PARALLELS BETWEEN BUILDING A HOUSE & WRITING A BOOK
As our house moves slowly but surely towards completion it has occurred to me that there is a parallel between building a house and writing a book. Obviously the writing process doesn’t require quite the same tools, the only hammering has been on my keyboard & I’m not into biting my nails. However, a writer needs a toolbox from which they can produce the tools of their specific craft.
A commercial builder would never go about building a house that he didn’t think would be attractive to the market, the same principle applies to writing a novel. Unless of course you are writing purely for yourself you have to focus on producing a book that people will read & enjoy & hopefully take something away from the experience.
An architect or builder’s plan shows the design & the outline of the house. If you didn’t follow the necessary steps of progression then it would take an awfully long time to finalise. And there’s no guarantee that the finished product would look as you envisaged.
Although our house did undergo some design changes along the way, there was always the basic plan to follow. My novel, A Hint of Darkness, which is now undergoing its final edit, was like a house constructed without a well thought out plan to guide me. Not spending enough time on writing a highly structured plot, meant re-fashioning some of my rooms or chapters, several times over. The up side was that I produced numerous short stories & magazine articles on the way. Having learned the benefits of plotting, I am now a disciplined writer aware of the pitfalls of not putting in the groundwork.
So by good fortune, good management or by the luck of the gods my finished structure is well & truly worth all the back tracking & re-writing that I have put myself through. I’m glad though that Peter didn’t have to knock down walls or cut holes to make doorways. Though not quite finished yet our house is definitely heading towards a happy ending.
A commercial builder would never go about building a house that he didn’t think would be attractive to the market, the same principle applies to writing a novel. Unless of course you are writing purely for yourself you have to focus on producing a book that people will read & enjoy & hopefully take something away from the experience.
An architect or builder’s plan shows the design & the outline of the house. If you didn’t follow the necessary steps of progression then it would take an awfully long time to finalise. And there’s no guarantee that the finished product would look as you envisaged.
Although our house did undergo some design changes along the way, there was always the basic plan to follow. My novel, A Hint of Darkness, which is now undergoing its final edit, was like a house constructed without a well thought out plan to guide me. Not spending enough time on writing a highly structured plot, meant re-fashioning some of my rooms or chapters, several times over. The up side was that I produced numerous short stories & magazine articles on the way. Having learned the benefits of plotting, I am now a disciplined writer aware of the pitfalls of not putting in the groundwork.
So by good fortune, good management or by the luck of the gods my finished structure is well & truly worth all the back tracking & re-writing that I have put myself through. I’m glad though that Peter didn’t have to knock down walls or cut holes to make doorways. Though not quite finished yet our house is definitely heading towards a happy ending.
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