by Anne R. Allen
So you won NaNoWriMo!
You had to skip Thanksgiving dinner with your brother-in-law’s fabulous spatchcocked turkey, and watching the game with your favorite cousins. Plus your houseplants died, your cat evaporated, and you still have your Halloween decorations up.
Tip: Make some Santa hats for all your bats, witches and goblins and call it Christmas decorating. You always were cutting edge, right?
But now you have that magnum opus, that triumph of will over words, that thing you always wanted to create — your FIRST NOVEL! It’s nestled happily on your computer hard drive in that file called “My Precious.” (Because your protagonist is obsessed with Lord of the Rings, get it?) You’ve also printed it out in Garamond font with justified margins to look like a real book and have something solid to remind yourself that you DID IT!
So what do you do now?
DON’T:
- Rush to publish a first novel. Seriously. You’ll thank me later.
- Especially with a vanity press.
- Expect to get rich and land a 1990s-style six-figure book deal.
- Contact somebody like Ruth or me and say, “everybody in publishing is a crook, so drop everything you’re doing to spend a week critiquing my book for free and tell me where to send it so they’ll say I’m a genius and give me a million dollars.” (Don’t laugh. This happens.)
- Hire an expensive editor. Not right now. Let it rest.
- Push it on everybody you meet and beg them to tell you, “What they really think.” They just might.
- Hide it in a drawer.
- Workshop it to death for five years, trying to please everybody.
- Convince yourself your first novel is the best/only book you’ll ever write. It could be your practice novel.
- Stop writing. You’re in the groove. Start something new!
DO:
- Party!! You’ve accomplished what 97% of people who start to write a novel haven’t done. Get together with people who still remember who you are and toast with something that’s got bubbles in it.
- Contact some beta readers or a critique group who read your genre and get feedback. But don’t take it all as gospel. Half the comments you get will be about the critic, not your work.
- If you don’t have a blog or a website yet, start one. Blogging raises your profile, is great writing practice, and you may meet your future agent, reviewer, or co-author there.
- Network with other authors on social media and learn about the business. There’s lots to learn. I know much of social media is a cesspool now, but private groups can still be civil and helpful.
- Talk with both traditionally and self-published authors. Don’t take any one person or group’s word that one path is right for you. Some genres do much better than others in indie publishing. If you write literary fiction or children’s fiction, your road will be a lot harder going the indie route than if you write romance, mystery, or thrillers.
- If you don’t have any short stories, creative essays, or poetry published, write some and send them to contests, anthologies, and journals.
- Start writing your next novel! Seriously. Whether of not your first novel is ready for prime time, two novels will help you break into the industry better than one.
Keep Your Eye on the Big Picture with a First Novel
Writing long form narrative takes most of us a long time to learn. You don’t want to put in all that work learning to write in order to publish only one book, any more than you’d want spend time learning to knit to make one sweater, or take lessons to learn to play one round of golf or one piano piece.
We’re in this for the long haul, so make sure you keep an eye on the big picture. The big picture involves your next book, and your next.
And remember you’re going to be way better ten years from now than you are now. Seriously. I promise.
I’d completed four novels before I finally saw one in print. (And I’d written bits of dozens more) Some have been lost in the dust of time. Others have been reincarnated as short stories and others are still gathering dust. I mine some of them for ideas for stories and new characters for my series..
Confession Time: My First Novel
The first novel I finished was a coming-of-age novel called Midnight with no Pain. My title came from a line in Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale.”
“Now more than ever seems it rich to die/ To cease upon the midnight with no pain,”
It’s amazing how pretentious we can be at 22. And how miserable. I scribbled my opus in little Italian notebooks on trains and cafes and youth hostels as I traveled around Europe during my post-college quest to find myself. It was, not surprisingly, about a depressed 20-something young woman traveling around Europe on a post-college quest to find herself.
The notebooks disappeared in one of my many moves, but I think I held onto them for at least a decade. There was no plot to the novel, as I remember. But lots of sex. And of course mass quantities of drugs and rock and roll. It was the 1970s.
I’m sooo grateful there was no self-publishing back then.
