7 Things I Learned After Finishing My First Novel

Okay, guys, you may be saying to yourselves, “Wow, this is her first novel she has finished, and she’s what? Seventeen?” Yes, very true. I have written short stories, and a novella, but this was my first full-blown novel. I will be honest in saying that I struggle with procrastinating and losing interest. But maybe some people will find this helpful, even with the little I know.

Let’s begin.

Number One: Outline

Yes, yes, this may seem boring. Some people think this is helpful and some people don’t. However, for me it does help. At times when I was stuck, I would outline the next part I was working on, and it gave me direction for the next steps. It helped me see how a big event was going to work, such as a battle scene. I’ll give a shoutout to K.M. Weiland for some tips she had about story planning and outlining that helped me in the beginning.

But don’t be so specific unless it works for you. I started outlining this book scene by scene a while ago, but I ended up not getting a real story on the page. That was a bad idea because I needed to write, not simply plan. When I actually started, I had a direction in mind for the big story moments. So I wrote, then outlined, and wrote more, and outlined more. It wasn’t a pure “outline first, then write” process.

Number Two: Word build

Do this before you dig into your story. My story went through many changes, but I remember enjoying the planning stage where I thought about my characters and their personalities and imagined what my country looked like. I remember closing my eyes and thinking that I wanted a chilly place with snow, and lots of evergreens and mountains. I wanted it to be a place near the sea, with the water crashing against the cliffs. I even created a rough map. This was quite helpful later, when I wanted to reference cities in my story. Backstory was extremely important, for I understood what happened to some of my main characters and why they acted the way they did.

Number Three: Be flexible

At some point, I realized my story wasn’t working with my female protagonist, since she was in the background for much of it, and wasn’t really making the decisions. Although she was very important, I realized that it wasn’t working as it was. As I lay in my bed thinking about it, the thought suddenly came to me and I sat straight up. I could change the main character, and have the other guy be the protagonist! He definitely was making more of the decisions, and it just worked.

So, be open to changes.

Number Four: Don’t worry if you write junk

This may be extreme, but there will probably be times in your story where you will look back at a section or scene, and say “why did I write that?” I certainly did. But don’t beat yourself up about it. This is not a published work, and you can fix it later. If it doesn’t work at all with the story, rewrite it. Just watch out. You don’t need to be caught on the small things until you run out of steam.

Number Five: Write what is important to you

I will shout out to John Fornof and Pat Roy (from the podcast “Story Chat”) because they inspired me as I was finishing my story. As I was thinking about my climax and digging deeper into my main character’s motives, I realized that this boy (whom I was having trouble relating to) was actually like me. As I thought about what he truly wanted and struggled with, I started crying because his struggle was like mine, just on a much larger scale. If I could tap into that, then I would be real and not just writing something that was forced.

Number Six: Have encouraging friends

As I was writing slowly but surely, I didn’t want people to read my story until it was finished. However, I did talk to people about the main idea and certain pieces of it. It inspired me to keep writing when people told me they were looking forward to reading it. Sometimes you need fresh perspectives to keep you going and keep you excited.

Last, but not least!

Number Seven: Just. Keep. Writing.

This is the most important thing that I learned as I finished my first real novel. Let me shout out Tyler Mowery, for helping me see how important it is to just get the story down. Although I am not good at setting deadlines for myself, what was best for me was to tell myself to get up and write even when I didn’t feel like I was in the mood. I put reminders on my phone that made me feel guilty when I didn’t write. I wasn’t really all that consistent, but I didn’t give up. I kept trying.

So if you want to start writing or are trying to finish a novel, maybe you can remember these things. And even if it isn’t worthy to be a bestseller, writing can teach you about yourself and even help others.

Yay! I tell myself, I have finished my first novel!

Now I have to go edit it…