over the course of multiple months.

Learning to write by writing a novel is a lot like learning to ski on a black diamond. Or learning carpentry by building a house.

Sure…it can be done. It has been done.

But you’re going to enjoy the process a lot more if you take on a project that isn’t so overwhelmingly big.

Try out a bunny slope, try building a wooden box, or in the case of writing, try writing a short story.

I understand the inclination to start out writing a novel. Most people read novels. Which leads to most people think novels are the place to start.

If you’re looking to start writing fiction my number one suggestion is to start writing short stories!

Phases of Storytelling

Just about every story I’ve written has had three distinct phases. The exciting opening, the muddling middle, and the wrestling with the ending.

I enjoy all three of these phases. I’ve gotten comfortable with them over the years. If you don’t love them then you won’t be a writer for very long.

The Exciting Opening

The opening of the book is often the easiest to write. You’ve likely got everything figured out already from pondering the idea of writing for so long.

You get to describe the world of your story, and even if it’s the same as the reality you live in it’s still fascinating to see that world conveyed in little black marks on paper.

You get to meet your characters. They’re like new friends. And much like new friends they haven’t done anything to piss you off yet.

I still feel this excitement every time I start a new story. Even if it’s with characters I know. Or in worlds I’ve already written in. It’s a billowing of a sail. And it is wonderful.

Unfortunately the excitement of the opening wears off 10% or less of the way through. Rarely is that excitement enough fuel for the remaining 90% of the book.

Muddling Through the Middle

The middle of a book is fun like hiking through a fog is fun. You can stand in place and stare at some nice scenery up close but it’s hard to appreciate in the grand scale of the situation.

The weather in this fog is cool and comfortable and no one is breathing down your neck impatiently asking you if the book’s done. You get to come up with a lot of neat raw material with no responsibility for where it will go in the end. That’s up to a later version of yourself to wrestle together.

It’s also disorienting. But what else would you expect from a fog?

Either you have no outline and you’ve never known where the story is going to go and that’s never been clearer than right now in the muddled middle. Or you do have an outline and you’re at the 60% mark realizing that you’ve change so much of the story that the outline’s got to get scrapped.

Most professional writers, myself included, still get disoriented in the middle. Worse, if you’re new to storytelling you’re probably not confident this tale will go anywhere at all.

Unlike hiking in a fog you can leave your story at any time. Put it down, sit by a cozy fire or under the warm afternoon sun with a cold drink. No one would blame you for it. Most people take this approach.

Especially because this challenge is nothing compared to what’s to come.

Wrestling with the Ending

I think wrestling is the perfect description of how I deal with endings. It’s not a brawl or battle, no blood is shed, but it’s certainly not as tame or cozy as training a dog to shake, paws, lay down, or play dead.

I’m wrestling an ending to a novel right now. I show up to the blank page and start bending the story, the raw materials that I put in during that muddled middle. I hope to bend these materials into a cohesive ending.

Interestingly enough not all of my writing in the ending is focused on the last 20% of the book. Often I go back to chapter 2 and change something so that the hero has the weapons he needs in chapter 35 to defeat the real villain. While I’m back there I’ll stop by in chapter 6 and mention the real villain so it doesn’t feel like they’ve appeared out of the blue in chapter 26 (even though this villain came to me in a dream at 3 am last night).

Honestly, it feels like bending pipes or wrought iron. So far nothing has snapped on me or the story. But it’s certainly a mess of tangled story lines.

I’ve done this enough that I can trust myself through this process. I know one day soon this knotted pile of raw material will be a good looking statue. I know I’ll have a book I’m proud to show people.

But for the time being I’m sweating as I wrestle this story into place and watching the deadline approach like a subway train.

Exhausted Yet?

Now imagine all these phases dragging out over the course of months. Imagine facing the muddled middle during that chaos at your work. Imagine personal tragedy striking as you’re starting to hit your stride like it did for me. Changes in seasons rarely come at an opportune time in your book.

And then there’s the unexpected personal revelations that make you change the path of your story altogether. And regularly facing the blank page is sure to bring many unexpected personal revelations.

I hope it’s clear that writing a novel is not an easy undertaking. If you have the hubris that I did starting out I hope that I’ve shone a bit of light on the reality of it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth the effort, you can do it. And I hope one day you will.

If that day is today then I hope this is a road map of what to expect and it gets you through to the end. Because your story deserves to be told all the way to the end.

