The Whole Enchilada

At author presentations I’m often asked about the process I use when writing the first draft of a manuscript.  There are as many methods for writing a novel as there are snowflakes.  In fact, one author, Randy Ingermanson one method of writing a novel is called the snowflake method.  He uses ten steps from simple to complex to get to your goal of writing a novel.  I don’t do that.

I don’t want to prescribe how anyone should go about writing a novel.  Writing is different for everyone.  I don’t want to give tips on how to write a novel.  I do want to describe the process I use in hopes that it may help someone along their own path.

I know the both the beginning and end of the novel before I begin writing. I know exactly what my protagonist wants, however, in the process of writing I figure out how the protagonist reaches his goal.  In other words,  I have a “big picture” of the novel.

Because my writing his history based I pick an actual historical event, research the details and then insert my fictional protagonist into the event.  I think in terms of episodes to get me from the beginning to the end of the novel.  After the 1998 Good Friday Peace Accord was approved by referendum in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland true peace remained illusive.  As is the Irish way, a large minority didn’t accept the peace accord and a splinter group calling themselves the Real Irish Republican Army was organized and they bombed a building in Omagh in August 1998.  My protagonist, Ian Murphy, is furious that the fragile Peace Accord is in jeopardy because of the bombing and he rushes off to Omagh to subdue the violence.  At this point the novel is off and running.