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) December 17, 2023
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How about you scriveners? What advice do you have for writers who have finished their first novel? What did you do after you finished yours? It would be fun if readers wanted to add some confessions about your “dust-gathering” novel in the comments. 🙂
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“Best £2.30 I ever spent on Kindle and I’ll certainly follow up on further publications by Anne Allen
Happy to give 5 stars”…Amazon reviewer in the UK
Incredible. It opened my eyes to this type of marketing. Eager to start my own blog! And the best part is that I will follow the tips in this book!…Gabriella F. in Brazil. Translated from the Portuguese.
This is a great book for anyone interested in starting an author blog but is overwhelmed by all the “blogging” advice out there. Anne breaks it down simply so anyone can understand the basics and gives real life experiences of what she’s done that didn’t work so you don’t have to make the same mistakes. This is a great, easy to read book that I will be returning to again and again. I highly recommend this book!’… Amazon reviewer in the US
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Featured image: Benjamin Moser with the manuscript of Clarice Lispector’s Complete Stories, April 14th, 2015. Courtesy of Wikicommons
This all seems eminently sensible and very refreshing to read!
Jackie–Thanks! I like to think it’s sensible.
Hiding it in a drawer. Let it bake for a bit. A few weeks at least, more beneficial would be a month or two. It’s amazing the clarity that develops from taking a break and distancing from the work. Happy Sunday, Anne & Ruth!
Garry–Yes, you can hide it in a drawer for a few weeks or months. But if you never get any critiques or feedback, you can sit on your laurels and believe you’ve written a great novel, and never learn anything.
Hmmm … interesting that you recommend “don’t hide it in a drawer.” I’d like to know the reasoning behind this.
It seems to me wiser to “hide [that first draft] in a drawer” for several months, particularly if it’s a novel, before looking at it again and proceeding with second-draft work. Necessary to refresh your eyes and mind and heart by giving the story some distance. No NaNoWriMo piece is ever ready for the world on December 1.
On another note, I’ve never done NaNoWriMo – my two self-published took A LOT longer than 30 days (decades! – not that I worked on them at all regularly – had to live and work and play and so forth ) to develop into material worthy of sharing with the world. I had to set aside my first novel (second to be published) when I couldn’t figure out the premise or the ending. My second novel (first to be published) developed me as a writer. Working with it matured me emotionally as well as in skill, so I could go back to that first effort and finish it to my satisfaction, and to that of my characters. (I learned long ago that if I don’t listen to my characters, they won’t play with me.) That first effort was published five years after the second effort.
Sally–I believe that if you never get any critiques or feedback, you’ll never learn to get better. But if you want to burn your first book or just hide it away and never look at it again, you can believe it was the greatest work ever. If that works for somebody–no problem. That’s not a person interested in being a professional writer. It’s like a golf swing. If you swing your golf club in the back yard with nobody looking, you can believe you’re a great golfer. But if you don’t let a pro see your swing and help you improve it, you can’t actually play golf. It depends on your goals.
It sounds as if you did have a goal of being a published writer, so you did get some feedback on your writing at some point. Congrats on having a first novel published. Most of us don’t. (For which, in my case, I’m very grateful.)
Ah! Your recommendation is not to hide the first draft in the drawer FOREVER. That makes sense!
Novels are like bread dough – you put the ingredients together, then let the dough rise. The second draft is when you punch down the risen dough and knead it thoroughly (to develop the gluten and make a fine “crumb”) and let it rise again before baking.
I only let my bread dough have one full rise, because more of them means a beery smell and flavor, which I don’t like. I let rise, punch down, and knead my works-in-progress, however, so as to achieve that well-finished and fully developed texture, smell, flavor, and look.
(Sounds like an analogy for a blog post … )
Sally–Exactly. Keep it in a drawer for a bit, but then let it see the light of day. I know people who claim to have written a book but won’t let anybody see it. Tragic. But it’s amazing how much we can see that needs fixing once we’ve had a month or so to let the book sit. Love the bread analogy!
And yes, I do subscribe to feedback from my critique group and beta readers. They are invaluable! My work wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as it is without their insight.
Sally–I’m a big fan of critique groups too–even though the wrong people can do damage. We need to learn to sort the good advice from the bad.
I’ve probably severely bent to the point of creating a few cracks with all of those sensible bits of advice posted, especially the first about letting it not see the light of day for a long….spell.
