No one is born knowing how to write a book. Sadly.
So when you write your first one, it’s a huge learning experience.
It’s cathartic. It’s painful. It’s a big confusing mess at times. But it’s also an enormous relief when you finish it.
When you do finish writing your first book, good news. You’ll have learned a lot and you’ll be in a much better position than when you started.
I’ve seen writing this book as a big learning process and I’m confident that I’m better now than when I started. I don’t know everything and I’m certainly not done with the practice. There’s still a lot I can learn and do to improve.
But for now, here’s what I learned from writing and finishing my first book.
Not everything needs to be in this book
Writers naturally come up with a lot of ideas. And your instinct might be to pack ALL of them into one book.
I did this and one of my later drafts of my first book ended up being almost 200,000 words.
Not unusual for a fantasy novel by any stretch. But it made me think about a couple of things:
Maybe there was too much going on and I wasn’t developing the ideas I did have in more depth that would have created a bigger impact for a reader.
Also, agents and publishers usually won’t go for massive word counts for a debut novel. Brandon Sanderson can whack out a 400,000 word novel and it will get published. But we don’t have his reputation or experience to get an agent or publisher to take a chance on us yet.
Think about it from the publisher’s perspective. They have a concise 100,000 word novel and another (also great) 300,000 word novel on their desk. One is significantly cheaper to publish and easier to sell to readers. Which are they going to pick?
Agents know that and are therefore much less likely to even represent a book from a first-time novelist that runs up hundreds of thousands of words. There are no doubt exceptions, but it’s worth thinking about word counts if you want to go down the traditional publishing route.
Kill some of your favourite ideas
When you’re thinking up cool scenes to put in your book, it’s really really hard to make that final decision of what to keep and what to scrap.
Because yes, you likely will have to scrap some things.
We all love cool scenes, especially in fantasy. But there’s more to writing a book than scribbling up cool scenes and trying to string them together so they make sense.
Sometimes, they just don’t. They don’t fit into the world you’ve built. They’re not how your characters would really act.
If you find yourself struggling to make a scene or motivation of a character make sense, it doesn’t mean you necessarily have to scrap it. It might work if you lay the groundwork better.
But it also might not. It might fall flat for a reader because it’s not realistic in the context of your world.
Anything that makes the reader go, “wait…what?” is going to pull them out of the story and that’s the one thing you want to avoid. When a reader one day puts your book down with this feeling, there’s zero guarantee they’ll pick it up again.
Now, that doesn’t mean the scene needs to die a complete death. It could be a great idea in another book, sequel or otherwise. Save your ideas but know when to cut them from this story to make it stronger.
Find your writing routine
We all know the advice of writing every day. And that’s great advice IF you can do it. I don’t think most people can.
All of us have our own unique lives and responsibilities. If you have kids, a full-time job, other commitments, and writing a book on top of all of that…it’s a lot.
So if you’re feeling pressure to write every day, here’s me, a random writer on the internet, saying it’s okay not to. You’re still a writer.
Instead, I’d recommend assessing how and when you write best. What things do you do in a day that could be sacrificed because they’re time-wasters or just balls of procrastination you could do without? Things like social media, online shopping, gaming, watching TV and unhealthy habits like alcohol or drugs, are all things that are getting in the way of your writing.
It doesn’t mean you should cut them all. Definitely not. You need down time. But prioritise what’s important, what helps you relax, and most of all, what’s realistic.
If you can find pockets of time to write, make sure you make writing an easy choice. Keep a notepad with you at all times, make sure your novel is accessible in a few clicks on your laptop. Find your best writing spot in your home and the times of day you’re most productive.
I don’t do long writing sessions. I don’t have the attention span. But I get up early and have a little chunk of time in the morning before I start my day job. If I’m feeling up to it, I’ll do some more after work. But there are definitely days where I don’t feel up to writing a single word and that’s okay.
Progress can be small and slow.
Read authors who do it well
During my editing process, I knew that one of my weaker areas was descriptions and painting a picture for my readers. I already knew how a scene would look, but it didn’t always come across well when re-reading my own stuff.
This year, I’ve tried to seek out fantasy novels that are well known for great prose. Interestingly, this got me to read wider (which is always a good thing) and seek out work beyond the traditional white, straight, male fantasy writers.
I’ve been loving N.K Jemisin Broken Earth series at the moment. The writing style is pretty unique and at first was a little strange because of the tense and structure. But I ended up loving it for the writing, characters and magic system, and will be starting the third book soon. I also read A Wizard of Earthsea which has some great prose too and really felt magical to read.
My point is, know your own weaknesses and areas you want to improve on and seek out books (not necessarily in your genre) written well in those areas. Maybe it’s character, dialogue, setting, magic, whatever it is, there’s so much you can learn from just reading.
Prioritise finishing your book
It’s so easy to get caught up in daydreaming about the future. When I started my first book, I was already a copywriter, learning about marketing, blogging, and personal branding.
And I thought, okay I need to start working on promoting myself for the future. Before I’d even finished a first draft. And guess what? I was spending time on marketing my non-existent book and personal brand as an author when I could have been working on my book.
Marketing and branding before you finish a book isn’t a bad thing. I was pretty proud of myself for it at the time. But I realised that for me personally, I couldn’t stretch my time or effort to too many things at once.
If you can write and market at the same time, then that’s amazing. I’m incredibly jealous.
But if you’re like me and you can’t, maybe it’s time to reassess how much time and attention you’re putting into your novel vs. other things.
I made finishing the book and editing it a priority instead. That’s why this blog has been abandoned for a while. Without the distraction of trying to write blogs, do social media, build a content plan etc. I could actually spend that time doing what I was meant to be doing, actually writing books.
Keep on learning
Like I said at the top, learning is not done. Not for me, not for you. Writing and reading and editing are all learning experiences and the more we do them, the better we get.
I’m sure there will be many more things I could write here when I finish my next book. But I want to apply these lessons to my next project. My aim (and hope) is that the next one will be slightly easier and quicker to write since I’ve learned a lot. Time will tell.
I hope this helped. What have you learned during the writing process? Whether you’ve finished a book (or ten) or are still working on one, let me know your top lesson so far.
Happy writing.