rolanni | Stop the Presses! Writers Talking About Writing!

These are interesting takes on How To Write a Novel:

Justine Larbalestier started it

Jay Lake answered

Elizabeth Bear, too

While Bear's process comes closest to mine (except sometimes the book write itself, and sometimes the world comes first, and sometimes a scene that I Simply Must Write! and writing the book is only a means to achieve that scene -- which I usually, but not always, wind up editing out or changing entirely) -- I especially love Justine's advice to name the new work immediately, even if it must be changed later.

The story I'm not writing at the moment because I'm nattering on LJ while the roadies get the back room set up is entitled, "There's a star in the east on Christmas morn". I expect something shorter and perhaps even on-point will occur to me before I have to hand it over to mine co-author; if not, he'll have to title it.

As those who are regular readers of this journal will know, the novel now out to beta readers went by The Book Without a Name for quite some time.

kinzel suggested Carousel Tides, which has stuck this far, and may finish the race.

The book y'all know as Agent of Change was Val Con and Miri on Mars from concept until it was time to type a clean copy.

Likewise, Local Custom was known to its fond creators as Studmuffins of the Sex Star, while the sequel to Balance of Trade lives in real and present danger of being known as Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Sometimes, titles do stick from beginning to end: "Changeling" always was "Changeling," and so was "The Beggar King." The Tomorrow Log was titled long before plot or characters showed up, though it was known around the house as "Gem." The titles of all three Jen Pierce novels arrived with Jen -- she's organized that way.