5 Things I’ve I’ve Learned While Writing My First Manuscript
Hello and welcome to my first blog post! I’m Laura – an aspiring writer, as you may have guessed by the title of this post – and I, like many others, have made a lot of horrible mistakes and revelations with my first manuscript. While I’m only halfway through my first draft, being the masochistic, self-embarrassing person that I am, I thought I’d share what those lessons were.
1. The first line is hard.
It’s even harder when you put all this pressure on it that you really don’t need. It’s just a collection of words, just like the rest of the novel.
2. Don’t go back and edit.
There were so many times when I finished a chapter or a scene and then realized: Shit. That’s not how I mapped that character. Or, oh my god, I just missed out a HUGELY important part of that character’s backstory.
What I’ve learned is that it’s the hardest but the best thing you can do for your novel to just. Keep. Pushing. Through.
You’ve got to grit your teeth and remember that this is what second drafts are for, because if you go back and rewrite something every time you notice a mistake, you’ll never finish the stupid thing.
3. Outlines can be really fun. Or they can be torture.
This lesson is kind of unavoidable as a newbie writer. If you’ve never outlined your book before, you won’t know what sort of outline you like. So you could get 20,000 words into the story (like me), realize you screwed up your outline because you did it on Word instead of post-it notes, and lose your damn mind.
“Why is everything so disorganized!?” You scream, before slamming your head against the keyboard for the millionth time.
Take a deep breath. Stop writing. Redo your freaking outline.
4. Finish ALL character construction before you start writing.
I didn’t take this step seriously because I didn’t take my writing seriously in the beginning; it was just something I was dabbling in which I hadn’t done in years.
But if you’re considering writing a novel, you have to finish all your character construction 100% before you can start the novel.
A lot of my characters have half-finished outlines. So sadly, I’m gonna have to take a break from all the fun writing I’ve been doing to map them out halfway through the story.
5. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
I’m actually pretty good at remembering this lesson, but I think every writer finds it invaluable.
You don’t need to be the next F. Scott Fitzgerald in the writing world to have an incredible work in your hands – or, well, your head.
Remember that it’s okay to make the above mistakes, and many more (seriously, I could list hundreds). Just push the negative thoughts away for a moment, and keep tapping at that keyboard. Good things are bound to come out of it if you work hard enough.
So that’s all I’ve got to say on the subject. I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to talk about once my novel is finished and once I move onto the editing phase for my novel. Thanks for reading this far and I’d love to hear some feedback!
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