I wrote a book
My thoughts on the matter...
Around a month ago I finished writing a book. It's a project I started in July 2021, and it took me nearly 2 years to get a rough manuscript completed. From the time I started the book to the time I finished a complete rough draft, I earned a master's degree and moved almost 800 miles away from the place I called home my entire life. I often discredit my accomplishment because "I should have done it faster." But I often neglect all of the things I was doing in between, such as raising a toddler and working odd jobs to get by.
Now that I'm done, there's a new task ahead. One more daunting and nightmarish than writing the whole story in full ever was... Revision. Turns out this isn't the end of the road, but merely the beginning. I know there are a lot of things wrong that need fixing, but it's hard to know where to get started. Here are some things I learned while writing a book, and a few things I'm doing to keep this moving forward. If you're currently writing a book, these musings might be helpful to hear.
1. Writing a book isn't a race.
Every writer is different. Some people can crank out a story and have a full manuscript in a month. That's awesome and fine and good even. I'm happy for those people, but I am not one of those people. And that is awesome and fine and good, too. Don't let outside pressure and perceptions make you feel less than others. Just keep writing, and one day, your book will be done. For a long time, I thought this project would go unfinished indefinitely. But I pushed through, and I've never been prouder.
2. You don't have to plan everything.
I had a rough idea of what my story was going to be. I had a few characters. Some tropes. A conflict. I even had two endings that I was deciding between. Other than that, there was very little planning that went into this story. I let the characters become themselves, and I reacted based on what I thought they would do at certain moments on the page. The plot progressed organically through the relationships I built with my characters and the relationships they, in turn, built with each other.
3. It's okay if it's bad.
A first draft doesn't have to be perfect. Don't beat yourself up if it's not living up to its prose potential. I sometimes let myself get discouraged at how simplistic the language in my draft is currently, but the story is there. It's all there. I have a detailed outline, and I can go back and make the wording different to make things sound satisfactory to my personal style. The most important part is getting the words on paper. Save the perfectionism for the revision stage. Even then, your last draft won't be perfect either. Leave some room for the editors to work their magic down the road.
4. Let that damn manuscript sit.
I'm serious. Don't touch it for at least four weeks. Like a steak fresh off the grill, it's gotta marinate a little longer. Allow yourself to forget the story and the annoyances that came along with writing it all out. Then, when you feel ready, dive back in. Read your book in full. It's okay to make notes along the way, but don't try to attempt any major edits while you're reading. Try to read it like any other book on your shelf. Take it all in, and then take a look at the big picture objectively before diving back in for major edits.
That's all I have so far... Why? Well, I am at the stage where it's time to read my story in full. In fact, that's my plan for this evening. I will likely come back with a self-review of my own work and how I feel after reading the story from an audience's perspective for the first time. Tonight, I'm not a writer, I'm a reader, and I'm ready to tear my work to shreds. If you'd like to follow along with this process, subscribe here. I post a handful of times every month, and I will be following up with more thoughts on book writing as a novice fiction novelist.
About the Creator
Ashley Lima
I think about writing more than I write, but call myself a writer as opposed to a thinker.
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Changes
2023 was my most active year on this site, partly due to getting laid off in February. I am lucky that Vocal was here for me to use as an outlet during my lowest points of the year. However, I have found that since starting my new job, I have been completely enveloped by my career, and my creativity has gotten away from me.
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Comments (26)
Congratulations 🍾
I started my manuscript 2 years 8 months ago, and I'm only halfway through it. And I've had like a dozen more ideas for books since beginning this one. *sigh*
I especially love number 2. That's how my characters progress! And the story! I sometimes get my best ideas while daydreaming or in the shower and even playing dungeons and dragons (true nerd here) and i'm like DAMN! YES! Then I write like a madwoman and before I know I have a few chapters cranked out. And...then I have to figureo ut how to make it relative. LOL. If you don't mind, I have a piece of advice too. Don't reread, until you're done and ready to edit. For months I couldn't get past chapter 10 because I'd have to go back and re-read and then I would get stuck in a constant loop of tweaking, adding, deleting, rewriting, and yeah. It was bad. My advice to you is this: Mow that youre done, Re-read it from the beginning. Chapter, by chapter. And NOW you can add more or tweak the story. Don't worry on grammar or spelling or sentence structure. Just get those ideas down, get those story changes done. When you're done, get someone who is good at editing and proofreading (I have my husband. he's actually doing the editing for me) and have them read it. They can help you with any run on sentences, weird wordings, inconsistencies. Mine also helps with the actual editing because as I've told him: I'm a writer. I'm a story teller. I make stories. You, make them coherent and perfect. Lol. Anyway, after that, re-read it again if you are editing yourself, or running it through a program. And then my next suggestion: SELF PUBLISH. If you go through an editor, you just pay a crap ton of money for someone to throw a few press releases and put their little logo on your book. You STILL have to be the one to advertise and work like CRAZY to promote it. Sure, they can host it through a bunch of sites and keep track of sales... but so can you. And if you self-publish you get more money for your work, AND you can be in control of your rights and what you can do with your work.
