
Michael Chabon: How to Salvage a 'Wrecked' Novel (2010) - samclemens
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/12/michael-chabon-how-to-salvage-a-wrecked-novel/68665/
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chris_st
"Mysteries of Pittsburgh" remains one of my all-time favorite novels. Got
bored part way through "Wonder Boys" and never finished it. I've read a few of
his others, none even a patch on "Mysteries...". Nobody's perfect :-)

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finnh
Huh! I’ve read pretty much all his output and loved Wonder Boys most - it is
hilarious. Moonglow was also great.. I think Kavalier and Clay was my least
fave.

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jhbadger
It sounds like "Wonder Boys" was at least in part autobiographical as the main
character there also had a huge unfinished novel that had weird details like
the genealogies and dental records of horses.

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andrewflnr
TL;DR: make meta-art out of the wreckage.

As someone struggling with a novel draft, I was hoping for at least a smidge
of actionable advice. I was disappointed.

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CptFribble
Here's the two best pieces of advice I've encountered:

1: Have a plan. Don't just write and write and hope for something to come out.
Make a structured plot outline, then a scene-by-scene breakdown (just a few
sentences of summary for each), then it'll be much easier to keep your head on
straight when you get deep in the weeds. At least it'll help you see your
story from a different perspective.

2: Writer's block is what happens when you try to write the final draft on
your first draft.

The second one especially has been very helpful, as I tend to be a
perfectionist and try to get the tone and everything exactly right, which
leads to stalled-brain-syndrome.

I hope that can be some help, or at least some encouragement! Good luck!

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alasdair_
Stephen King has frequently said that he just starts writing with a few
interesting characters in a room together and the novel flows from there
because good characters cause the story to tell itself almost by magic.

The problem with this particular advice is that it omits the first and most
essential part: "be Stephen King"

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CptFribble
I agree completely!

There are a million systems out there for organizing story construction,
whether it's one of the various outlining systems, or the Hero's Journey, or
whatever, but nearly all stories follow the same essential pattern of rising
and falling action in X number of acts. There's even been meta-studies on
story going back into ancient times, and all stories from all cultures can be
fit roughly into the same pattern.

King and others like him either omit or have forgotten how they came to
understand these patterns. Maybe it was natural instinct, maybe years of
slogging through practice stories that no one ever saw, but most people
instinctively know what a good story is, and all successful authors have
matched that pattern one way or another.

Doing it without a plan, especially when you're just starting out, is asking
for trouble. It's possible to write an amazing story on your first try with no
plan, if you're the next Hemingway or something, but for most people you'll
just end up drafting and re-drafting and probably end up like Chabon himself,
five years and 1000+ pages into an insane rambling mess.

