My past is littered with the carcasses of half-started stories.
For someone who always claimed she wanted to be a writer, it was pretty embarrassing. And disheartening. The problem was that I didn’t know what I was doing. When I was a child, I’d get an idea—maybe about a character, a scene, or a world—and decide I was going to write a really great novel around it.
Funny how that never worked out.
I wasn’t a pantser back then. If I had been, maybe I could’ve gotten something down on paper. Instead, I’d lose interest after a few paragraphs because I didn’t know where the story was going, and the idea would crawl back into the recesses of my mind to be forever forgotten.
I spent a lot of time not writing when I was a teenager. Getting a book into print was still something I wanted to do. The problem was, I still hadn’t written one. High school was such a painfully boring drag that I didn’t want to have much to do with the written word. I did, however, pick up copies of Writer’s Digest from the library to pore over. Same thing with any writing book I could get my hands on. As I grew older, I started growing my own collection of non-fiction books on writing.
But, still, I wasn’t writing my own novels.
That changed in early 2002 when I finally completed my very first draft of a novel-length book. In part, I credit James V. Smith, Jr.’s book You Can Write a Novel. Is it the best book on writing out there? I don’t know; frankly, I barely remember what that book is about. But I know there was something in it that got me to pick up a pen (well… keyboard, since I typed it) and just plough through until I’d finished a first draft. It took me around two months. Of course, given the fact that I was writing YA secondary-world romantic fantasy (of course I was), I figured it needed a sequel. Two, in fact. So I wrote them. I was on a roll! Book 2 took roughly two weeks. Book 3 took another two months. By the end of it all, I’d written a trilogy.
I’d written a bad trilogy.
I’ll forever be grateful that KDP wasn’t around back then, because I probably would’ve rushed those books onto the market… and I would be cringing hard today. The stories were clunky, there were some mildly problematic tropes that wouldn’t fly with modern readers, and my characters did stupidly convenient things that still make me roll my eyes. I had a character discovering a secret passage in a palace and go wandering around, all so I could get her in a dangerous position to further the story.
My first book might not have been worthy of publication, but I’ll always treasure the time I spent writing it because of what it taught me:
1. I can write a novel. If I had any doubts, they were vanquished when I typed the last words of Book 1. That realization has been invaluable as I’ve continued to write. Even now, many novels later, I sometimes feel overwhelmed. How can I finish writing this book? How does anyone finish writing a book? It’s impossible! No, it’s not. And the completion of that first book is a good reminder.
2. I don’t need to have huge blocks of time to write. I didn’t even have my own computer when I wrote that first book. I used the family PC, grabbing a few minutes after dinner to dash off half a chapter. Of course, writing got a lot faster when I had my own computer and could dedicate more time to writing. But writing my first book in little bites taught me that sometimes a few minutes at a time are all you need.
3. I still have a lot to learn. This one is more in retrospect, since, like I said, I probably would’ve self-published that cringeworthy pile of pages if I’d had the chance. Looking back, I can see that the book(s) needed a lot of work. I do remember having trouble with Book 3, though, even as I was writing it. There was a plot point that just seemed so contrived, and I couldn’t think my way out of the corner I’d written myself into. Honestly, I’m not sure if I ever did. But those plot nuisances are humbling, and a good reminder that we don’t get it perfect on the first attempt.
So that’s what I learned from writing my first novel. Almost twenty years later, I would have another learning experience… when I decided to self-publish a book.
But that’s a story for another day…