It took me 6 years to write my first book. And now I'm rewriting it because the publisher I went with did me really dirty on the editing. I let my contract with them run out, and now I'm going to republish it after I finish my edits.
This is great advice, and it can be applied to short fiction as well. A novel is just like short fiction, but takes longer to complete. If people get that it’s not a race that eliminates so much anxiety around both starting and finishing. Congrats to you on your progress. I was a single mom after being a military wife, which is basically the same as being a single mom much of the time. I was moving around a lot. It made writing so hard. I felt a little selfish that I was relieved when my son decided near age 10 to live with his dad full time, but I’d been delaying my writing for a decade at that point. Part of parenthood is leading by example. I want my child to see my dreams materialize with my inspired action, so he knows anything is possible! You should be incredibly proud of yourself for what you accomplished raising a toddler and going to school. I’m a nanny to a toddler now. Just 35 hours a week can be the most emotionally rewarding and physically exhausting thing, LOL. I have to find a balance between that and my goals. I am a pantser. “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Whatever spiritual beliefs people have, creators are in fact gods. The creative parts of our brains often laugh at the plans our logical minds have concocted. And yes! Let it be bad! The desire to write something “good” is purely logical, and a great hindrance to creativity.
I'm glad I found this story. You've done a great thing finishing your story, especially with all that your life was throwing at you. It mirrors my writing journey in some ways. In 2019, I began a novel, having never written anything before (though I always wanted to). After six months, I had a word document that was more than 400 A4 pages long. What started as a simple teenage love story ended up with dozens of characters and back stories for every one of them. Happily I have unintentionally followed all of your points. Thank god for Covid because for two years I cut out so much. That got easier as I started writing on Vocal and the challenges helped me hone my skills a bit. My struggle now is, I have employed an editor and I am stubbornly struggling with his suggestions. It's harder than writing the story. I know he means well. Thanks for posting this story and good luck in the future.
This is incredibly written 📝 and Congratulations on your Achievements and Top Story🎉💯😉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you for recommending this piece to me. It was very helpful and gave me a little bit of extra motivation to keep trying.
You have moved a mountain. Such a great achievement. I have started many times, two pages later, I am still waiting to continue. I take solace in your story. Back to the drawing board i go.
https://vocal.media/motivation/the-journey-of-perfection
Nice
Ashley this article is profoundly inspiring and helpful. Thank You for writing it, for sharing your perspective and experience with us. I, for one, really needed to hear this today. 💙
Thanks for this . . . I’m also still editing and posting my story “First Impression” I love your motivation
Nice https://vocal.media/motivation/my-life-is-a-lie-unti
Congrats on finishing your book. Good vibes as you continue on this journey
Congratulations .keep on sharing the journey am learning a lot from it.
Congrats on your achievement
It took me over 2 years to write and publish my first book as well. I moved country and changed jobs in that time. Like you said, the time it takes isn't important. My advice would be to get someone to read it and share their feedback. It helps so much more with the editing process. Also, I use Grammarly premium to help with the copy edit before sending to an editor.
“You don’t have to plan everything” I love when people think the way I do about these things :) Planning is overrated since the journey is part of the fun! Welcome to the finished draft club and I wish you the best!
Well done for completing it. That is such an achievement 😁
Congratulations on writing the first manuscript of your book! Based on all you shared about how busy you are, I think you are doing amazing. Just raising a toddler is a daunting job, but so worth it. I hearted your story and subscribed. Looking forward to following up on your book. Best wishes for success!
Good luck with your editing process! This is great motivation for me to return to some of my hibernating book projects.
Congratulations on getting your first draft finished. I usually do 6 to 8 rounds of editing of my manuscripts before I publish and that includes a review by an editor and a proofer.
Just what a needed to hear! I’m still in the very early stages or writing a book and it feels so daunting, thanks for the inspiration ☺️
Excellent, useful advice. I love this quote from E. L. Doctorow: 'Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' Congratulations on finishing your book.