5/11/2017

​So you got that great, big, exciting idea for a novel… Jot down the ideas immediately, write down all the elements and… How about waiting for a while before you dive into that well of ideas, particularly if you are still honing your writing skills?
If you are not a fan of The Eagles, a band that is so much maligned these days, go for Jackson Browne’s original version of “Take It Easy”. Quite a few reasons for that.
You can start with grasping the basic elements of constructing a novel, doing the necessary research, even if (and often particularly because) it is science fiction, to all those intricate details like character, dialogue, and plot development…
But then there’s that one detail that will immensely help you with all of those — honing your writing skills. Ok, so you’ve known since elementary school that there’s a writer hiding in there somewhere, an untamed natural talent…
Yet, that untamed talent needs to be tamed — no matter how natural talent you may be, you need to develop your writing — and exceptions, which certainly exist, again, only prove the rule.
Simply put, start writing anything as a sensible, written whole, from an email to an article, review, commercial piece, anything. Just as long as it has a proper head and tail, as piece by piece, it starts making more and more sense, becomes more coherent and understandable. To everybody. Ok, maybe not everybody, but to most of the people.
Such an approach can give you one more possibility — honing your writing gives you the capability to piece up those tiny bits of ideas for that ‘big thing’ into a coherent whole — it helps you “Pick Up The Pieces”, as The Average White Band would say (actually play, but never mind).
Those brilliant, immediate novels that a writer can spill into one go come once in a lifetime, or never. Even to the best writers.
So pick up the pieces by taking it easy, it is a good combination, like following a great soft rock tune with a great funk instrumental, as is the case with The Eagles (Jackson Browne) and The Average White Band. Just like a combination of a hot cup of coffee with a cold glass of sparkling water.

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