My Debut Novel is Slowing Becoming a Reality

One of my dreams that I’ve had for as long as I can remember is that I’ve always wanted to write a book. Even though I’ve always been a writer and have written numerous things, I have just taken my goal to write a book seriously, and this past summer began to write my book.

My book began as a small idea, a bit vague, and I honestly wasn’t sure where I was even going with it. When I first started writing my novel, I just wrote as I went along. This occurred during about the first ten pages and then I began to shift into more of a planner. I think I shifted because I realized soon enough that my story wasn’t going anywhere.

I have since then begun keeping a notebook in which I write down all of my ideas for my story, no matter how irrelevant or dull they might seem. I’ve found out the hard way more times than one, that it’s better to just write an idea down rather than to just rely on memory alone.

I have so much to say about my story, but I won’t share everything in one article. Plus, I don’t want to give out too many spoilers to my story.

My novel (or novella if that’s what it ends up being), will be science fiction. It is about a young man named Donovan, who is absolutely fascinated by the various concepts of science fiction. One night, he finds himself suddenly and unexpectedly in a strange place where he soon discovers the very concepts that he’s only dreamed about, such as teleportation, exist. He discovers even more incredible and unfathomable technologies along the way.

I’ve contemplated off and on if my main character has found himself in the future or in an alternate universe. Both sound like intriguing ideas to work with and build from.

Donovan soon discovers a highly respected research facility called Insight that develops and tests these unfathomable (to him) technologies.

Along the way, he meets Maddox, my antagonist, a highly respected yet arrogant researcher of Insight.

Maddox is a really interesting and challenging character to write. I feel that I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time developing his character.

One big concept of my novel, that I am slowly developing, is the idea that Donovan is pulled into developing a telepathy device by Maddox and going against Insight’s standards. Such a device was in development but was suddenly suspended for unknown reasons. Turns out that Maddox might know more than he is telling Donovan. Donovan and Maddox go against Insight and develop the perfect telepathy device that Maddox has always dreamed of. Maddox will do anything to create the perfect telepathy device even to an obsession.

Of course, it's far more than just creating the device. Sometimes, the characters can surprise you. I didn't realize that there was so much more to Maddox's strong desire to create the device compared to when I first started developing this story.

I think I better stop there with my summary. I feel that I have a lot going on, but of course, this is only my first draft. There are also other characters, but I will save them for another article.

For my first draft, I am with the range of 36,000 words. While I am very excited in that regard, I know that the quality of my story should be focused on more so than quantity. Therefore, I will keep developing my characters and plot, be on the look out for any writing advice, and just keep writing!

I also recently bought the book, Save the Cat Writes a Novel. I just started reading it, and have found it very helpful already. There are definitely a few plot holes I need to work on. Along with the journal I’ve been keeping, I will be referring to Save the Cat Writes a Novel with plotting and development of my story.

I am very excited to be (finally!) writing my story. It’s been a roller coaster ride of joy and frustration. When complete, I plan on self-publishing. Publishing my debut novel is now beginning to look like a reality!