5 Things I Learned While Writing A Novel

And What Every Writer Should Expect

One day, in an attempt to block out the world, I retreated to my balcony with my laptop. At the time, I had just finished a string of short stories and, feeling a tad burned out from the world and creativity, decided to give myself a break. A break of “no writing.”

As any writer knows, trying not to write is like trying not to pee after a gallon of Gatorade. It’s all fun and games until it isn’t.

I didn’t set out to write a novel. In fact, I remember thinking “gosh, I just want to get away for a while. Or maybe watch a movie or a T.V. show; possibly read a good book. But geez, nothing’s been holding my attention lately”.

Thus, I started typing. It was just for fun at first. I wanted to see if I could dig up the bones of this one particular story I had created fourteen years prior. I was just a wee squire back then, but gosh, I had a fantastical imagination; it used to run so free. So, I started digging in the backyard of my mind and found that I still remembered my character’s names and lives and storyline. I need only dust off the cobwebs, but hey, I have a story!

Still, I hadn’t intended to write a novel. After that first day on the balcony, I came away with close to two-thousand words. Wowzer! Usually, I can hardly manage five hundred.

The same thing happened the next day. And the next. And the next. And the next.

Still, I’m not writing a novel. I’m just playing around.

When I came to the end of Part I — about a week later — I looked at my blinking cursor and said, “Holy shit, I’m writing a novel.”

That’s when Fun left the party and Fear crept in through the back door.

Below is a list of five things I learned while writing my novel, and what every writer should expect, regardless of your place in the race or your experience in the game.

#1 — Forget the Rules, Just Write the First Draft

When I say “forget the rules”, I literally mean forget the rules. That means don’t worry about grammar, don’t worry about style, don’t worry about structure, don’t worry about vocabulary, don’t worry about theme, don’t worry about whether or not what you’re writing is any good. Don’t even worry about the damn spelling.

Just write.

Why do I say this?

Because you’re going to have to go through and re-write the ENTIRE thing anyway. This right here, what you’re doing, is just the skeleton. Skeletons are necessary. Without them, you collapse. You have no foundation.

By re-write, I don’t mean you’ll have to throw away everything (but if you want to, by all means, hit that delete button), what I mean is when you re-read your first draft, you’re going to see areas that need improvement. As you should. First drafts always suck. So, fix away.

Maybe it’s a better sentence. Maybe it’s a better paragraph. Maybe it’s a better chapter. Maybe it’s a better Part 2. Right now, that doesn’t matter. This — is — just — the — skeleton.

Don’t get hung up on the fact that yes, you’ll have to write this entire thing over again. (Or hey, maybe the opposite will happen: maybe you’ll come across an amazing chapter, paragraph, or sentence that you love and you won’t want to change a word. Awesome! Just don’t worry about that right now). Right now, you’re just here to get what’s in your head onto the page. That’s it.

Skeleton.

For me, I noticed I was coming to the keyboard with trepidation instead of excitement when I got the end of Part 1 of my novel. The reality of what I was doing was sinking in. Holy crap, I said to myself, I’m writing a book. Is it any good? I’ve just been writing for fun. Is this even worth publishing?

Don’t worry about that.

Go worry about what to make for dinner. Not this.

Just write.

#2 — Have A Daily Goal

I didn’t start with a daily goal. At first, I just wrote for the heck of it. I didn’t stick to any kind of routine. Typically, I go to bed early and wake up early and aim to be finished around lunch. That gives me the rest of the day to relax, unwind, and maybe read a book.

I didn’t do that here.

Instead, I found myself sleeping in, working on and off, and in some cases even writing until 9 p.m. It wasn’t until I began Part 2 that I went back to my usual routine. Why? Because I got scared.

I got scared that I wouldn’t be able to finish it. I got scared I wasn’t writing anything good. I got scared that as the novel became more complicated, I would quit.

So, I implemented a Daily Word Goal.

Truthfully, I enjoyed not having a daily goal. I enjoyed writing two thousand (in some cases three thousand) words a day. I enjoyed writing when my heart felt like it. I enjoyed writing whatever came to mind.

But here’s the thing you have to remember: Everything in life, including the creation of a novel, changes. After three weeks, I couldn’t pretend like I didn’t know what I was doing. Writing a novel is hard work. To think otherwise is to approach the craft lightly, and as Stephen King says in his book On Writing, “come to [writing] any way but lightly.” Whatever you do, he reiterates, “you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

It came to this: if I was going to finish this thing (and hey, I was twenty-thousand words deep by this point, I better finish it), I had to implement rules.

Rule number one: have a daily word goal. For me, that became 1,500 words a day. Could I do more than that? You bet. That one day I did three thousand words was an abnormality, but I ran with it. 1,500 words was a nice compromise. It gave me wiggle room to do more if I wanted, but also moving at a decent pace. At this rate, I would be finished in just two months.

