Write First, Publish Later
Today’s guest post comes from Lissete Lanuza, who reminds us to focus on the right thing – writing.
You have an author’s page. You regularly update your blog, and you have a list of agents you’d like to represent you. You’ve studied demographics, and tailored your story to reflect the readership you hope to gain. You’ve even written a synopsis of your novel. You’ve done all the homework about how to get published. The only problem is you haven’t finished your draft yet.
Does this sound like you?
If it does, then, I’ve got news for you. Sure, this might work for some enlightened people with a strong support system and a publishing contract already secured, but for most of us, this is the wrong approach.
What is the right method, then? Here are some guidelines that will make it easier, in the long run, for you to get published.
Ignore ‘Future’ Readers
You have an idea for a story. You’ve developed it, fallen in love with your characters. It’s your baby. And, yet, your research shows that, with just some slight tweaks, you might get more readers. So you change the ending. Add a twist. Maybe you go supernatural, since that’s what’s selling right now. You tell yourself that sacrificing your original idea is not important, not if it sells.
And, in the end, you end up writing a story without soul. You’re not connected to it, and it shows. Your vision isn’t even recognizable anymore. You have a hard time writing these new characters, since you don’t understand them any longer. You can’t relate. And if you can’t relate, the reader won’t be able to.
This doesn’t mean that once you finish your draft it’ll all be perfect, and you won’t need to make any changes. Perhaps you will. But, don’t do it while you’re writing. It’ll just compromise your vision.
Write What You Know
Sounds cliché, I know. You might not have lived that much. It sounds like a good advice on paper, but what can you write about if you’re only supposed to write what you know? It severely limits your options.
Maybe this is why this piece of advice gets such a bad rep. No one really understands it. Write what you know doesn’t mean that if you’ve lived in Maine all your life, you can only write about people who also live there. Sure, if your character also lives in Maine, you might have an easier time of describing the setting, but you don’t need to set your story in your hometown to make it believable. Google is your friend, after all. You can find information about anything, and you’ve got your imagination to fill in the blanks.
No, write what you know means that you use your own experiences, your feelings: heartbreak, loss, loneliness, joy, to give depth to your characters. Make them real. They are, in a way, part of who you are, because your own experiences are what drive them. Maybe your characters will react like you do when faced with certain situations. Maybe the reaction will be the opposite of what yours would be. But use your own reaction as a measuring point. It’ll make it easier to write.
Do It From the Heart
The story that you’re excited about, the one you’ve had in your head for years and you can’t stop thinking about. That’s the one you should write. Forget about selling points, agents and demographics. Forget about the New York Times best-seller list, and what you think you should write. You won’t gain anything by writing someone else’s story. You have to write yours.
When you’re finished, you can go back to worrying about how to sell your book. For now, you have to write it!
Do you avoid actually writing your novel by doing all of the other things a writer should do? How do you maintain focus? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Tony Hall and T-X-2.
Lissete dreams in English, though her first language is Spanish. She’s a lawyer by day and a writer by night. She likes it that way, for she’s convinced that lack of sleep and looming deadlines actually make her better. She’s been published in many a short story compilation and has also published her own book of short stories. These days she’s trying to finish a novel.
The point about ignoring future readeres is so vital. It makes much more sense to write something you’ll enjoy, rather than trying to fit something to some imaginary reader with imaginary preferences. Hopefully, original and fascinating stories lie down the path of writing for yourself first and foremost.
I find that sometimes when I’m writing a story that I already have my outline for and have been working on for months, I can end up trying to change it because something in my life changes and I try to incorporate that into the story. Although that’s great that I’m willing to develop my ideas and edit my work, it means that nothing ever gets finished because I keep trying to turn the work into something else, rather than just finish the story I originally had.
I think this happens to all of us. Making changes is not necessarily a bad thing, if you do it for the right reasons, aka, you realized your story didn’t work as you originally plotted it. But what this does it make it harder on yourself. I find that the more I put off writing, the harder it is when I sit down to do it. I get easily distracted.
Maybe the changes could come later. That will not only make your story better, it will also give you the sense of accomplishment that you actually finished something.
This is so true. It’s easy when the writing gets tough (and isn’t there ALWAYS at least one spot when it does?) to skip ahead to marketing and agenting and just about anything that means we can pretend we are doing writerly things while avoiding that first draft. Nice post!
I haven’t begun a novel yet. I’ve been writing short stories. For my little stories I can even envision using an outline. I rather wonder how well I’ll do with one when I write a novel. I can envision myself sitting with my outline, typing away at my story — as soon as I reach a spot in the outline that the story isn’t following, the outline will go in the trash. Do y’all find that an outline is helpful or do some of y’all feel that it just gets in the way?
I’m one of those writers who’ll tell you that they never plan, that they just go with it. In some ways it’s fun, sometimes stories are like a discovery for me. And in other ways, it’s a pain. But for short stories, it works. Sometimes it means a lot of editing, especially if the story is not that short, but mostly, it’s not a bad strategy. I’m very fond of it.
