Writing a Novel: Six Lessons in Six Months

I began writing my first full-length novel about a half a year ago and during that time I’ve realized a few key things. Things I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for the mistakes I made.

Lesson #1: Always date-save. Always.

And not just in one place, no. Save on your hard drive, your memory stick, your SD card, the little memory thingy that came with your netbook that you have no clue what it is or where else to use it—save everywhere. Also, email your document to yourself. This may seem like overkill but trust me, if you make the following mistake—lesson two (which you won’t since you’re reading this), you’ll be kissing every piece of hardware that has your work saved on it.

Lesson #2: Sit on all comments/feedback before making changes.

At least for a day. Everyone is going to have their two (or fifty) cents to put in and, I’m sorry, but not everyone can be right. Which leads to a lesson within a lesson—write for yourself. Don’t picture a target audience and don’t force anything. Write what your characters, or you, want to write. I changed the entire first five-thousand (yes!) words of my novel because of what others told me I should write. Big mistake. Huge. It’s taken months to get everything back to how it should be. To quote a writer friend, “If I please everyone, then I have no book.”

Lesson #3: Give your reader credit, and lots of it.

Do not over-explain. If you’ve already shown something, please don’t tell. Don’t write, “Shawna was so upset, all she could blubber out through her tears was….” Write, “All Shawna could blubber out through her tears was….” It’s tighter, yet says the exact same thing. Over the course of a novel or story, those extra words add up and slow down the pace . I see it too often. The writer doesn’t feel confident in his/her own writing and in turn, doubts that the reader will understand what’s being written. This develops into paragraphs of unnecessary explaining. It’s truly a vicious circle. End it by imagining your reader is Albert Einstein—he understands everything! (I know, I know, don’t picture a reader….) But you get my point.

Lesson #4: Research what ‘passive’ truly means.

I’ve come to understand lately that all of the passive words I deleted from my MS weren’t necessarily wrong. First of all, a gerund is a writer’s friend. It’s a great way to vary your sentence structure. “Running late, John quickly grabbed his keys and shot out the door.” This sentence is completely active, yet it has a dreaded -ing word in it. Oh, no—gasp! Don’t worry, it’s all right. Another thing about passivity is that sometimes you don’t want a completed action to have happened. If “Darla was walking down the stairs,” then that’s what she was doing. It’s a continued action, and other things may have occurred during this time frame. She needn’t have “walked down the stairs.” Not always. Research the imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses to understand ‘passivness’ better. By making everything ‘active,’ you might be changing the meaning of your sentence completely. So watch out for that.

Lesson #5: Use the ‘Comments’ feature when stuck.

I spent a good two to three months on a single chapter that I just finished last week. If I had known about (or paid attention to) the fact that Word comes with built in Post-It notes, I would have sped right through that sucker. All the white space that you just can’t seem to fill can be glossed over until you are ready to write that scene. If I had just used the highlighting and comments features, I could have laid out the bare bones of the scene and moved on to the next chapter. Heck, my book could be finished already. Who knows? Don’t waste the time I did. Please.

Lesson #6: Print out a hard copy of your WiP.

At least once a month, if you’re writing a novel—more frequently if you’re working on something shorter. I was blown away by all the tiny mistakes I found and corrections I made when I printed out my work for the first time. It’s not even comparable to editing on-screen. When you have the paper in your hands, it’s in the same form as it will be for your reader. So get into a reader’s mind and print out your stories. You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to revise. I know this seems like basic advice, but it makes a huge difference. And there’s really nothing better than taking a pen or pencil and re-writing something. Maybe I’m crazy, but I love it. It makes me feel so accomplished.

So those are the major lessons I’ve learned over the past six months of my writing career. Take it or leave it. No, take it. Mistakes are never fun. Learn from mine and don’t look back.

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