Here’s another super question from tall_princess:
“How do you come up with your ideas for writing a novel? I have no problem coming up with an idea for a novel, it’s just the craft of drawing it out into an interesting piece that I have an issue with. They always seem to end up as a short story writing piece. I finish what I have to say in 90 pages or less! How can I fix that?”
Hi Elizabeth,
For me, writing a novel is similar to reading one. I want to know what happens next. Also, I tend not to write novels on topics that I can find novels on. Ie, I’ll just pick up the novel and read it, but if I can’t find a novel on the topic, I write it.
Writing 90 pages is very impressive! That’s more of a novella than a short story.
Are you writing your stories in first person? If you are, that might be why they peter out after about 90 pages. If you can alternate points of view, it gives you more story to work with. In Nobody’s Child, I alternated between a male and female POV with two main narrators but a couple of minor ones too. I find that writing in third person past active gives the most flexibility in terms of being able to set vivid scenes but also being able to jump inside a variety of heads.
What sorts of stories do you like to write?
