Writing: Setting My Own Path

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” – W. Somerset Maugham

As previously mentioned, I’ve completed my 1st draft of my very first novel. I have assigned some friends – avid readers – to read my book for content. This time will allow me to take a brain break from the project and reapproach it with a fresh mind.

While I wait for their feedback, however, I am thinking about what I want to add and change. In addition, I’ve been researching best practices for writing a first novel. There seems to be no ‘best’ guideline… well, as expected, I see that not everyone works the same.

For example, I didn’t write my story consecutively until I reached half way through the story. The first half was written in bunches, then pasted together in different order. I constantly jumped back and forth to set the flow and to make sure ‘things’ made sense later. Once I reached a pivotal moment in the story, most of the rest flowed out of me in a consecutive order, to the end.

I’m no pro, but for all those trying this out for the first time too, I thought I’d share my process… it may not work for all and it may be totally wrong – but there is no wrong way to create, is there?

So, as I mentioned above, my next step for this book is getting feedback from my friends – hopefully with some discussion on the story. I will then go back to the book and make my edits and expand where I need to; thus creating my 2nd draft. Then, I will turn it over to another friend to edit the whole book from grammar to content. (You may notice a lot of grammar mistakes in my posts – I’m working on it, folks!)

After that, I plan to go back and make more changes for my 3rd draft, which I project will be the version I would pitch to literary agents. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. I just thought I’d share the plan I had set for myself.

Again, advice for those of you, like me, that always thought “I’ve always wanted to write a book.”: Just do it! Don’t worry about how to start, just start it. You’ll always go back and fix it later.