Maybe Consider Another Path…

And if I am offering road maps to you then let me point you toward the bunny slope, the lazy river, the guided tour through this new city of writing.

A short story (I shoot for around 7,000 but definitions vary) will still force you to face the three phases of story telling I outlined above. But they are much more manageable.

Excitement that Lasts

There is certainly less opening and setup in a short story compared to a novel. You usually have less characters, less set locations, and less story lines.

However, the story length and the opening length don’t seem to shrink proportionally in my experience.

By that I mean that while you might spend a good 10% of a novel in the exciting opening phase you’ll spend 15% to 20% of a short story in this exciting step of the process.

It likely won’t be enough fuel to get you through to the end (although there have been some rare cases where it did for me). However you won’t start feeling the excitement leave you until a good portion through the muddling middle.

Less to Muddle Through

the story is shorter, there’s less raw material to throw in. Usually a short story focuses on one moment in a character’s life, or one interaction between characters. All in all the short story if focused. Which is keeps things from going foggy or unclear.

If you find that you’re past the half way mark of your story (or word count) and you’re still adding in more raw material the simple solution is to stop adding new stuff in. Write those ideas down though, they’re new short story ideas! And that’s wonderful in and of itself.

Alternatively, if you feel like the new material being added is absolutely imperative to this story and this character then congratulations you’ve got the start of a novel on your hands! Either continue on knowing what you’re getting into above or shelve it until you’ve got more short stories (and experience) under your belt.

My books Bleeding Rock, Slugs of Dale Cannon, and A Trial of Rock and Rope were all short story ideas that grew to be novels. There’s about a half dozen more on my hard drive that went this direction and I’m trying to find time to circle back and finish them.

Wrestling a Smaller Beast

Since you added less material in the muddling middle you have less that you have to pull together here at the end. However, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security, this story will still take time, sweat, and focus to get into a piece that you’re happy with and proud of. But proportionately it’s far far less than a novel.

Rarely do I end a story without making at least one stop to an earlier part of the story to change or add something in. I want the reader to feel like I knew where this story was going from the start. The easiest way to make it sound like you had a plan is to go back to the beginning and add in hints and clue about what the eventual end of the story is.

With a short story there’s far less to wade through in order to add in these hints and guidelines. Additionally you remember what you wrote at the beginning because it was a few hours or days ago that you wrote it. Unlike a novel where months of my life separate the opening and the ending.

Here at the end you’re wrestling a much smaller beast but it is still wrestling and the story is still wild and untamed.

My Path

I compared a short story to a bunny slope, lazy river, and guided tour. To avoid any false advertising lawsuits I want to make it clear that writing a short story is not as tame as a bunny, it can not be accomplished with laziness, and there is unfortunately no one to guide you all the way to the end of your story.

A short story is still writing. It comes with all the fun excitement of writing but also has its uncomfortable moments.

But I know that in the beginning it’s easier to face those uncomfortable moments in a short story than a novel.

I know this because I’ve done it. In 2017 I started publishing a short story every week on this blog. They’re still there you can find them if you’re so inclined. I’ve written over 50 short stories, maybe more…I’ve lost count.

Each one of them taught me something. Each one of them was fulfilling to write and satisfying to finish.

I point out this path because it’s the path that I took, after stumbling through two novels, and I wish I’d taken this road sooner.

So, I hope that I’ve persuaded you to consider short stories as a new starting point for your writing career.

Additionally, I hope that I’ve pointed out some sign posts that you’ll spot along the way of telling any story. Maybe you’ll spot them through the fog and know you’re on the right track.

I’ve met a lot of writers and authors. Every one of them, myself included, has been encouraging of new people taking up the craft.

I write this for those people that have told me they want to be a writer. And maybe now they’ll have the tools to put down their story. Maybe they’ll be able to get started in a better place.

I hope they will see short stories as a path of growth headed to having the stamina (and creative trust) to write a whole novel. I truly hope for this because I want to read those novels. I want to chat with other writers, other people who understand the thrill of going on this journey.

Most importantly I want you to achieve something that feels big and overwhelming.

I did. I’ve published a dozen books and drafted a dozen more.

It is the best feeling in the world to tackle something this big.

And I want you to experience the same.

Find Peace in Progress,
Nicholas Licalsi

P.S. Yes, I wrote this for you! If you told me at any point of time you were thinking about writing a story, novel, trilogy, or a D&D campaign I wrote this for you. And I still want to see those project come to light.

Photo Credit: Image by Joe from Pixabay