Point number two. Novels.

Where are you in your novel? Are you on the first couple of chapters and want to clean them up before you move on? Aant to make sure people like it before investing your time? Or are you done with the novel, halfway through, first draft, etc?

Many great authors have said and say all the time, most recently Stephen King in his book On Writing, “Write the first draft with the door closed, and the second draft with the door open.”

This is a very important point. Another way of saying it is Laurence Watt-Evens’, “first write it down from fore to aft, fix errors in the second draft.” (This was in a poem – it is great and posted on his website.)

Don’t worry about things in the first draft. write while you are inspired. Write for yourself. Don’t worry about hanging threads, too much description, not enough, etc. Don’t worry. just write. Then, when you have a draft, THEN go through and rewrite. Go through and fix errors, ASK for opinions of people you trust.

I am not saying this works for everyone, but it is a very good point. Hearing that someone doesn’t like your work hurts. It demotivates you, it tells you “Stop, why should I bother.” When you are finished with a draft, you have that much motivation to make sure it is publishable. You put so much work into it, you don’t mind putting in tons more.

I you want to show it to someone, what some authors do is get an “alpha reader,” a person who reads their work and is the only source of advice for the novel until the first draft is done. BUT if you go this route, it is good to have a good portion of your work done. Ask someone whose opinion you totally trust in and who will give you encouragement all the way through, and not negativity. An “alpha reader” gives opinions on how the story flows, what is missing, what isn’t and needs to be said, will pick up and find pieces of the story that need to be glued together somehow, etc. Not grammar. Not nits. Story. If you want someone to do this as you write – find someone you trust, and make sure that you do trust them implicitly.

Why should you not worry about corrections? Easy. Most of the stuff you are having problems with will work themselves out later. As you progress in the story, you will find yourself writing in the stuff that you info dumped earlier. Then when you do a second draft, you can see your mistake, and can take it out. Right now, assuming you haven’t gone too far yet, you want to get everything in – right from the start. You want to give out everything, and so get on with the story.

And, as secondary advice, write short stuff in addition to your novel because as these are finished, and rewritten, and sent out, it makes you feel good.

But for your novel, get on with it. Write for yourself. Not for me, not for the people on Del Rey…write for yourself. And then, when you are happy, put your raincoat on to protect you from the tears that are going to ensue when you realize how much rewriting your second draft will need, and do that too.

BUT celebrate because you’ve done it. You finished. You did something most people never do.

You wrote a novel.

next »»»