When I started writing my novel, however, I found that I needed an outline. I had a very rough one, about two lines of what was supposed to happen in each chapter, and, to be honest, I didn’t even do that for all the chapters. I just figured the rest would come to me as I wrote.
Boy, was that a mistake. I got to chapter 6 only to realize I was contradicting myself, because, with so many pages, it was hard to keep track. Also, some things were out of order, because I wrote them when I came up with them, but, really, they should have been part of an earlier chapter. I was forced to sit down, write the outline, and THEN, re-write the seven chapters I’d already written.
So, yeah …my point is. Outlines are good. At least in my experience.
I guess when I decide I want to get that “Great American Novel” out of me I’ll try the outline. i can see me doing like you and forgetting stuff, thus contradicting myself. Maybe as I go I can add notes to my outline about what I put in each chapter. Time will tell. For now, I’ll just do my short stories. Those I write in one burst of energy then go to the re-writes.
WOW!!! This really spoke volumes to me… and I am totally one of those people you talk about in your opening.
Excellent points across the board! Definitely practicing what you preach: writing what you know.
One of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is to begin with the end in mind. I think I’ve become so engrossed with the end that I forget about the work that comes in the beginning and the middle. Thanks for the inspiration! It’s time for me to regain my focus and get back to work!
Procrastination… the doom of all writers. I think it’s very easy to put things off, say you’ll get to them later, and then you never do! I find that I work better on a deadline, so I try to create deadlines for myself. It’s not as effective as having an actual deadline, but it gives a certain discipline to the act of writing. It also keeps me from looking too far ahead.
Great article, thank you! I find what helps me to maintain focus is by dividing my time into sections: I spend certain days of the week blogging and researching, and then other days on the specific task of writing. Creating a regular routine has helped to condition my mind and body to follow what I need to accomplish that day, and has helped to avoid procrastinating. Also, dividing my time helps with writer’s block too. If I’m not feeling particularly inspired, working on the blogging and research helps me get back into writing mode really quickly.
I do something like this. I have a goal for how much I do in different catagories. Each day I write 5 – 10 pages, read at least 1 chapter in any book (whatever I’m reading at the time – and I generally read several chapters) and learn 1 new word a day (By doing this I can enrich my vocabulary by 365 words wvery year.). I also have weekly and monthly goals; sent 1 non-fiction submission per week, send 1 short story to a publisher each week and enter at least 3 contests monthly. I hate to not reach my goals, so this pretty well works for me. Now if I can just reach my weight loss goal.
Me too! I have a daily blog posting schedule, and then I have monthly goals set for the amount of poetry and article submissions I send out. I successfully completed the Script Frenzy Challenge this year, so now I have to somehow incorporate screenplay revisions into my schedule, eeek! lol
Great comment! I agree that a routine helps. I start writing stories on Mondays. So, on Monday my brain is usually in a writing mood. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years, and I find that it’s easier to start something on Monday than it is any other day of the week. If there’s research to be done, I have to take care of that before Monday.
I used to be one of those “write when it comes to you” types, but I’ve found some discipline is just what I needed to go from someone who can write, to a writer.
I’m totally the same way Lissete! I think what makes Mondays so great (well, from a writing standpoint, not so much a work standpoint, LOL) is the fact that there is the promise of an entire week to reach certain writing goals. I find it to be very inspiring. Weekends are my absolute favourite time to write, as my business is more low-key and I don’t receive as many e-mails, so I can squeeze in more time to write. Sometimes I do the whole “binge writing” thing to catch up if the week turned out to be more hectic than anticipated.
The daily blog is something I haven’t been able to get into. I do have a blog site, but seldom go to it. At first I thought I would post some of my stories there, then I learned that many publishers would see that as “published” and it would keep me from being able to submit those stories for publication. I do post stories to a critique site. I understand that that is not considered publishing.
What sort of things to you post on your blog? If I can get into it, perhaps I coulduse it like a sort of diary.
I write about absolutely everything. I don’t do a daily blog, but I’ll update at least two or three times a week. It helps me stay in “writing mode”, which for me is very important. When a lot of time has gone by and I haven’t done any writing, everything seems harder.
Just last week I wrote a long dissertation on female characters and why Scarlett O’Hara was a feminist icon. My point is, it doesn’t really matter if you write about other characters, about what inspires you, about the day you had, if you never stop writing at some point it just becomes easier to do it.
Thanks. Maybe I’ll start blogging a couple times a week. I can at least give it a try.
Some really interesting comments here. Thanks
I find that unless I can see my writing around me, on walls and stuff, I get lost or bogged down……
So I’m going to invest in the biggest digital picture frame ( or something similar that hasn’t been invented yet) mount it on the wall, say in the kitchen, or bathroom then I will always be able to see my current thoughts and ideas. Also I can add and remove the ‘photos’ as needed.
I guess that the only danger in that idea is that I’ll become so preoccupied with the novelty aspect that I’ll never get around to serious writing!!!!
Oh, I want one of those. Can it display my thoughts … like before I forget them?