This year I wrote a novel (Patreon)

In my last post thanking you guys for all you’ve enabled me to do through Patreon, I mentioned there were a few positive things from this past year that I wanted to talk about in more detail. 

One of those things is my novel writing.

I’ve always dabbled in novel writing since I was a weeny kid, but most of my projects and ideas never quite reached completion. It’d go something like this: new idea! Shiny! Pretty! Furiously scribble down scene ideas, develop characters, draw pictures of the characters, make them kiss! Now write the thing. Actually just write the fricken thing. This is hard. This actually sucks. Did I think any of this through? Do I know my characters at all? Why the heck did they do that? Halfway there. This might be the crappiest thing I’ve ever written. What are all these plot holes? Is my ending really lame? Have I just been staring at this too long? Maybe I should take a break……. Maybe I should try to fini- OOO! New idea! Shiny! Pretty! 

… You get the picture. I’d get a cool new idea, write halfway through a draft, then start to feel demoralized and abandon it to the folder of obsolescence when a new idea came along. 

This year, I broke that habit. If you’re not really interested in novel writing, probably this (rather long) post won’t interest you too much. For those that are, I thought I’d talk a little about my story, my process, and why I think this time things were different for me.

I’ve had a story about werewolves percolating in my head for years, but I’d never properly sat down to write it. I had written literally 90,000 words of backstory for ONE character, but I hadn’t written the actual story. I was kind of intimidated to. I’d been building these characters, this world, for years and I was afraid of messing it up. The story carried a lot of personal significance to me and I wasn’t sure I could do it justice.

At the beginning of 2018, I took an online class with one of my favourite authors. The assignments prompted me to take the plunge and write some of the scenes I’d had playing in my head. By the end of the class, I had a pretty detailed outline, and about 10,000 words of prose to work with. I had a lot of really positive feedback from my peers to keep me motivated. The validation from an author I admired also felt like a kick in the pants to keep going and finish this thing.

I used a combination of things to get my butt in the chair and write: scheduled writing sessions, Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month, which challenges writers to write 50K in 30 days), and just general stubbornness. None of these things were new to my process though: I had done all these things before, and still stumbled over the hurdle of actually finishing.

What I did do differently contradicted some conventional wisdom I'd believed my whole life. Halfway through this draft, true to form, I was looking at my work and only seeing the (many many) flaws. Conventional wisdom dictates: don’t edit your manuscript until it’s totally finished. I understand the reason people say that. Editing can be the most discouraging part of the process. You’ve got to stare down all your glaring mistakes and hack them apart with a machete. For me, I didn’t know how to continue without fixing the start. I felt like I’d be writing my ending onto a flaky foundation. So I decided to fly in the face of conventional wisdom and edit the half I’d written first.

During that round of edits, two characters were cut entirely, or their roles merged into other existing characters. Scenes that didn’t fit got scrapped. Characters whose primary motivations hadn’t been sussed out were analyzed under a microscope. I ended up cutting around 11,000 words and marking two chapters for total rewrites. It was brutal, but afterwards I felt 1000% better about my book. I now had a much better foundation on which to write to the end. 

Which I did. I finished the draft at the end of November. 

I learned a lot over the course of this year in terms of writing so I’m gonna ramble a bit about that. Some of it may seem obvious, but knowing these things theoretically was different for me than knowing them from practice and experience.

The primary thing I learned is that conventional wisdom doesn’t always work for everyone. Every writer has a different process and it’s okay to experiment until you find yours. Mine requires an outline — something I used to scorn because I thought it would take the joy of discovery out of the writing process. It didn’t at all, it just gave me a road map and a destination, so I didn’t get lost in the mucky middle of my manuscript. My process also requires intermittent editing, so I can get a broader picture of my story and fix the foundation on which to build my ending. 

The second thing I learned is that finishing a thing teaches so much more than half-finishing a thing. I think probably every artist/creator has a massive pile of unfinished things. It’s just part of being creative — you don’t start with the skills necessary to see it through to ‘The End.’ 

The third thing, and it’s semi-related, is that when you’re really in the weeds of a big project, it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees. You’re thinking that, because THIS scene has been a horrible, plodding, teeth-pulling mess, that the writing will feel stilted and awkward too. That all of your previous writing will seem just as tortured. The reality is that, upon rereading, I often found it impossible to tell which scenes had come easily to me and which had been like childbirth. The quality didn’t really vary. Even when the work is hard, it still matters that you did it. That you have shit written down that only existed in your head a few minutes ago. I think it was important to keep that perspective. 

I’m still not completely finished. There’s editing to do, critique partners to send it to. I’m still not entirely sure how I even want to publish it, but I’m leaning towards making it an online-serial? Who knows? I start editing again in a couple weeks, and I’m sure I’ll learn more about my process as I go, but I thought I’d share these experiences because I love hearing other creatives talk about theirs. And who knows, maybe some of you like writing too? Maybe it’ll be motivating to hear about my disjointed, staggering path to the finish line? 

Anyway, keep on being awesome <3 And if you like hearing my little rants about projects, life, creativity, whatever-the-heck, let me know! I'll try and make more of them :)