Anyways, my bit of advice would be a tweak on say, ten years ago, which would be to seek out blogs of other writers, no matter what level they’re being published at. In the twenty-twenties, not a lot of writers have blogs these days, and those that do often fall into two categories: yours and those who blog about everything connected to whatever book they currently have out (like a modern newsletter). Check out the various writing groups on FB. Some are really good, others not so much.
Finally, with that first novel, use it as a reference point/examples that you can use elsewhere after you pick up some general critique/tips from other established authors. no matter the form or genre.
GB–As you know, I’m a big fan of the author blog. This isn’t a typical author blog because it’s a how-to, not a general interest blog. I advise authors to do the latter. Entertain your readers and people who are likely to be readers. An author blog should be a newsletter that anybody on the Internet can read. That way you’re always attracting new readers.
I agree about Facebook groups. I think they’re one of the best places to get publishing and writing information. But we need to choose ones that are well-moderated. Trolls and disruptors (and Chinese/Russian bots) can ruin a group quickly.
Ruth here, chiming in…
1) Start by writing genre. Mystery, romance, thriller because the structure is built in, saving the first-time writer from reinventing the wheel.
2) The mystery novel must start with a mystery that has to be solved. (duh) But you’d be surprised how many beginning writers forget/ignore this.
3) Romance needs lovers who must find their way to a happy ending. And they *must* encounter obstacles along the way. (Or there’s no tension, no drama, no conflict — and no HEA!!!!)
4) Writing genre teaches the beginning writer structure. Sans solid structure underpinning the story, there is no novel. ie You need a beginning, a middle & and an ending. (non-negotiable)
HTH at least a little.
Ruth–Solid advice!! Pay attention to Ruth, everybody. Don’t start out with a meandering, thinly disguised autobiography the way my 22-yr-old self did!
Yah, pretty much me on the Don’t side, lo these many years ago. But if I HADN’T knocked my head against the wall trying to market what should have been a trunk novel back then at the beginning:
-never would have met the beta-group
-never would have started a website
-would never have interacted with great mentors and colleagues like you, especially getting generous invites to guest on this blog!
-never would have written shorter-form stories
And eventually, would never have written the sequel to that novel which is now the anchor of my legendarium.
Thanks Anne!
Will–Great to have a positive attitude toward it! We learn from our mistakes, so we need to make them. I sure did. It’s funny how so many of us have to get that novel out first before we start writing short stories. I did the same thing. But I never let one person read that first book. I guess I knew if anybody looked at it, I’d find out how much I still had to learn.
I wrote above that my first novel written was the second published. Actually, the first novel written was like yours–worth hiding. No copies exist. But I did learn quite a lot about how to write certain things, like action sequences, while writing it.
Fred–No time spent writing is wasted. We learn from all of it. I think I learned quite a bit from my bad novel, but I’m sure glad it didn’t get published!
Ha! Oldies but goodies. I still remember finishing my first book. It was horrible and yet a big part of my life – not least because of all the time it took me to write it.
From experience I’d like to add: Do learn when to stick to your book and when to let go.
I rewrote my second book into my third (or is it third and fourth?) and while I still like it in its new form, I decided to put it into a drawer and instead focus on this crazy idea I came up with goofing around with a friend. I outlined it during NaNoWriMo and am quite happy with it. It showed me how much my creativity was smothered by years of rewriting. I will get back to that book, knowing I can write others and with a fresh eye. Best thing I did for my writing in a long time!
As for blogging: I’d like that but I’m not sure what to blog about for years to come – both to keep my interest and my potential readers’. The bloggers I read seem to cater to other writers, not their fiction readers.
Tina–Back in 2018 I wrote about when to say goodbye to your WIP. Endlessly rewriting and over-workshopping can kill a book. Or at least kill your will to keep it alive. A fresh idea can get juices flowing again and maybe jumpstart that old book later.
I recommend authors blog for their readers, not other writers. Do as I say and not what I do. 🙂 Write it like a newsletter–that’s open to the public. Lots of advice on what to blog about in my book. You won’t get a huge audience like this one, but it helps keep your readers and bring in more. Chuck Wendig has a fantastic blog that sells his books and persona. (Warning: he uses colorful language.)
I know that post, but thank you. It took me a while to listen LOL.
