Novelizing

So I've been writing a novel.

I don't know how many of you have tried to write a novel. This is probably my third attempt; it's the first one with any likelihood of actually succeeding.

Writing a novel is hard. Unless you're Jack Kerouac, sitting down and pounding out a novel stream of consciousness, an incredible amount of work goes into planning and researching and in my case filling in some of the blanks... to borrow a metaphor from class, how the mattress gets from point A to point B.

When I read a novel that someone's written, I feel like I've been given a large cross-section of their diary. So much of who you are goes into what you write. Sometimes when I'm writing even a short length story, I get hung up on what it says about what's going on in my head. I want it to make sense to me -- to be something that I feel not just as an idea, as a possibility, or as a story, but as a reality. That's the only way I ever really feel comfortable disseminating my writing. I know that this is something that I need to get over.

This one has been brewing for at least two years. It started as just the kernel of an idea. I'd always been fascinated by superheroes, but found their portrayals generally lacking. With a few exceptions such as The Watchmen, there seemed to have been few attempts to give them a "serious literary treatment." I in no way mean any offense to comic books. I'm just saying that they didn't tell the types of stories that I wanted to hear about superheroes.

So let's take an analog for Superman. Let's take an ordinary Joe -- in this case, an ordinary Jonah -- with all his biases, baggage, and problems. With all of who he is outside of his superpowers. And when we give him those superpowers, let's have him not get caught up in platitudes like "with great power comes great responsibility." After all, his problems don't suddenly cease and he doesn't suddenly become different because he gains these powers. This is a poor example, but I hope you follow me. Humans in essence are not "made to be" happy; when we find happiness and contentment for too long, we inevitably develop feelings of discontent and restlessness. We always find problems, no matter how small, to focus our lives on. It is a natural and perhaps necessary part of life. Simply being able to do almost anything should certainly be no different.

My favorite science fiction has always been the kind that uses its science to explore and illuminate the human soul. In "From Where You Dream," Butler talks about how you should write from the white hot, burning center. He says that you should only write from there. Personally, I have to disagree to an extent. That's where this story comes from -- 2 years of thought, ideas, meaning, and experiences, two years of my life spent burning up inside over the characters, the settings, the themes and plot and narrative and tone and meaning and everything. Instead of writing directly from that white hot place, I've extracted and distilled it into its purest form: what I want it to be. And because of all this planning and thought, what I want it to be and what it is shaping up to be is infinitely closer to my white-hot core. It's closer to becoming a reality like I discussed above.

As a further point of disagreement, what if some of the meaning you derive from life comes from analyzation and abstraction? After all, we make choices about our lives. Emotions are not the only things that inform these choices. In Teranesia by Greg Egan, one of the key themes was finding continuity in life. The main character hears about a mathematical method for plotting a straight line with no reference except for your own path. This is then tied profoundly into the story and theme of continuity in what I hope are pretty obvious ways.

I'd like to end this with two observations by successful authors.

Someone (I forget who) wrote in his introduction to one of the Nebula Awards compilations of the 80s -- I believe it to be the 11th, but I may be incorrect -- that extroverted science-fiction writers tend to write somewhat introverted novels that are full of thought and ideas and not as much action, and vice versa. I grew up a deep introvert -- deep in the sense that I was extremely introverted, not necessarily claiming that I had any more substance than average. Now, while still an introvert, I can sometimes straddle the fence. I've had to struggle some to find the correct balance for the story I'm trying to tell. How do you all feel about this observation? Do you find that you, yourself, tend to write characters that are extroverted where you are not, and vice versa?

Terry Goodkind wrote, "if you have a message, send a letter. If you have a story, write a book." This is one of my favorite pieces of general writing advice. How do you feel about it?