How Writing a Novel is Like Building a Garage

Some folks say writing a novel is like building a house. I’ve never built a house before, but I am in the process of building a garage, so let’s go with a garage. Plus, with a house, you have to live in it afterwards. You don’t live in a novel (or a garage). Plus, if your novel doesn’t work out, you can shove it under the bed and ignore it. Sort of the same with a garage. Big deal if your garage doesn’t work out perfectly and has flaws–it just hangs out in the backyard anyway. It’s not like your company routinely takes a tour of the ‘car house’. But wait, if you have major structural flaws, then it isn’t like a novel where you can shove it aside because you have this big falling down box in your yard. Then your garage is like a really HUGE headache and will take huge amounts of time and effort to fix. Hey, it IS just like a novel with structural issues.

So, you ask, how are these two things similar? Really, and truly. Well, before you get started on either project, you need supplies and you need a bit of a plan or idea on what you plan to accomplish. Is this a romance? Is it a two car deal? Approximately how long is this novel going to be? How big is the garage going to be? Where is this story going to take place? Where are you going to place this building?

Once you have a few of the main ideas in mind, you can get started. If you are a panster builder, you get moving right away, letting details sort themselves out as you go. You start with the cement pad. Move on to walls… Figuring it out as you go. (Sometimes, you have to go back and change things as you figure out what is going to look or work best.) If you are a plotster writer, you have detailed plans before you even lift your hammer, er, apply fingers to the keyboard. You have your characters sorted out, the main conflict, the ending. Pretty much everything. Everything is ordered up and ready to be used as you need it. More front end work, less on the back end.

When it comes to materials, your cement pad is like your plot outline/story idea. Once that is down, everything builds on it. If you change that–it is a lot of work and basically, you don’t have the same story or garage if you make changes to this. It is your ‘foundation’ of sorts.

Things that make your characters distinct are the touches that make the garage distinct. Eyes/lights, skin colour/siding colour, hair colour/shingle colour. On the inside, what do you have and what do they say? Neat freak/lots of perfect shelves, ome as you are personality/uncovered or unfinished walls. Chipped teeth/chipped concrete.

And of course there are edits. Maybe that chapter is missing driving conflict. Maybe that wall isn’t quite level.

What about pacing and order? Your story needs structure. Things need to happen and flow in a way the reader can follow. Same with building a garage. You can’t turn on the lights before they are hooked up.

And finally, like any form of work, there is always a sign that it is time to take a break. If you don’t, you might nail that sheet of OSB on the wrong way and have to redo it all. DOH!
Happy building!