Novel writing requires a complex set of skills ranging from plotting to dialogue to knowing everything that will happen on the page, before it happens. In November 2011, I wrote a novel for National Novel Writing Month. The experience itself remains unlike any other I’ve ever completed, participated in, done.

I struggled because I had not fleshed out what I thought was the back story. But, in fact, what I had not done was flesh out the understory. Steven Pressfield describes the understory as

…the architecture that undergirds and supports the surface story.

Pressfield goes on to describe examples from contemporary movies and greek tragedies on how the understory comes through to the surface of the story. I appreciate how he exhorts writers to reveal the understory through dialogue or direct action rather than flashbacks or voice over narration. Or the dreaded Prologue which now seesm to inhabit every mystery now being published in the U.S. I have concluded that authors include Prologues because they can’t or wont’ incorporate into the surface story. But I digress.

I’ve learned that novel writing may best be served by knowing as much as possible about such things as understory and backstory. Pressfield describes the difference as:

Backstory explains a character’s individual past and hints at her motivation. Understory is the story-architecture supporting the surface story.

Pottering about a novel results in a lot of written words and pages and some very huge holes in the manuscripts. I look forward to writing the understory for a novel I am working on now. Armed with Pressfield’s suggestions, the next draft will be measurably better.

For the first twenty-three days of November I wrote more words than in the previous two years, more than 51,000 words, actually. As part of national novel writing month, I began the novel on November 1 and finished on November 23.

With my outline in hand, I began and wrote everyday. I found the process exhilirating and difficult. The sentences poured forth, sometimes 5,000 words combined over two two-hour writing periods. At times it felt like a weakling’s attempt to control a fire hose on full throttle. During my most productive weekend I wrote over 8,000 words.

Since shutting down Facebook and Twitter my ability to focus has increased. As a writer it has to. Without focus I skim the surface. Without focus I possessed no ability to complete this novel. But even with some hard focus ability, I hovered too close to the surface.

But that is why all writers rewrite. The first is just simply to get the words down.

What I am grateful for is this: both the time and the desire to write this novel. I am also grateful for a supportive partner and for the newly found willingness and ability to stay in my seat to keep writing.

While focus isn’t everything in writing, I think it’s about 65 to 70 percent of the game winning strategy.