Writing a Novel: Expectations vs Reality
Now that I’ve been writing full time for two years now, I sometimes wish I had the innocence of believing that all it took to write my book was to sit down and write it.
Writing is an easy task, isn’t it? You just take the things that are in your brain and you put them on the page and bam they become a book… right?
No, no, no, and no.
While being an author isn’t as difficult a job as let's say construction, there’s much more to it than just sitting down and typing some words into a document.
Now that I’ve been writing full time for two years now, I sometimes wish I had the innocence of believing that all it took to write my book was to sit down and write it.
Sometimes writing it is the hardest part.
Expectation: It’ll Only Take a Few Weeks to Write Your Novel
Reality: Writing a Novel Can Take Months if Not Years
Writing takes time, and unless you’ve got hours every day to spare writing, your novel is going to take quite a bit of it.
With commitments such as work, school, eating, chores, bathing, and maybe a small bit of social life, there are still only so many hours in a day.
Sometimes writing just doesn’t fit into them.
If you’re writing a smaller work such as a novella, then you only have to write between 10,000 and 40,000 words. This is more manageable if your goal is to only spend a few weeks on your story. Whereas a novel has between 60,000 and 110,000 words, depending on which genre you plan to write in.
Write at a pace that works for you and your schedule and you’ll have the book done before you know it.
Expectation: You’ll be Motivated to Write Every Day
Reality: Habit is better than motivation
Writing every day is a huge commitment that’s not always possible by motivation alone and sometimes other things just come up.
Even if you have the motivation to write there are other things you will be doing that will take the time away. Birthday parties, vacations, sick days, and chore days.
Sometimes the motivation just isn’t there.
Motivation alone won’t be enough to get you to your computer or notebook every day to write, especially when your story and characters aren’t cooperating with you.
Making a habit of writing will help you get into the rhythm of writing at a certain time or place. If every day at 5 pm you sit down to write then every day at 5 pm you sit down and write. If you have something else to do that day, then move the writing to an earlier time so you’re not too tired after whatever it is you had to do to make the excuse not to write.
Sometimes I have to bribe myself with a treat or some self-care such as taking a minute off of my workout time for every thousand words I write that day.
Expectation: You’re Going to Be Proud Of Everything You Write
Reality: Some days you’re going to want to delete the whole book
This is true and unfortunately, it is a thing that a few friends of mine did when at the end of our NaNoWriMo club they didn’t like the story they had written so they just deleted the whole thing.
All, but one regretted it and several even made the attempt to retrieve their work from whatever wastebin they had thrown it in.
There will be days when you look back to the past few paragraphs or chapters you’ve written and think to yourself ‘why did I write this garbage.’
It’s 100% ok to think this, but don’t make the mistake of deleting the work permanently from your world. Make a separate file in whichever writing program you are using, label it Outtakes, and move these bits and pieces into here.
You never know, when you reread it you may just find that those were the missing pieces you needed to connect your story together.
Expectation: Your Friends and Family Will Support You and Buy your Book
Reality: Most people, don’t care or would rather ask for freebies.
Those you know are going to be first in line to ask you for a free signed copy of your new work. I can almost guarantee it.
Yes, I’m sure your friends and family will support you no matter what. But on your fifteenth time of blowing off Saturday dinner with either group and they’re going to start to get upset.
When you first start your novel all of your friends and family will be there cheering you on, but as time goes by it falls from everyone's memory and become the topic of discussion around Christmas, “Hey, did you ever finish that novel?” or the better, “Oh, you’re still writing that thing?”
Our friends and families love and support us, but like celebrating a new job, the novelty wears off and it becomes just another regular thing.
When I finished my first book my partner bought me flowers and a fancy dinner.
When I finished my sixth book my partner bought me my favorite candy bar when he stopped to get gas.
He still supports me and actively asks how the work is coming along, but it’s not as big a deal anymore.
Expectation: You’re going to be able to edit your own book.
Reality: No, Absolutely not. You also shouldn't want to.
If you remember writing any papers for high school or for college you may have noticed that even though you reread that paper at least one hundred times before submitting it to the teacher., that dreaded red pen still found its way to the few mistakes that you still had on the page.
After finally completing your book the best thing you can do is put it away to sleep for a while before coming back and doing the first round of edits it’s going to need.
After rewriting it, go ahead and repeat the step of sleeping on it for a while before giving it another read-through and possibly another round of editing.
Then give it to someone else to read. This can be a friend or family (though they are not your best choice they are just a free choice) a beta reader, or a hired editor.
They are going to see things you didn’t or find holes in the story you didn’t know were there because you know the story front in back in your head, even if some important parts didn’t make it onto the page.
Even though being a writer isn’t the big glamorous thing Hollywood may make it out to be, it’s still a passion worth pursuing if you have the drive.
If you don’t believe you have the time to write read my previous article:
Writing a Book in Only Ten Minutes a Day
Even if you only have ten minutes to spare you are able to write a full-length novel.
Writing my novels has been the best decision I have ever made and even on the days I want to throw my computer from my office third story window, I’ll just take a break and force snuggles from my cat, before trying to calmly return to whatever problem it is I am having.
If writing is your passion, go ahead and write.
Then keep writing until you reach THE END.
With love,
B.K.
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