Way back in 2010, I started writing my story. I found it entertaining, and it filled up the the time from four or four-thirty am until six or six-thirty, when I would get ready for work.
I just wanted to tell a story. I wrote my very short first chapter, which describes a sort of emotional/spiritual crisis for the protagonist. With that in mind, I started to write, often chapters in sequential order, but also chapters I’d find a place for later, or simply ideas or brief pieces of dialogue I’d save for later.
Below are a few of the larger mistakes I’ve made. I hope I’ll do better next time.
Light on dialogue/Light on descriptions
Somewhere, way before I finished, I realized that my natural tendency is to tell the story, often without the dialogue necessary to develop anyone’s interest in the characters. I have the same issue with descriptions of characters, settings, etc. For me, it’s a battle.
Pausing between writing sessions
Fourteen years. That’s a long time. Sure, I had a day job, but that’s a poor excuse in my case. The problem with this is two-fold. First, finishing takes longer. But it’s worse than you might think, because after a few weeks away, I’d have to go back and read what I had again before continuing. That’s not so bad after one or two chapters, but after 25?
Failure to note every highlight - lyrics, events, character descriptions
This is another time waster which I eventually addressed somewhat, but it still cost me a lot of time.
No professional proofreading
Sure. I didn’t want to spend the money, and had I been so inclined, I wouldn’t have known whom to trust. It’s daunting, because as you research book/publishing issues your Facebook feed blows up with dozens of people offering free webinars to help you which are really just long sales pitches for related services. Whom do you trust?
No outline
Yep. That was me. Close to 400 pages, but I never did any kind of outline until I had over 20 chapters complete. Now that wasn’t all bad in my mind. The story took a few serendipitous turns that would have been unlikely had I worked from an outline. Still, next time, I think I’ll have an outline.
Genre? Subgenre?
It’s true. You don’t need those to write a book, But when you intend to market it, they become more important. All those webinars I mentioned? They teach that the title and cover should match the genre. Fonts inside and out? They should match the genre. Keywords for advertising? Make those match the genre too, please, and include them in the book that you thought was finished!
I’m still not sure what genre my story belongs in. Actually I think it’s a bit of a crossover.
If I could start over, I think I’d read a book or two about writing first. On the other hand, that might have made it seem like work instead of fun, and I might have skipped it altogether.
For those who stick around, I’ll be back next week with I Got a Few Things Right.
PS A reader of my book reached out last week with an impressive list of mistakes he’d found. I addressed most over the weekend. If you’ve purchased a Kindle version, please make sure you preferences for automatic book updates is set to “ON.”