It would be a pity to call myself an experienced writer. It has only been a year of consistent, grueling writing. A year, nevertheless, where I have grown personally and my writing has progressed. Although, I might not notice it from day to day, it is evident if I compare day 1 to day 365. My aim is to move mountains with my writing one day, but for now, I will settle with hills. They’re smaller and much easier to climb. The mountains will come fast enough, I am sure.
I have, though, picked up on a few things that have helped me overcome my insecurities and guide me into the right mindset when it comes to writing my novel.
Get your priorities right
Commit to writing dazzling, life-changing stories. Dive deeper, think harder, do not settle for anything less. Reject the notion of publishing your book when it just barely makes it into the “publishable” territory. No, you want to commit to quality over quantity. Repeat it with me in your head: quality over quantity. Be faithful to the stories in your head, stay true to your writing and trust the process. It might take you a couple of years to get it just right, but that’s alright – patience will be your best friend here. If your main driver is getting published, you’re setting yourself up for failure. The idea of publishing is not going to get you to those two magical words “the end”. Instead, it should be the want to create a beautiful story, in all its complexity and adversity, that leaves a lasting impression on your reader. Your main driver should be hearing your readers whisper incredulously “Wow. That was a great book” once they finish it. It should be the ability to teleport your readers into a universe they don’t really want to leave, to tell a story of friendship and hardship, to show what it means to live and let go. As a writer, you have the chance to draw attention to the small things in life, the things that we don’t notice in our busy day-to-day lives – the things that might matter the most after all is said and done. There is something magical about that, of being able to create something so powerful that it gets into other people’s minds and skin. That should be your driver, and it will get you all the way, I promise. After all, if you were out to get quick validation you probably shouldn’t have picked novel writing to begin with.
Do not let insecurity pull up a chair next to you
When I write, it’s like an open plan office in my head. You have Insecurity sitting in one cubicle going on about how my writing is exceptionally poor. Next to him, Procrastination is shouting at me to do laundry and on top of that Doubt is getting comfortable in the third cubicle trying to derail me from my task at hand. Somewhere, crouched in a cubicle, I hear a small voice trying to tell me a story. You want to focus on that tiny voice and empower it, make it louder, nurture it, encourage it. I always take some time to locate that voice and make an effort to ignore all the others. Sometimes, Insecurity tries to pull up a chair next to me, and I tell him to leave me the heck alone. We’re so good at listening to the wrong voices in our head, we need to start recognizing the negative patterns our minds love to produce. Instead, invite Self-love and Positive Affirmations to pull up chairs and form a protective semi-circle around your computer – let them be your gatekeepers and only take advice from them.
Bird by Bird
It is okay to feel overwhelmed by the monumental task ahead of you. Writing a book is in fact slightly mad. It does takes a special kind of freak to leave the land of laziness, cross the plains of procrastination and climb insecurity mountain to yank out a book. If you never feel overwhelmed, I’d be a little worried – what’s your secret? I’m all ears.
My solution is to look at it word by word, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter. Eventually, you will end up with a first draft. It might not be pretty, but the foundation is there, and that is all you need. In the beginning, I picked up a bad habit of going over the paragraphs I had already written. In the end, I would spend all my holy writing time obsessing over the sentences I had written previously. Maybe I should change that? Maybe I can find a better synonym for this?
No, no you can’t – at least not right now.
Mostly, I try to avoid reading my previous work with a critical eye, it’s a downwards spiral you simply want to avoid. Try to write without constraint, do not limit yourself, let the words hit the paper, and remember you need to start somewhere.
If you are struggling with a scene, force your fingers to move, type freely and generously and just maybe, you might write a sentence that triggers that exact feeling you’re looking for. That feeling, that will propel and support your entire scene. Or you might realize what you haven’t written yet and then you know exactly what is missing. It’s like dating really, every time you kiss the wrong frog you get one step closer to what you do want. Like Anne Lamott described it, writing a book is best done “Bird by Bird”. It’s like those 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles, if you try to put it all together at once, you will probably lose your mind – but if you put it together piece by piece, it is an entirely different story.
The blind leading the blind
If there is something that has challenged me exceptionally about the process of writing a book, it is the constant feeling that I have no idea what I am doing. One second, I feel like I am on track, the next I am punching a pillow or wallowing in self-pity. When I talk to other writers or read about it, I realize, that this is pretty damn normal – however disturbing that may sound.
The blind leading the blind.
With no other options, I now try to get comfortable with that feeling of not knowing a 100% what I am doing. I try to revel in it, even thrive, bathe in all its entirety. Letting go of control has eased the pressure immensely. I like to think of the first draft as telling the story to myself – no one will read it, except maybe my mum. Keeping that in mind, I try not to panic. Trust that the story is there inside of you, just waiting to spill onto the pages. Have belief, that you are meant to do this and remember why you sat down in the first place – because you love putting words together.
A favourite quote of mine is from E.L Doctorow, which encaptures the above entirely:
“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.”
Need I say more?
I will say, however, that something that does help me structure my work is reading my favourite books with the lens of a writer and I would recommend you to try it out, as well.
What is it about the story that enchants you?
Is it the characters?
Their inner struggles?
Or how the plots intertwine seamlessly?
Finally, another tip is to study books dedicated to the topics of outlining, writing and structuring a book. There is plenty of help to get, hundreds of incredibly informative and useful books that take you step by step. All you need to do is huddle down with a cup of tea and get studying. I promise you will not regret it.