I’ve read a lot of “What to blog about”-articles. My biggest problem is finding a common thread in my vast and fleeting interests. I wouldn’t read a rambling blog so why should others? But I’ll keep thinking about it!
I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, but I understand the goal is to finish a 50K word novel in one month. I can’t even imagine doing that, but I assume the result is a first draft, and first-time authors need to know the stark truth: first drafts are awful, even for accomplished writers.
Although Anne’s advice is always wonderful, I would differ a little on this one and suggest the new author purchase a copy of “Self-editing for Fiction Writers” by Renni Browne and Dave King and begin the revision process. When the ms is polished to the point the author thinks it’s the best it can be, find a developmental editor you trust, get your suit of armor dry-cleaned, and prepare yourself to get the all-important feedback. Then go back to revising and repeat the process. (And don’t forget to smile. 😊Like Anne said, you’ve done something many have aspired to, but few have accomplished.)
Kay–Books and classes are always a great way to learn to write and self-edit. Thanks for the book recommendation. If you can’t stand the idea of seeking feedback from a critique group or beta readers, then paying a developmental editor is a possibility. But it’s very, very expensive, and often not worth it if the book ends up as a “practice novel.” I don’t recommend going to a professional editor until you’re writing on a professional level. That may not be until the second or third book. I have worked as an editor–both for a publishing house and freelance, and most people take manuscripts to an editor way too soon.
Smart suggestions, Anne and Ruth.
The two biggest benefits I see coming out of Nanowrimo:
1. The act of actually finishing a novel teaches you a lot. You started with nothing and ended up with a book. Yes, much will be garbage but you can fix garbage easier than a blank page.
2. “[Don’t] Stop writing. You’re in the groove. Start something new!” Yes, yes, yes! Once you establish the habit of writing every day, keep that habit going.
Happy Holidays to you and thanks for another year of wit and wisdom!
Debbie–That’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo–it helps writers push past those barriers and all those rules in their heads and just write. It doesn’t always produce something publishable (although a number of bestsellers, like Water for Elephants started as NaNo books) but it gets those wheels turning and gets a writer going again. Happy Holidays to you too!
Anne, read your excellent writing tips for over five years. Any solutions for getting/finding a free and easy Blog site in Canada?
Rand–Does Wix work in Canada? And you know, good old Blogger is still alive and kicking. I think you can access it anywhere that Google hangs out. Sorry I don’t know much about tech in Canada. The last time I was there, I slept in a drawer. (My parents took me as a baby to meet my Canadian relatives.) 🙂
Hi Anne,
I made all the classic first-time mistakes with my first novel-length manuscript. After llo these many years, I now know it was an excellent writing exercise, but not a first novel. Such is life. My advice to any first timers is, find every little shred of joy & wonder you can in the process. Enjoy it all.
CS–You make a good point. Just because something has a certain number of words doesn’t mean it’s a novel. I think my first was in that category. It was a series of vignettes. But yes, a great writing exercise. And loving the process is what it’s all about.
Worthy information and time-tested by many Anne. And I enjoyed the humor injections and, to the last sentence, amen to no self-publishing back in the day, lol. 🙂
Debby–Yes! I hate to think how embarrassing it would be to have my first novel-ish exercise out there floating around the Internet. One of the curses of this age is that we have had to give up so much privacy.
That’s the biggest understatement. Being on social media leave us open targets. 🙁
I am going to finish my 1st novel thus year.
Yes, I know the end of the year is about a week & 1/2 away.
It is going to happen.
ADA–You go girl!
Anne, you’ve done it again! Another blog gem…and funny. I promise never to send you a manuscript and ask you to review it for free!
Ken–Yeah. That’s really happened. 🙂 It’s amazing how desperate and clueless some newbie writers can be. This is why there are all those scammers out there.
This was funny. Thanks for the insightful and helpful do and don’t list. I definitely missed out on writing for NaNoWriMo this year, but my goal is to be on board next year. Honestly, as much as I love the idea of NaNoWriMo it comes at the WORST time of year. Can we move it to January?
TJ–It’s my theory that Chris Baty started NaNo so he could get out of awkward Thanksgiving dinners with the relatives. But I agree. The holidays are generally not the time to take off and write.