The Novel of a Thousand Pages begins with a Single Scene

To write is an art. Yet writing is a science.  Paradox.    Dr. Samuel Jackson once said that a man will turn over half a library to make one book. And despite all that research, you have to start with a single scene.  Daunting. And to top that - you must hold sacred the trust the reader has placed in you, to transport him/her to another time and place. I believe a writer has an obligation towards his / her readers, whether you write fiction, non-fiction or erotic stories.  That obligation is two-fold and proves Dr. Jackson's theory to be correct.   Firstly a writer has an obligation to write well.  A writer must take deliberate care of the grammar, punctuation and style that he / she utilises.  You are cheating your reader when he/she picks up a book and encounters poor writing. (In this regard an example immediately springs to mind - a certain erotic novel was published with huge fanfare a while ago.  I obtained the first book in the series and could not get past the first twenty pages.  Extremely poor writing! I threw the book away. I was a cheated reader.)  There is no excuse whatsoever for poor writing, never.  If erotic fiction is your genre - then do it well.   Leo Christopher once wrote that the most breathtaking words arn't snapped on a typewriter but traced on the softest skin and whispered through moans. Now that is erotic language that one can read! Someone (I am embarrassed to say I do not know who, but wish it was me who created the next sentence!) once wrote that "I read like the ink from the book is oxygen and I am gasping for breath. " And that is how a writer should write. Every word, every sentence and every page.   Yesterday I read a an English piece written by an Afrikaans author.  Why oh why did he decide to write an English piece on a public platform?   The grammar was a mangled piece of rope slithering around one's throat, so you could not concentrate on the text.  I felt embarrassed for him. English is not my first language and I picked up on the gross errors.   Secondly, you must lie so well that your reader believes you.  If you write fiction you can merrily lie through thousand pages or more - however - facts are facts.  Your research must be impeccable.  Someone once compared writing to a hippopotamus where the reader only sees the nose and eyes that is above the water.  The writing process is so much more than putting words on paper.  I love writing historical fiction, therefore research takes up most of my time.  You cannot have the protagonist drink coffee on a misty morning, when coffee was not commonly drunk at that time.  Similarly your antagonist cannot drive a specific car, use a certain weapon or wear a magnificent piece of clothing which did not yet exist in your chosen time period.   I once downloaded a Kindle book from Amazon.com, because according to the synopsis it was set in ancient Rome during a specific political period that interested me.  On the second page the author (I use the term very loosely) mentioned how the heroine's dress was unzipped.  Really? Her dress had a zip? In ancient Rome?  I deleted the book.   You are providing information, through your story, about a certain time period - you must make sure that you are true to that period in all aspects - and then you lie, to make your reader believe your specific story, set in that period.  The reader must believe that your set of characters lived there.  You must lie so convincingly that your reader is transported to another world in another time. Do not cheat. Your reader picks up your book to escape real life - give that to them but with enough research to provide a viable canvas for your lies. A novel of a thousand words starts with a single scene (writing proverb). "Writing is very much like bricklaying. You learn to put one brick on top of another and spread the mortar so thick."  (Red Smith) Do not cheat your reader. Lay the bricks carefully - in every scene of the thousand page novel.