Is writing a novel somewhere on your bucket list?
Or is there a character or story that keeps floating around in the periphery of your mind?
If so, you’re not delusional or still feeling the effects of the pot you smoked years ago, you’ve got company, lots of us, in fact.
The good news for novice writers in this still relatively new millennium is that anyone can write a book. But the bad news is that anyone can write a book. This comment is not meant to be facetious but as a simple statement of truth. There are close to fifteen million books on inventory at Amazon and a new book published every five minutes. That is worth repeating, every five minutes, someone publishes a new book for sale at Amazon. Ergo this preliminary list of five suggestions to keep in mind before you get started chasing your dream.
- Take more than a few minutes to ponder exactly why you want to do this. Think past the usual reasons like these: “I was told in high school or college that I was an excellent writer,” or “I was the editor of my yearbook and everyone said I should become a writer.” Consider what your real goal is. Money? Fame? Recognition? Become another Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl, the book and the move, Paula Hawkins, author of Girl on the Train, the book and soon to be movie) or Andy Weir (self-published author of The Martian, the book and the movie?) Be brutally honest here. And if these are the reasons, think again about why you want to enter into what one publisher has called The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing.
- Lest you think that the former is meant to deter you from your dream, quite the contrary. My reasons for suggesting that you journey deep inside before you begin are from personal experience and are said to mitigate disappointment once you are finished. When the book is done and the awards do or do not trickle in, our feelings are generally a mixture of relief, pride in the accomplishment mixed with a bit of sorrow: “What do I do now?” “What’s the next act?” Simply said, the best part of any huge undertaking is the journey: the process, the challenge, learning, the highs and yes, the lows. It’s never the kudos, awards or the recognition, no matter how trivial or huge. Perhaps more should be said on this issue in a later post but this will need to suffice for now.
- Make sure you like your story and your characters. You’ll be living with them in your head and on your computer for a long time. Although it is possible to get a book written and published in thirty days or less, I would not recommend following the directions of someone who promises this. The chaos in the formerly bounded book publishing business has attracted all kinds of people, some of whom you would not want to have dinner with. If the claim sounds impossible, it most likely is.
- Should you set a deadline for completing your book? I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. There are times that I have found a deadline to be critical in completing a writing project, there are other times when my self- imposed deadline nearly drove me nuts. Like the years spent writing the first edition of the first novel mostly doing battle with myself.
- Should you write an outline? During my many years of writing non- fiction, the idea of approaching an article, book chapter or textbook without an outline was inconceivable to me. But fiction is different, at least for me. I wasted many months during the years of writing the first edition of my first novel grappling with an outline for the story. Then finally gave it up and started writing the story. A writer friend has taught me there are two types of us, those who write from the seat of the pants, like me and those who must have a tightly woven structure like her.
In the next post, we’ll continue with the next five suggestions for the novice writer. I hope these tips are useful to aspiring writers out there!
