Twelve things I learned writing my first novel
When I set out to write long-form fiction six or more years ago, I had no idea the journey would be so long or complicated. With a mystery finished and the publication date here, I’m ready to reflect on lessons learned along the way.
It’s more doable than you think. If you’ve got an idea rattling around the back of your head, the only way to start is to put a sentence on the page. As long as you enjoy writing and aren’t doing it for fast payout, there’s no reason a series of small efforts can’t add up to a marketable draft. There are ways to give yourself a leg up (join a writing support group, network with writers, read writing books, use appropriate software), but the bottom line is that you have to write. If you do consistently a story will emerge.
It’s harder than you think. I used to work at a small newspaper and wrote about 5,000 words of pretty clean copy each week. To write a 100,000-word novel, therefore, I’d simply need 20 weeks of focused work, plus 10 or 20 percent. Now I understand how naïve that perspective was. It took more than five years of on-again, off-again writing, learning, relearning, reading, rewriting and reflecting to get to this point. I’ve learned a lot and am positioned to write a second novel faster, but the gist is still the same. It’s a very large task.
It’s lonelier than you think. There’s no getting around the solitary nature of writing a big story. You have to lock yourself in a quiet room for thousands of hours. I’ve had a lot of jobs ranging from stone mason to environmental policy advocate, and writing a novel was easily the loneliest work of my life.
There are some great tools. I used to write exclusively in Microsoft Word, but early in the process became overwhelmed trying to keep track of characters, months of research, storylines, chapters, acts, rising action, falling action and so-on. After some research, I downloaded the free one-month trial of a word processor designed to handle the complexities of a novel and never looked back. It’s called Scrivener. It’s game-changing, and I write a more in-depth review at a sister website here.
Writing is different than storytelling. While I knew this before starting, it was one of my biggest lessons. Storytelling has become a marketing buzzword that’s tossed around pretty casually, but there’s a gaping difference between writing an SEO blog post with a call to action and filling in all the shaded detail and nuance of a novel.
Kill your darlings. It’s cliché as a writer to “kill your darlings,” a euphemism for deleting some of your favorite flowing prose because it no longer serves the story. To illustrate the point using numbers, my final draft is 96,500 words, but I’ve got a file on my hard drive called “Extra Chapters” containing more than 100,000 unused words. Some of those deleted scenes weren’t darlings, but many were. When they don’t serve the story, though, they must die an abrupt and painful death.
Small consistent work adds up. Any large task can be broken into a series of small steps, and writing a novel is no different. For me it meant getting out of bed at 6 a.m. at least three days a week from September to December and writing at least 500 words, regardless of quality. Over time, those repeated small efforts coalesced into a novel.
When you’re stuck, read a book. It’s well established that decent writers are usually also readers. I didn’t read much while writing. However, when I became stuck, reading a book was an entertaining way to break the gridlock. What’s more, I discovered a tendency to emulate the styles and voices of authors I read, and it was fun to see new twists of phrase emerge from the simple act of reading.
You need good readers. No matter how good you are at editing your work, you’ll get lost in your story. Good readers are imperative to help you see woods for trees, and it’s no small thing to ask of your friends and family. Your manuscript is without question not as good as it could be, so it’s also not as fun or interesting as your readers might anticipate. In five years, I had a dozen readers, some of whom read it twice—and one who read that really bad first draft (thanks Dad!). If the book succeeds on any level—and just calling it finished is already a success—your readers played an indispensable part of that.
You have to understand story structure. There are a number of systems that break fictional stories into digestible parts. Most employ three-act structure and the hero’s journey, but some don’t. You have to identify a system you understand, you have to learn it, and you have to use it. My first draft of about 40,000 words had some major issues, not the least of which was two heroes. When I dusted things off to consider forging on, I started by researching how many heroes a story can support. While it’s not unheard of, two or more protagonists is an expert’s trick. Before continuing with any intensity, I spent two or three months studying story structure, character archetypes and story arcs, and then planning, plotting and outlining to avoid as many additional novice pitfalls as I could.
You have to do it for the love of it. If you measure your time in dollars and cents, there’s no way you’ll write a novel. If you want to make money, get a job at the neighborhood burger grill or, better yet, sitting at a desk as a copywriter. Obviously, for some of the best-known and successful authors, there’s a payoff, but for your first novel that’s far from guaranteed—and probably far-fetched. Long-form fiction is something you have to do for the love of it.
Writing is rewriting. I “finished” my novel at least four times and each time returned to discover a lot of work remained. The process of going through my own 100,000 words of writing a fifth or sixth time, even with a signed contract and help from my publisher, was an unspeakable drudge.
Additional resources
Things I learned about myself writing a novel (coming soon).
The resources I found most helpful including books, Youtube channels, podcasts and websites.
A full review of Scrivener, an outstanding word processing program for authors.
So there are 12 things I learned writing my first novel. To be sure, the lessons were more numerous and nuanced, but the bottom line is that I enjoyed the challenge and hope to do it again.
If you want to see the end result, the book launches April 12, 2022 and is available for preorder now at Barnes & Noble, Target and other retailers. Other ways you can help include following me at the social media links at the top and bottom of this page, or signing up for emails at this link: grstahl emails.