I wrote a book

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.