I learned a lot when I wrote my first novel. I thought today that I’d share nine lessons I learned. But first, a little about how I got started. I’d always written short stories. One day, I thought to myself, what if I just kept writing a lot more words? Wouldn’t I end up writing a novel? So that’s what I did. I remember telling my husband at one point, “I’ve written 10,000 words. That’s more than I’ve ever written on one story before.” And I just kept writing. When I got to about 45,000 words, I had a complete story, and I liked it. I thought other people would like it too. I gave it to a few friends, and they were kind.
At some point in this journey, I decided to take my writing seriously. I was retiring from my day job and started telling people that I was going to write a novel. Telling others that I’m going to do something is one way I motivate myself to get a job done. As long as the idea stays in my head and I don’t share it, I don’t act on it. If you have trouble getting started, try it. It may help you get off the starting block.
Lesson one: A funny thing happens when you tell people your plans. The universe starts moving things your way. I truly believe this. On one of my last days at work, a senior executive asked me what I planned to do in retirement. I thought about saying, “rock in my rocking chair,” to get out of discussing my plans. Instead, I decided to be honest. “I’m going to take my writing seriously. I want to write a novel,” I said. “I have a story written; I just need to find a good editor.”
She immediately perked up. “You know (Name), don’t you?”
“No, who is she?”
“She just ended a project with our company. She’s a scriptwriter and an editor. Would you like to meet her?”
I couldn’t very well say no. I’d just stuck my neck out and stated that I needed an editor and didn’t know where to find one. So, I said yes, I’d like to meet her.
“Shall I call her? She lives close by,” was the reply.
Lesson Two: Say yes. I said yes. That’s another thing to which the universe pays attention. When we say yes to new possibilities, it’s like the world takes us seriously and starts helping us. Within thirty minutes, I was sitting face to face with a woman who became my first editor. I hired her on the spot. We met later after I’d sent and she’d read my story.
Lesson Three. Listen to what the experts tell you. The comment that I remember the most from my first visit with an editor is, “What you have written is more like a treatment. A good novel needs to adhere to a certain structure. Most follow the three-act structure.”
Well, I’d never heard of a treatment before. I didn’t want to appear ignorant, so I shook my head in agreement and filed the comment away to look into later. What I learned later on Wikipedia was this:
A film treatment (or simply treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. … Treatments read like a short story, but are told in the present tense and describe events as they happen.
Hmm. I read that and honed in on the words “first draft.” She gave me a world of information about story structure using three acts during that meeting. I went away knowing I had a lot to learn, but hopeful.
A good novel needs to adhere to a certain structure. Most follow the three-act structure.
Lesson Four: Learn your craft. I started studying story structure and looking for it in everything I read or watched. Low and behold, my editor was correct. Story structure was everywhere. It’s been around since the first Greek tragedies were written and performed. It was almost annoying. I explained what I was learning to my husband, and he was soon pointing out the different plot points. It’s like how you don’t notice blue cars on the road until you buy one. They were always there; you just weren’t paying attention.
I read every book on writing I could find. It’s funny; you’ll run across all kinds of advice in those books about outlining or writing by the seat of your pants and everything in between. I came to the conclusion that I’d never done an outline in my life, so why would I start now? In school, when outlines were required, I’d always written the paper then gone back through and outlined afterward. Now, I recommend this only if you’ve drunk from the well of structure until it has become a part of your very DNA. And if you’ve always loved outlining, then I highly recommend it as a way to start your book. We’re all different and have to find our paths. So, I learned about structure. I let the information sink deep into past my skin to my innermost being.
Lesson Five: Writing is Re-writing. Then I rewrote that first draft using the knowledge I’d learned. It surprised me. I ended up with quite a different story. It was a story that had more depth, which had a beginning, a middle, and an end. Yay, I’d written a novel, but it needed more work. I combed through line by line looking for extraneous commas, misspelled words, missing indentations, and unneeded adjectives and adverbs. My editor helped me understand where my protagonist should be stronger; my conflict should be more prone to be the kind of obstacles my protagonist could grow from overcoming, my ending should give credit to the story and not end abruptly with everything tied up in a neat bow like a Christmas present.
Lesson Six: Don’t rely on your editor to find everything. Self-edit. Then I published it on Amazon as an ebook and a paperback. I felt an immense sense of accomplishment. I took pictures of myself holding that first book. I posted photos of the cover on Facebook so all my friends could see what I’d done. And then I sat down to read the paperback. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life (well other than the time I peed myself while in the third-grade spelling bee line-up.) There were all kinds of errors I’d missed before. The spelling of one character’s name kept changing; I had quotes where no one was speaking; I had a car stolen from the protagonist then she drove it somewhere. Yikes. Big lesson learned. Take proofreading seriously. It’s going to be out there for the world to see. Take a little time to fine tooth comb your book. The good thing about self-publishing these days is you can correct errors easily. The original books will still have the errors, but new ones won’t. Whew.
Lesson Seven: If they can’t find it, they can’t read it. To be honest with you, I’m still struggling with this part of the process. I’ve got a loyal following of friends and family. Some of their friends and family members are starting to find me. I haven’t paid for any advertising. I have an author page on Amazon.com. I’ve built a website and started blogging. I’m building an email list. I’m learning to better focus my blog posts to attract my “tribe.”
Lesson Eight: Patience is a virtue. I now understand that story we’ve all heard a million times about the person who worked at their craft/art for many years only to become an overnight success when the public discovered them. I’m learning patience. I’m learning to pay my dues.
Lesson Nine: Keep writing. The most important lesson I’ve learned is that practice improves my writing. I write something every day. Sometimes it’s nothing more than stream-of-consciousness nattering on the page; some days it’s golden and doesn’t even need editing because it’s that amazing. But most days, it’s just me putting words down on the page to carry my characters along on their journey. And that’s good because that’s the only thing that will get the next novel written. I can think about it all I want, but sitting down and writing is the only solution. I’ll keep writing and putting my work out there. People will find a book; maybe a friend will loan them a paperback, or tell them about an ebook they read and enjoyed. If I have more books, and people like what they read, they’ll buy my other books. And that’s all I want – for people to find my books and enjoy reading them.
Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash
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Thank you and as always,
Happy Reading! Happy Writing!