Let me tell you about writing a novel. It is long, arduous, and full of painstaking decisions and lip-biting. And if that weren't daunting enough, let us not forget that novels are written and rewritten and rewritten.
Some write the first sentence, the first paragraph, or maybe even the end of the first chapter, then quit. Anyone interested in taking on such a supreme challenge should move forward. ALWAYS move forward. It’s a show of progress. There is something psychologically satisfying about saying I did something. Countless writers have written full manuscripts that will never see the light of day because they accomplished something extremely difficult. They ran the marathon and reached the end, which is all that matters.
When we undergo training, we perform repetitive actions, or reps, to get the most out of the workout. It involves the same monotonous motion until we complete a set. We do this over and over and over again. Marathoners are lithe, sleek, endurance machines. They always move forward, change course, then sprint ahead in a new direction. When you start writing, begin with small sets, but keep moving forward. Beginners too often take the Schwarzenegger approach, go back to what they wrote, and blow it up. This leads to a sense of imperfection, frustration, and, tragically, scrapping the project. There is no feeling of accomplishment, just negativity.
The “workout” approach might be best suited if you were educating yourself or others, testing techniques, or visually working out some problem. However, once you hit the pavement and write that first word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter, you need to keep moving forward and finish the race.
I have written 2.5 novels so far. During the first novel, I made the mistake of rewriting it eleven times while I was still writing the darn thing. You can't build a house if you're busy replacing the foundation. The first novel (Deathsword) is around 360 pages of "craptastic" reading. It isn’t even close to completion, but it was my first real lesson in writing, a lesson I learned later from other masters of the craft. Whilst it is a good story with bad writing and worse technique, it deserves a second chance at some point.
My second novel, which introduces my 11:34 series, is finished and undergoing its third major edit. It is polished and ready to be peddled for publication. I wrote this novel with the mindset of getting the first draft written and out of the way, regardless of the state of the prose. Afterward, I stepped away for a few weeks to work on another project before evaluating it. This let me unplug from the work and free my mind. After you run a marathon, you want to walk it off, rest up, and recover for the next race. After a time, I looked at the first draft with what felt like a different set of eyes. It let me review, edit, and rewrite as if I were someone else, which made me more critical of the work. I never criticized my effort while writing the first draft as I did with the first novel I wrote.
You can say what you want about us all finding success through a variety of tools and techniques, being unique in our production. The one thing that seems to resonate among all successful writers is that they remain disciplined in their craft. They don’t ever quit, not even on the dark and gloomy days. They lean into the storm and drive forward. Always forward.
Thus, my advice to you, the aspiring writer, is to write chapter one and forget it. Move on to chapter two. Then three. After completing your first draft, take a break. Celebrate a little. Then return to your project wearing a critic’s mask.