1,500 words a day can seem daunting. The me before I began this novel would’ve looked at that benchmark and said, “yeah right, sure. Maybe for some other writing, but not for me. I’ll stick to five hundred words, thank you very much.” But you must remember Rule #1: This is just the first draft. Let it be shit. Let it be wild. Most of all, let your imagination (and fingers) run free.

#3 — Write Everyday

I know, I know — it’s incredibly confusing to hear one writer say one thing and another say something else. But hear me out.

Before writing this novel, I stuck to my good ol’ Monday through Friday. Monday through Friday was nice. Monday through Friday worked well for me. Monday through Friday gave me time to relax on the weekends. But Monday through Friday also made Monday a big ol’ bitch.

Getting your brain back into the creative mode after a nice weekend of hoorah-ing, relaxing, or binge whatever-ing, makes Monday’s a pain in the ass. For me, it was often 2 p.m. by the time I actually got around to writing a decent word, and that was only after I perused my Instagram feed, swiped through stories, and commented on an unnecessary amount of posts (which, as I’m sure you know, leads to responses in need of responding).

So, save yourself the hassle of getting back into work-mode. Write on the weekends. To make it easy on you, lessen your daily word goal. Instead of 1,500 words, drop it down to 1,000. Hey, even 800 will do.

If 500 tickles your fancy, I won’t make you say uncle.

Just keep writing.

Not only will you finish faster (so the characters and the story stay fresher), but you won’t lose a day of trying to catch your brain back up.

Now, for all the nay-sayers who believe writing every day is too rough (which I don’t disagree with, by the way), the next tip is with you in mind.

#4 — Burnout Is A Thing

Anybody who writes every day, whether it’s 1,500 words or 500, is going to experience burnout. It happened to me right as I was gearing up to finish Part 2 of my novel. By this point, I’d been working every day for a month and a half straight, including weekends. I didn’t know burn out was a thing, so I thought I was going crazy. I thought I was losing my mojo. I thought I was losing my novel.

Basically, I thought I was a worthless pile of poop.

Then my boyfriend got tired of hearing me complain and told me to take a break; probably to shut me up, but also because I was obviously burned out from working every day. My boyfriend is a wonderful cheerleader, he’s given me countless pieces of advice, and although I was hesitant to accept this burnout thing, it was just another case of him being right and me being wrong.

Thanks, babe.

I took to the internet (because that’s what any sensible person does when they’re looking for validation) and saw that burnout among novelists is a thing. Some people had bigger daily goals and only worked Monday through Friday; some wrote less like me and worked every day. But all of them mentioned burnout.

What does that mean for you and your novel?

Take a break. Close the laptop, forget your novel, and walk away for a week. As I mentioned earlier, it might feel like holding in a river of Gatorade between your legs but do it anyway. The reason why?

Because writing a novel is like turning on your creative faucet and letting it run 24/7 for days on end. After a while, the well is going to dry up, no matter how deep it is. What do you do in that case?

Step away and fill yourself back up. I can’t tell you how to fill up, that’s for you to decide (you know yourself best) but fill up you must. Most importantly, put your story away for seven days and come back to it at the end of the week. See what happens.

You can thank me later.

(As a footnote, my boyfriend would disagree with the 1-week timeline. He says don’t hold yourself to seven days if eight or nine is what you need. My counterargument is that eight or nine can easily turn into ten or eleven, or worse, twenty-three or seventy-two. So, I’ll leave it up to you. Moral of the story: take a break)

#5 — Make Your Bed & Get Dressed

A wise woman once told me the secret to successfully working from home is not dressing as though you’re working from home. In fact, she added that if you’re working from your bedroom you better make your bed while you’re at it. Her name is Elizabeth Gilbert and she is the New York Times Bestselling author of the worldwide phenomenon that is Eat, Pray, Love. She is also the keeper of my spiritual heart.

She makes a valid point.

Working from home is like dangling a margarita in front of an alcoholic. Your messy bed with the cool, comforting sheets calls your name from across the room. Just come back to bed, it says. Take a nap, it’ll do your creative mind good. The sweatpants you’re wearing sing a similar tune. Just curl up on the couch and finish that episode of 90 Day Fiancé. In fact, there’s a bag of chips in the cupboard. Hey, Cupboard, shouldn’t this guy clean out your shelves instead of working? From the other end of the house, you hear, Absolutely! Get on over here, big guy!

You see my point.

Make your bed. Get dressed. Put on a nice shirt and yes, pull on the jeans too. If you wear make-up, slather on some foundation or curl those eyelashes. Not in the mood for lipstick? Then go for lip-gloss. See that cologne on the counter? Spray away.

Get in the mood. Make yourself believe you’re up to something important because writing is important and hammering out a novel is not child’s play. As Stephen King would say, “come to [writing] any way but lightly.” He repeats, “you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

I repeat: make your bed and get dressed.

Now, go write that next bestseller.